Introduction


The Mustang pictured below (bottom) was first purchased by my father-in-law, Buddy, in 1986, in Connecticut. Shortly after, he purchased a second six-cylinder convertible and sold the pictured one to my wife's cousin, Ronnie. Dad died in 1994. When Ronnie decided to sell the car to finance an in-ground swimming pool in 2006, my wife Sharon and I decided to buy it, and brought it home to Tennessee.
The car had undergone a cosmetic restoration before Dad bought it, and apart from some minor detailing since then, was still in the same condition when we bought it.
In June 2010, I found out it was a Sprint 200, Package A, 3-speed manual transmission. And after reading an article in the archives of the Mustang Times by Jim Smart, went looking for the Broadcast (Build) Sheet. I found it wrapped around the wiring harness behind the speedometer. After a brief search to find out what all the codes meant, I realized that surprisingly little is known or published about these documents. So I decided I'd try to attempt to decode it myself. This blog is a journal of that research.
All discussions below currently pertain to only 1966 Mustangs.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Sched. Date

The 3rd box from the right on the top line is the Scheduled Build Date. This can sometimes be off considerably from the actual build date. For instance, the scheduled build date of my Metuchen Sprint is 10E (May 10th) on both my build sheet and door tag, but my buck tag says F21 (June 21st) - 42 days later!


Buck tags first began showing up on 1965 Metuchen cars, while Dearborn cars started in 1967. And San Jose buck tags didn't start showing up until late 1969. Prior to the use of buck tags, the information was often written on the right-hand side of the radiator support.

SCHED. DATE
1-31
Day
B
February 1966
H
August 1965
C
March 1966
J
September 1965
D
April 1966
K
October 1965
E
May 1966
L
November 1965
F
June 1966
M
December 1965
G
July 1966
A
January 1966
V
August 1966

Sometimes it possible to date a car using only the VIN number. This is sometimes necessary when the door's Warranty Tag is missing, and there is no Buck Tag. The VIN number  is stamped on the inner fenders. One is visible on the drivers side (at a notch in the fender between the shock tower and radiator support), while two are concealed by the fenders - about 18" aft of the visible one on both the driver's and passenger's sides.

Below is a table with approximate serial numbers by month. A more detailed approximation can be made by comparing VIN numbers with Jim Smart's book, Mustang Production Guide Vol. 1.

DATE CHART
Mon./Yr.
Code
Dearborn
San Jose
Metuchen


Begin 8/16/65
Begin 8/16/65
Begin 8/25/65
8/65
H
100000-105300
100000-103900
100000-103600
9/65
J
104300-126200
103000-114200
103200-119700
10/65
K
125400-151800
113100-126900
118200-139900
11/65
L
149300-181900
125800-139200
136900-159900
12/65
M
172200-212100
137500-149600
154400-180600
1/66
A
206700-243700
148700-161900
179600-200800
2/66
B
242600-272500
160200-172400
199800-215800
3/66
C
271400-305700
170800-180200
214300-235700
4/66
D
303900-337200
178800-193200
232300-255600
5/66
E
335800-369700
191400-209200
252000-271800
6/66
F
366200-701100
207100-226100
271400-273400
7/66
G
700100-731700
224300-241600
271900-293200
8/66
V
730800-744300
End 7/29/66
End 7/27/66


End 8/12/66


1/1/66 Believed
Sprint Production
Begun
All Plants

3/2/66 One Millionth Mustang
White Convertible
3/29/66   ~ 50 Hardtop
Anniversary Gold Mustangs
Responsible for T-5 exports
7/15/66   ~ 333
High Country Special Mustangs
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