6 - 1966
F - Assembly Plant Dearborn
07 - Coupe
C - 289 V8, 2V 200hp
Body 65A - Coupe, standard interior
Color U - Tahoe Turquoise
Trim 26 - Black with Black trim
Production Date 23B - 23 Feb 1966
District Sales Office 63 - Memphis
Rear Axle Ratio 6 - 2.8:1
Transmission 1 - 3-Speed Manual
What's the deal with the color? I was told it was repainted a factory color but it's obviously not Tahoe Turquoise which is much darker and metallic.
However, 1965 Mustangs were available in Tropical Turquoise which is a very close match.
I suspect this is the color they were going for. While I was chasing wires behind the kick panel I found some of the original paint.
You can see the original Tahoe Turquoise on the right, where someone hacked out room for a speaker, and the repainted Tropical Turquoise on the left in the door jamb.
The date code for 23 Feb 1966 is interesting. I pulled the driver's side valve cover just to check things out.
You can see the date code on the head is 6B23 which also corresponds to 23 Feb 1966. It seems pretty unlikely that the the foundry forged the head on the same day the car was assembled (it was probably still warm). However, it seems highly improbable that a previous owner found a used head to rebuild that just happened to be made the same day the car was built. So I'm guessing this head is original and maybe the engine block (if I ever pull the starter to check the block casting code).
Above is the passenger side head with a date code of 6E17, which is 17 May 1966. Obviously this isn't the original head and it's impossible to tell when it was replaced.
The original rear gears and transmission are long gone. I was told the rear end is 3.88:1 with some type of limited slip. The transmission is now a close-ratio 4-speed toploader from a 1965 Mustang topped with a Hurst shifter.
