Low Mile '73 Fasback...

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

Steve a question for you?

If they came with body color wheels and just the center dog dish cap would the parts books have a different service part for body color wheels or would Ford just supply one black and up to body shop to paint. I do not remember seeing any back then but heck I can't remember a lot of things. 

Also since the caps and rings were installed by the dealer to prevent them being stolen while in transit I would say the customer could have requested the trim rings be left off but does not get the wheels body color. I know on my older cars the wheels were painted body color.

I did go look at all the showroom brochures and no years say just hub cap and no trim ring. They do not even list some of the wheel covers they show in brochures but were for sure options. The brochures are done way ahead of production. The 73 brochure shows black out tail light frames like 71 & 73 in every pic I think but were not blacked out. It also shows the chrome exhaust tips which did not happen in 73. 

I would say the build sheet would be the only place that tells the truth. It would have to have a check box for the body color wheels and the caps for sure. Or would be listed in the remarks section. The Special Order paint & trim 73 vert I have has something in the remarks about wheels but you cannot make enough out to read. Has some engineering or part numbers but cannot make out.

So as always lots of questions but no good solid answers. 

 

[secluff]

Hello David,
There was not a body-color wheel offered through the parts system. The wheels were available in black only and had to be painted at the body shop or by the customer. The corporate hub cap/dog dish only configuration was available across the entire product line except for the T-Bird. An attempt to stock color-keyed wheels considering the hundreds of colors available would have been a logistical nightmare. The steel wheels were shipped with a parts tag wired to them and not boxed like the aluminum or chrome styled steel wheels so undamaged painted wheels would have been rare.

If the vehicle was a stock order then whatever came with it was installed during the PDI (pre-delivery-inspection) process. Of the many steps involved, tightening the lugs was one, so with the covers not factory-installed this process could be performed with no damage from wheel/hub cap, trim rings being removed. If a special order, you could have your sales person to notify the PDI department with special instructions or meet the Convoy truck when delivering your new car. We had a lot of  Shelby owners chose this so they could videotape their Shelby coming off the delivery truck. While not allowed in the work area, you could watch from a distance.
The sales brochures can be a source of trouble. They were a sales tool that hit the high spots without going into a lot of detail. Most were airbrushed by a company that might as well been in Taiwan. I remember the '72 brochure that featured a 4-speed car with an automatic brake pedal and no clutch pedal. Another where a sports roof interior is featured with the coupe rear interior trim panels in plain sight. The '73 brochure you mentioned is another. The 71/72 tail light frames and the chrome exhaust tips that never made it into production are more reasons not to use these as authoritative sources of info.

The build sheets are my first choice as they have engineering number references that were used by the line workers that reflect what was actually installed on your vehicle. Next would be the factory invoice (aka  Eminger reports) that show what was standard and what was billed as optional equipment as it left the assembly plant. These are official Ford documents and can be trusted to have the real history on your car. The Marti reports are great and I really like having these at our disposal. There have been some inaccuracies on some but still are the envy of other brand car collectors!     :classic_smile:

 

[M9Powell]

The car is still for sale. They want 30 grand for it. Too rich for me.