ConcoursMustang Forums
General Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: 1966KGT on January 06, 2019, 08:05:50 AM
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looking in search feature found nothing really conclusive, was there a specific date relating to an early car vs a late car?
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The production year for any model year begins with the fiscal year, which begins July 4 of any model year. Introductory show units have a build date on the door tag - a "scheduled" build date - of July 4, or 04G on the tag. None are actually built on that date, but it is the earliest scheduled build date that you can have on any model year Ford product.
The end of any model year is going to be July of the following year, when final assembly of any model year's Ford products happens. Such cars have a scheduled build date as late as July 31 of the second year, or 31U on the door tag. It might happen that a car could have been scheduled for the second August, which would have a V for the month, but I have never seen or heard of such a case.
So there you have it - the earliest and the latest. If you own a factory shop manual it explains this in great detail in the introduction.
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thanks
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looking in search feature found nothing really conclusive, was there a specific date relating to an early car vs a late car?
No. Early and late (unless the car had a very early or very late) production date are often a general range used by people to group cars. Don't let this be confused by "early" or "late" features or options as those are often relative and in general used to describe the style or version that was used first and the other the later version. Those change over dates can often have no relationship with the car production year.
Yes can be confusing :)
Adjusted the title to reflect your question in your original post
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"U" would normally signify a July car based on the prior year July 4th cars at a minimum.
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Thanks for the correction, I edited my reply.
"U" would normally signify a July car based on the prior year July 4th cars at a minimum.