The 4th box from the right on the bottom line is titled:
RT DRIVE - LS LAMPS - OMIT SL. BM - TROP BATT
I have come to believe that RT DRIVE stands for right-hand drive, LS LAMPS stands for left side headlamps, OMIT SL. BM stands for omit sealed beams, and TROP BATT stands for tropical battery. I may revise this in the future, but this is my present understanding.
I have a build sheet on file for an export car with a code in this box of 5. Most build sheets have no code in this category; including two other export cars I have on file. The build sheet also has a special note on the bottom: Use 22:1 Steering Ratio - Part C4ZR-3504-E; and front and rear springs, and shock codes are unlike any I've seen on other '66 cars.
At first I thought this unusual, and that it might indicate a right-hand steering box. My previous information was that Mustangs used 22:1 standard steering and 16:1 for power steering and the Special Handling Package. If 22:1 was a standard steering box, why specify it at the bottom of the build sheet - unless there was something else unusual about it? Right-hand drive? I have since found out that 19.9:1 was the ratio for the standard steering box. I have no clue why they changed it for this car.
I attempted to do a little detective work with the aid of my two friends Veronica Sczbecki and Jeff Speegle.
The car’s build sheet contained a DSO code of 95 02 84. There are six other Metuchen cars in Smart's
Mustang Production Guide with the same DSO of 950284; all of them with owners in Sweden. All are A-codes. 3 are fastbacks and 3 are coupes. All were built on October 8
th the same as this one. If we look at the VIN’s in question here, we start with one ending in 318 and conclude with one ending with 491; so a potential of about 173 cars in the order. Maybe there was a clue to be found in its country of delivery.
Sweden had legal left-hand traffic (USA has right-hand traffic) from approximately 1734, well into the 20th century, despite the fact that virtually all the cars on the road in Sweden were LHD. (One argument for this was that it was necessary to keep an eye on the edge of the road, something that was important on the narrow roads in use at the time). Also, Sweden's neighbors Norway and Finland already drove on the right, leading to confusion at border crossings. This not withstanding a right-hand drive car was not “illegal”, and in some cases might have been “more natural” in a left-hand traffic environment like Britain’s.
In 1963 the Swedish parliament passed legislation ordering the switch to right-hand traffic. The changeover took place at 5am on Sunday, 3 September 1967, well after the 1966 Mustang model year.
Veronica pointed me to some internet sites that talked about right-hand drive cars in Australia. (48) 1965 and (161) 1966 Mustangs were converted to Australian specs (including right-hand drive) by Ford of Australia at their Homebush facility. It’s believed that this was done by a subcontractor. These cars were apparently shipped from one of the U.S. plants (likely Metuchen), either as pre-assembled vehicles or as "knock-down" units. This is the only record of a “Ford” produced right-hand drive Mustang. Some other Ford vehicles were known to have been assembled as right-hand drives; the Cortina for one. It may be possible that the build sheet was composed to be utilized in those instances as well. See:
http://www.hammar.dyndns.org/~mexmust/findings.htm for further info.
“Think it’s a long stretch [right-hand drive] with a number in a box and at least four different possibilities. Given it was likely ordered for Sweden I think it’s highly more likely that the 5 represents a change in the lights since that is something we see often (as a higher requirement) on European delivered Mustangs.
The omit seal beams is odd as I'm not sure where (country) or why sealed beam headlights (if that is what SL Beams is referring to) would be illegal in any specific country in 66 unless these same build sheets were also made for use in other countries were Fords were built that year - a possibility IMHO.” – Jeff Speegle
Jeff’s statement above prompted me to do a little more research:
Most low-beam headlamps produce an asymmetrical beam focused for use on only one side of the road. Headlamps for use in LH-traffic countries have low-beam headlamps that throw most of their light forward-leftward, while limiting the light range forward-rightward; the beam is distributed with a downward/leftward bias. Headlamps for RH-traffic countries (USA) have low-beam headlamps that throw most of their light forward-rightward, while limiting the light range forward-leftward; the beam is distributed with a downward/rightward bias. (see photo below) The beam thus lets the driver see obstacles and road signs on his side of the road at a safe distance, without blinding oncoming traffic. The LS LAMP in this build sheet category might refer to the readjustment of the headlight beams to the left side. This would have been necessary for Sweden’s left-hand traffic pattern at the time that the Mustangs were delivered. When the traffic pattern in Sweden changed in 1967 to duplicate that of the USA’s, it likely meant that Swedish headlights had to be re-adjusted.
My present conclusion is that the 5 code we see in this box means that the headlights were adjusted for a left-hand traffic pattern. I currently have no other codes in this category pertaining to Mustangs, or other Ford vehicles.
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| RH Traffic Headlamps |
