Working down the list of running changes that took place during 1965 production at San Jose as the title states, in this thread I focus on spare tire mounts and hardware versions.
During 1965 production the rear floor section of the unibody was designed with a feature that allowed the rear emergency brake cable to pass between the floor and the frame rail on each side before traveling to the rear brake backing plates. The cable was held in place at this pass through by two brackets on each side. One on the inside of the frame rail and a second on the outside of the frame rail.
Above and to the rear you will typically find what appears to be an unused bolt installed in the outer face of the frame rail. Workers have explained that this (with an opaque plastic strap) held the cable up and out of the way until the rearend was installed and the worker would grab the cable, snap the plastic strap and insert the cable into the backing plate locking it in place.
Here is a general picture of the version where the e brake cable is not routed between the floor and frame. You may notice that the insulator on the cable near the end (rearend attachment point) changes from two sections to a single insulator
The purpose of this survey is to try and focus when the routing change took place, as best we can without real completion dates for each car. Because of this projected build dates and at least the first four digits of the VIN would help identify each report of a finding. Also it would help to know if the car is unrestored or restored.
Also to focus closer to the anticipated change period we can keep the replies to cars built after the 5Rxxx180000 period. This will reduce the number of early versions since they cover most of the production period
As a secondary purpose and benefit please include the design of the retainer used to the floor as it appears there is a couple of possibilities in the initial look at examples.
Thanks
