1973 Special Paint Q 4sp. Convertible Project on Ebay

[Greg]

Car is a color change project. Original color is most likely a shade of green with avocado interior. two shades of green on a fender on one picture. https://www.ebay.com/itm/226117511461?mkevt=1&mkpid=0&emsid=e11021.m5055.l9429&mkcid=7&ch=osgood&euid=f7116ffc4e8846c685de68eb01b530ba&bu=43250863896&ut=RU&osub=-1~1&crd=20240428013632&segname=11021

 

[72MustangSprint]

Someone swiped the rim blow wheel too

 

[kevken1959]

Notice whoever did the color change was smart enough to keep the front bumpers and rear bumper fillers argent silver. Does anyone know the exact color used to paint these parts? I'm thinking it could have been argent silver or the "light pewter color" that was available in 1973.

 

[Greg]

Notice whoever did the color change was smart enough to keep the front bumpers and rear bumper fillers argent silver. Does anyone know the exact color used to paint these parts? I'm thinking it could have been argent silver or the "light pewter color" that was available in 1973.

You are being nice; I don't have that intelligent ability. I don't think they were smart not painting the bumper. I think they simply painted where they saw the old color. If they were smart, they wouldn't have changed the color on a special paint car no matter the color. If they were smart, they wouldn't have painted the interior parts the wrong way for a color change to white. Seller "Bevery Hills Car Club" always seems to have interesting rusty cars. This may be one. I bet they used the bumpers already done for silver cars otherwise why not paint them to match. Argent was a part color, not body color which probably would be another step from somewhere else on the assembly line. I think they didn't paint the mirrors on the special paint cars also, but my memory is foggy on that. Who knows?

 

[kevken1959]

You are being nice; I don't have that intelligent ability. I don't think they were smart not painting the bumper. I think they simply painted where they saw the old color. If they were smart, they wouldn't have changed the color on a special paint car no matter the color. If they were smart, they wouldn't have painted the interior parts the wrong way for a color change to white. Seller "Bevery Hills Car Club" always seems to have interesting rusty cars. This may be one. I bet they used the bumpers already done for silver cars otherwise why not paint them to match. Argent was a part color, not body color which probably would be another step from somewhere else on the assembly line. I think they didn't paint the mirrors on the special paint cars also, but my memory is foggy on that. Who knows?

Correct Greg. They all had the chrome mirror on the left and nothing on the right. I can only wonder what color this car would have been with avacado interior. Maybe they used 1972 Bight Lime. Who knows?

 

[Greg]

It appears to be almost a darker green car of a shade I can't remember. See spare tire instructions and fender. I have a thing for green cars, but this green with avocado interior sounds better for someone who is color blind. Also, it seems the rear urethane is also silver/argent near each end of the bumper for special paint cars. This might be the most hated/ugly 1973 Q 4sp special paint vert made. Still should be restored to factory and has to be the only one made.

 

[kevken1959]

It appears to be almost a darker green car of a shade I can't remember. See spare tire instructions and fender. I have a thing for green cars, but this green with avocado interior sounds better for someone who is color blind. Also, it seems the rear urethane is also silver/argent near each end of the bumper for special paint cars. This might be the most hated/ugly 1973 Q 4sp special paint vert made. Still should be restored to factory and has to be the only one made.View attachment 88206 View attachment 88205

 

[kevken1959]

What in the world were they thinking? They must have loved green, lol. I have a 73 loaded Q code vert that was painted the most beautiful special paint. It's a metallic "raspberry looking" color. The prior owner called it purple, but it's really more a magenta metallic color.

 

[Greg]

Yours sounds more on the lines of some of the high end Mopar colors that are extremely desirable. About 10-15 Years ago I saw a 73 Convertible is a similar Special Paint color with white interior and a 6cylinder for sale I believe in Oakland California. Maybe light purple non-metallic. Almost like a grabber color that never was. It looked nice.

 

[Hemikiller]

If I were going to guess, it's the T-bird / Lincoln 4D Green Fire. The only other green not available on the Mustang is 4U and that looks too light compared to the paint on the fender - assuming that's an original to the car part.

 

[Greg]

If I were going to guess, it's the T-bird / Lincoln 4D Green Fire. The only other green not available on the Mustang is 4U and that looks too light compared to the paint on the fender - assuming that's an original to the car part.


View attachment 88259


View attachment 88260

That color would make more sense with avocado interior, but I see a different shade that is less yellow and more blue, and being next to the blue color it should look less blue. Maybe old paint can age from its original shade and sometimes color charts are a little off. It looks closer to a green around 1977 to me.

 

[secluff]

Since we are discussing a 51-year-old car and considering the present condition of its exterior paint, it is probably safe to say that it may have received more than one of Earl Scheib's "20 footers" $99.95 paint jobs.

I'm sure no one is shocked that these many years later, identifying special order paint can be more than challenging. Any special order items or anything that deviated from the RPO (Regular Production Options) would generate an order number after the district sales office code in the DSO section of the door certification label. The respective district sales office kept DSO records for such orders for all dealers in their district. Government orders were usually kept in Detroit. The chances of these paper files still existing are doubtful. Unfortunately, paper files were the casualty of Ford's transition to electronic/computer files. Some districts may archived those records if they contained a lot of commercial or local government orders. I received DSO microfiche cards from our district office after the current model year closed so we could service those vehicles if one showed up. That ended when Ford transitioned the dealers to all businesses conducted online.

Since the paint looks like one of the "Don't give a S**T" paint jobs, it would be safe to say none of the interior sheet metal was sprayed for the color change. I would pull the sill plates or the rear seat bottom and check the color found there compared to a color chip sheet such as the one illustrated by Hemikiller. If that doesn't provide a conclusive answer, the car could be taken to a paint supply store where they could scan the color and possibly identify it. Compounding the confusion level is the staggering amount of colors that could be selected from other Ford or L/M vehicle lines. Our fleet sales manager had a binder with hundreds of available colors in addition to the previously mentioned Ford and L/M lines. Ford would paint any color as long as the color existed in that binder.

The mirror supplier to Ford pre-painted the racing-style mirrors in the standard RPO colors for each vehicle line. This was done since the inside cavity of the mirror housing needed to be body color before the internals of the mirrors were installed. This helped to streamline a step in the assembly line process. Any non-RPO color automatically deleted the standard Dual Racing mirrors, and a credit was issued on the vehicle invoice. A standard left-side chrome mirror was installed, with nothing on the right side since there was not one available for the '71-73 Mustang line. Strangely, the '71-73 Cougar built on the same assembly line as the Mustang had a right-side chrome mirror available. This may have had something to do with the door's shape in the mirror area. The last first-generation Cougar in my family was a '73 XR7 that was sold a few years back, so I don't have anything to compare to my Mustang door. I believe Hemikiller has a '71 XR7, so if you really needed to know, I'm sure he wouldn't mind comparing his Cougar and Mustang door and answering that "Why Was That?" question.

The bumper manufacturer also pre-painted the urethane '71-2 front bumper in RPO colors. It was easier for the manufacturer since that was all they were painting. It would have caused additional complexity in Ford's paint shop to have an elastomeric paint set up for a small number of bumpers. The special paint Mach1s received chrome bumpers. Limited or special edition cars with the urethane bumper were restricted to standard RPO colors only. This applied to the '71 Spring special (Mach1 colors only) and the '72 Sprint (a no-brainer).

The '73 urethane five-mph federal crash bumpers and the flexible stone defectors on the Mustang rear and the front and rear of the Cougar were also pre-painted RPO colors by the manufacturer. Any non-standard colors resulted in the neutral silver color on the Mustang front bumper and stone defectors on all Mustang and Cougar models. Any service part deflectors we ordered were received painted white. Since all of the deflectors we ordered were either for my parts stock or body shop use, that didn't matter to our customers.

For a good laugh....

 

[DAverkamp]

I don’t mean to be Dougie downer here, but I don’t get what this “colorful thread” is all about on this rat trap, and it is definitely not a “head turner” as described in their ad.

I wish my ‘72 ragtop had a “rollbar” option (NOT) and I also wish the Beverly Hillbilly Car Club owner would show where and how those 4 posts are connected and would add value to a ‘73, even with the correct “numbers matching paint”.

 

[Greg]

I don’t mean to be Dougie downer here, but I don’t get what this “colorful thread” is all about on this rat trap, and it is definitely not a “head turner” as described in their ad.

I wish my ‘72 ragtop had a “rollbar” option (NOT) and I also wish the Beverly Hillbilly Car Club owner would show where and how those 4 posts are connected and would add value to a ‘73, even with the correct “numbers matching paint”.

We all have different interests in car details no matter how mundane and redundant they appear. Many wives are in your boat and deserve our sympathy for putting up with us. Car guys do this all the time. Not sure where you have been. Some of us are interested in unusual cars especially special paint cars with a Q code and 4sp.. That doesn't mean we like or want the car. Ratty cars get more attention many times at car shows over a perfect car. This is a head turner, but that doesn't necessarily mean a good thing as most likely BHCC implies. Car salesmen do this all the time giving them their well-known reputation. I ignore those useless comments and make my own judgements. There are all kinds of threads of cars and subjects I'm not interested in, so I try not to make unproductive comments as it makes the topic about me in a less desirable way.

 

[Greg]

Since we are discussing a 51-year-old car and considering the present condition of its exterior paint, it is probably safe to say that it may have received more than one of Earl Scheib's "20 footers" $99.95 paint jobs.

I'm sure no one is shocked that these many years later, identifying special order paint can be more than challenging. Any special order items or anything that deviated from the RPO (Regular Production Options) would generate an order number after the district sales office code in the DSO section of the door certification label. The respective district sales office kept DSO records for such orders for all dealers in their district. Government orders were usually kept in Detroit. The chances of these paper files still existing are doubtful. Unfortunately, paper files were the casualty of Ford's transition to electronic/computer files. Some districts may archived those records if they contained a lot of commercial or local government orders. I received DSO microfiche cards from our district office after the current model year closed so we could service those vehicles if one showed up. That ended when Ford transitioned the dealers to all businesses conducted online.

Since the paint looks like one of the "Don't give a S**T" paint jobs, it would be safe to say none of the interior sheet metal was sprayed for the color change. I would pull the sill plates or the rear seat bottom and check the color found there compared to a color chip sheet such as the one illustrated by Hemikiller. If that doesn't provide a conclusive answer, the car could be taken to a paint supply store where they could scan the color and possibly identify it. Compounding the confusion level is the staggering amount of colors that could be selected from other Ford or L/M vehicle lines. Our fleet sales manager had a binder with hundreds of available colors in addition to the previously mentioned Ford and L/M lines. Ford would paint any color as long as the color existed in that binder.

The mirror supplier to Ford pre-painted the racing-style mirrors in the standard RPO colors for each vehicle line. This was done since the inside cavity of the mirror housing needed to be body color before the internals of the mirrors were installed. This helped to streamline a step in the assembly line process. Any non-RPO color automatically deleted the standard Dual Racing mirrors, and a credit was issued on the vehicle invoice. A standard left-side chrome mirror was installed, with nothing on the right side since there was not one available for the '71-73 Mustang line. Strangely, the '71-73 Cougar built on the same assembly line as the Mustang had a right-side chrome mirror available. This may have had something to do with the door's shape in the mirror area. The last first-generation Cougar in my family was a '73 XR7 that was sold a few years back, so I don't have anything to compare to my Mustang door. I believe Hemikiller has a '71 XR7, so if you really needed to know, I'm sure he wouldn't mind comparing his Cougar and Mustang door and answering that "Why Was That?" question.

The bumper manufacturer also pre-painted the urethane '71-2 front bumper in RPO colors. It was easier for the manufacturer since that was all they were painting. It would have caused additional complexity in Ford's paint shop to have an elastomeric paint set up for a small number of bumpers. The special paint Mach1s received chrome bumpers. Limited or special edition cars with the urethane bumper were restricted to standard RPO colors only. This applied to the '71 Spring special (Mach1 colors only) and the '72 Sprint (a no-brainer).

The '73 urethane five-mph federal crash bumpers and the flexible stone defectors on the Mustang rear and the front and rear of the Cougar were also pre-painted RPO colors by the manufacturer. Any non-standard colors resulted in the neutral silver color on the Mustang front bumper and stone defectors on all Mustang and Cougar models. Any service part deflectors we ordered were received painted white. Since all of the deflectors we ordered were either for my parts stock or body shop use, that didn't matter to our customers.

For a good laugh....

 

[Greg]

Since we are discussing a 51-year-old car and considering the present condition of its exterior paint, it is probably safe to say that it may have received more than one of Earl Scheib's "20 footers" $99.95 paint jobs.

I'm sure no one is shocked that these many years later, identifying special order paint can be more than challenging. Any special order items or anything that deviated from the RPO (Regular Production Options) would generate an order number after the district sales office code in the DSO section of the door certification label. The respective district sales office kept DSO records for such orders for all dealers in their district. Government orders were usually kept in Detroit. The chances of these paper files still existing are doubtful. Unfortunately, paper files were the casualty of Ford's transition to electronic/computer files. Some districts may archived those records if they contained a lot of commercial or local government orders. I received DSO microfiche cards from our district office after the current model year closed so we could service those vehicles if one showed up. That ended when Ford transitioned the dealers to all businesses conducted online.

Since the paint looks like one of the "Don't give a S**T" paint jobs, it would be safe to say none of the interior sheet metal was sprayed for the color change. I would pull the sill plates or the rear seat bottom and check the color found there compared to a color chip sheet such as the one illustrated by Hemikiller. If that doesn't provide a conclusive answer, the car could be taken to a paint supply store where they could scan the color and possibly identify it. Compounding the confusion level is the staggering amount of colors that could be selected from other Ford or L/M vehicle lines. Our fleet sales manager had a binder with hundreds of available colors in addition to the previously mentioned Ford and L/M lines. Ford would paint any color as long as the color existed in that binder.

The mirror supplier to Ford pre-painted the racing-style mirrors in the standard RPO colors for each vehicle line. This was done since the inside cavity of the mirror housing needed to be body color before the internals of the mirrors were installed. This helped to streamline a step in the assembly line process. Any non-RPO color automatically deleted the standard Dual Racing mirrors, and a credit was issued on the vehicle invoice. A standard left-side chrome mirror was installed, with nothing on the right side since there was not one available for the '71-73 Mustang line. Strangely, the '71-73 Cougar built on the same assembly line as the Mustang had a right-side chrome mirror available. This may have had something to do with the door's shape in the mirror area. The last first-generation Cougar in my family was a '73 XR7 that was sold a few years back, so I don't have anything to compare to my Mustang door. I believe Hemikiller has a '71 XR7, so if you really needed to know, I'm sure he wouldn't mind comparing his Cougar and Mustang door and answering that "Why Was That?" question.

The bumper manufacturer also pre-painted the urethane '71-2 front bumper in RPO colors. It was easier for the manufacturer since that was all they were painting. It would have caused additional complexity in Ford's paint shop to have an elastomeric paint set up for a small number of bumpers. The special paint Mach1s received chrome bumpers. Limited or special edition cars with the urethane bumper were restricted to standard RPO colors only. This applied to the '71 Spring special (Mach1 colors only) and the '72 Sprint (a no-brainer).

The '73 urethane five-mph federal crash bumpers and the flexible stone defectors on the Mustang rear and the front and rear of the Cougar were also pre-painted RPO colors by the manufacturer. Any non-standard colors resulted in the neutral silver color on the Mustang front bumper and stone defectors on all Mustang and Cougar models. Any service part deflectors we ordered were received painted white. Since all of the deflectors we ordered were either for my parts stock or body shop use, that didn't matter to our customers.

For a good laugh....

Thanks for all the interesting info. I agree, this car maybe had more than one color change and most likely not quality ones. I'm going by the color under the jack instruction label, but like you said removing parts will most likely verify the actual truth.

 

[313Mustang]

This car is one of 293 made in 1973 with the QCode 4speed combinations. Definitely worth having and restoring to original. I have one too. Always watching for them.