1973 Mach 1 Interior Seat Material Oddity?

[carplayer]

Thanks....that end of model year effect may explain a few other oddities on the car I have noticed over the years......

Now that i understand the reason these are different than the repro cover I wont be so anal about looking for exact duplicates when I replace them!!

 

[MustangMyWay]

Curious, what other oddities have you encountered?

I've only had my car for a few months and I got it without a drive train so it will be a while before I can drive it. I'm still learning it's charactor.

 

[hyena429]

Mite be 3 diff combo's of seats...Weave with regular 73 mustang seat backs...Weave with pinto code seat backs...Non weave with pinto seat backs..And maybe a 4th possible combo...Non weave with regular seat backs.."counts on what time they ran out of each product"...Tring to figure out what time the seatbacks changed too.. all open at the moment..Being some early as 10th of june...I dout ford ran out of all colors at the same time and used up what it had..."check them plastic seat back codes"

Other oddities i have encountered..J code on warranty plate that i cannot ID yet.

 

[MustangMyWay]

I will go on record saying my seat backs are open bottom pinto, black.

6-14-1973

 

[Steve73QMach1]

New to the forum so if this posts all jacked up you will understand....not sure if the pic is posting

Car: 73 Mach...Ii do not know the exact build date, but its a late June car. The engine build date per the valve cover date code label is June 18th.

Interior is white (code GW?) and the centers as shown are solid vinyl, not comfort weave. Perhaps this thread explains why I cannot find *exact* replacement repro interior. ??

BTW...i have owned the car since '87, and yes I am sure thats the original seat cover

Welcome to the forum and to the ever growing number of all vinyl Mach 1 interior owners! Your seat material and your suspected late June build date line up perfectly with the fact that you have the all vinyl interior. It would be great if you could provide a Marti report for your car to confirm your actual build date. Also, I would like to see a photo of your rear seats if you could post that. I ran into the same issue you did when thinking about replacing my front seat upholstery. I couldn't figure out why my seats were so different from other 73 Mach 1's and why vendors were telling me that my seats had been replaced at some point (but I knew that they were original!). I have decided to keep my all vinyl interior as it represents a unique feature of the last few weeks of production of the first generation Mustangs. I will add your name to the list.

Here is the latest list of all vinyl Mach 1 interior owners:

1) jb73mach - black interior, build date 7/5/73


2) HighOctane - ginger interior, build date 7/3/73


3) jbojo - white interior, build date 6/28/73 (original owner)


4) Steve73QMach1 - black interior, build date 7/5/73


5) Steve 73QMach1 - black interior, build date 6/29/73


6) Don61 - black interior, build date 6/11/73


7) MustangMyWay - black interior, build date 6/14/73


8) Carplayer - white interior, build date ~ 6/18/73

 

[OMS]

New to the forum so if this posts all jacked up you will understand....not sure if the pic is posting

Car: 73 Mach...Ii do not know the exact build date, but its a late June car. The engine build date per the valve cover date code label is June 18th.

Interior is white (code GW?) and the centers as shown are solid vinyl, not comfort weave. Perhaps this thread explains why I cannot find *exact* replacement repro interior. ??

BTW...i have owned the car since '87, and yes I am sure thats the original seat cover

Welcome to the forum and to the ever growing number of all vinyl Mach 1 interior owners! Your seat material and your suspected late June build date line up perfectly with the fact that you have the all vinyl interior. It would be great if you could provide a Marti report for your car to confirm your actual build date. Also, I would like to see a photo of your rear seats if you could post that. I ran into the same issue you did when thinking about replacing my front seat upholstery. I couldn't figure out why my seats were so different from other 73 Mach 1's and why vendors were telling me that my seats had been replaced at some point (but I knew that they were original!). I have decided to keep my all vinyl interior as it represents a unique feature of the last few weeks of production of the first generation Mustangs. I will add your name to the list.

Here is the latest list of all vinyl Mach 1 interior owners:

1) jb73mach - black interior, build date 7/5/73


2) HighOctane - ginger interior, build date 7/3/73


3) jbojo - white interior, build date 6/28/73 (original owner)


4) Steve73QMach1 - black interior, build date 7/5/73


5) Steve 73QMach1 - black interior, build date 6/29/73


6) Don61 - black interior, build date 6/11/73


7) MustangMyWay - black interior, build date 6/14/73


8) Carplayer - white interior, build date ~ 6/18/73

Steve, just saw this on CL

Looks like a 73 vert with the odd interior

I think it is out your way

http://columbus.craigslist.org/cto/4262984223.html

 

[orlock1965]

I had a buddy who had a very original '73 Mach I with Blue Mach I Sports Interior and it did not have comfortweave either. I've seen several '73's this way, I'm wondering if there was a shortage of the material and it just git replaced with regular vinyl, knowing this was going to be the last year for that bodystyle anyway.

Just a thought.

 

[jeff8877]

Hi guys,

Finally getting around to my seats and taking them apart. My car is a 6/7/73 scheduled build date with an actual build of 6/12/73. Notice two things from the below pic.

My car has the D4 seat backs AND the date stamped on the foam seat is 6/7/73. Looks like seats were pacing the completion.

 

[hyena429]

Hi guys,

Finally getting around to my seats and taking them apart. My car is a 6/7/73 scheduled build date with an actual build of 6/12/73. Notice two things from the below pic.

My car has the D4 seat backs AND the date stamped on the foam seat is 6/7/73. Looks like seats were pacing the completion.

Cool Jeff...I'll have to check my seats for a date too on the foam..Our cars rolled out only a few days apart.

 

[Totalled]

Well add me to the club. 04/26/1973 build date.

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

Wow just read through this thread. I cannot believe how many people believe that a car design is set in stone and cannot change.

I also saw one comment that the mfg. had to carry all parts for 10 years. I know that is not so. We use to scrap tooling way before that if there was no service demand. Front and rear body parts tend to stay in service longer due to fender benders.

I ordered a 73 mach 1 with pretty much every option 32 if you count the Mach 1 adds. I got call at work telling me they could not put a 4 speed in they were out. I told the dealer to tell them no way it had to have a 4 speed. I got it. But in the first few months I had the car I broke the yoke on the rear 3 times. I told the dealer something had to be wrong a 73 did not have enough power to break a 9". They called in a Ford guy and when he walked under the car he said "no wonder it is breaking it has the small u-joints. They had to change flange again and order new driveshaft. Now try to convince MCA a car came that way. Wish I had got copies of the warranty work as proof.

I took the car to one MCA nationals in Atlanta in the 80's and they wrote up several things that would have to change on a one owner original 12,000 mile car since they were "NOT FACTORY". I never went back.

Ford did make substitutions then and now as long as it does not affect crash test or EPA.

We made a part for BMW out of the wrong thickness of material and they had built several hundred X-5's before it was found. We had to pay to fly one car to Germany to do actual crash test to prevent having to buy all of the cars back and crush them. It passed so there are several hundred cars with wrong thickness in the floor.

They are building a car not a space ship.

You had to work with the auto industry to know how they were. You don't shut down a line or someone is going to hang. I was at the Belvidere Chrysler plant once and there were so many rejected Neons with issues they ran out of places to park them and had to shut the plant down and go home. I am sure a head rolled for that one.

I do not know the current fines for shutting down a Ford line but BMW gets $11,000 / minute of down time due to late parts or bad parts.

By the way you can get NOS comfort-weave material in most colors. I am going to order some of the CW white and gray.

And my Mach 1 had ginger and had the comfort-weave inserts. Seems like I checked on getting a spare set of covers and I recall $400 for one so I did not order.