1971 -1973 Assembly Plants

I figured this out from books and lots of research on the 'net including online magazine articles, the Marti website, and looking at MANY individual cars' Marti reports and invoices on the internet.

For 1971 the Mustang shared the Dearborn, Michigan production line with Mercury Cougars. ----All Boss 351's were built at Dearborn. And I believe all 1971 429 cars were produced at Dearborn as well.

For 1971 some Mustangs were also built in the Metuchen, NJ Assembly Plant up until the 23rd of December 1970. (VINs would begin with "1T" instead of beginning with "1F" like the Dearborn cars) They shared that Metuchen line with Ford Pintos.

For 1972 and 1973 Dearborn produced all the Mustang and Cougars, and then some of the Ford Mavericks and Mercury Comets.

Ray

Great info, Ray. I, like everyone here, is familiar with the 1F Dearborn cars. Being only a few hundred miles from Metchuhen, I have seen a dozen or so 1T Metchuchen cars in my time.

I have a "Mustang Data Plate Decoder" book that I have had since 1986 or so (published by Mustang Monthly). They denote a 1R San Jose plant. Was this just bad info back in the day, or has anyone ever seen a 1R San Jose car?

I would say that is a definite mistake. Not just a typo. I think they printed erroneous information.

All the information I have seen supports only the Dearborn and Metuchen (Edison) plants for 1971 Mustangs.

Not even any test mules so no 71's were built at San Jose (Milpitas).

Here is a very informative article by the very respected automotive journalist Jim Smart.

http://www.mustangandfords.com/news/mump-0409-ford-mustang-dearborn-assembly-plant/

"...Mustang production ended at Metuchen during the '71 model year and San Jose stopped producing Mustangs after 1970..."

And this excerpt from same article backs up much of our discussions about the chronological nature of the VINs:

"It's difficult to define the "last" anything when it comes to mass production. There are too many variables: You have the last Cobra, last Mach 1, last GT, last red car, last black car, last yellow car, and so on. Because units get shuffled around during production, it becomes nearly impossible to define the "last" Mustang. Units get sidelined for repairs. And they get pulled from the line when specific parts don't arrive. The last unit out of the body shop might wind up 20 units up the line in the paint plant, then five units from the end of the line in trim and chassis."

Ray

I would say that is a definite mistake. Not just a typo. I think they printed erroneous information.

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That seems to be common in early Mustang printed info. [emoji33]

And this excerpt from same article backs up much of our discussions about the chronological nature of the VINs:

"It's difficult to define the "last" anything when it comes to mass production. There are too many variables: You have the last Cobra, last Mach 1, last GT, last red car, last black car, last yellow car, and so on. Because units get shuffled around during production, it becomes nearly impossible to define the "last" Mustang. Units get sidelined for repairs. And they get pulled from the line when specific parts don't arrive. The last unit out of the body shop might wind up 20 units up the line in the paint plant, then five units from the end of the line in trim and chassis."

Ray

Click to expand...

Those comments are more true than you can imagine........

I figured this out from books and lots of research on the 'net including online magazine articles, the Marti website, and looking at MANY individual cars' Marti reports and invoices on the internet.

For 1971 the Mustang shared the Dearborn, Michigan production line with Mercury Cougars. ----All Boss 351's were built at Dearborn. And I believe all 1971 429 cars were produced at Dearborn as well.

For 1971 some Mustangs were also built in the Metuchen, NJ Assembly Plant up until the 23rd of December 1970. (VINs would begin with "1T" instead of beginning with "1F" like the Dearborn cars) They shared that Metuchen line with Ford Pintos.

For 1972 and 1973 Dearborn produced all the Mustang and Cougars, and then some of the Ford Mavericks and Mercury Comets.

Ray

Click to expand...

Don't forget about us built in Mexico City.