Just a General Question about 1968 Ford Mustang

Hi guys and gals,

I have posed an interest in an ordinary 1968 ford mustang coupe, the seller has enclosed the vin number and i realise that the body tag DSO shows 90 (which comes under export) what does this mean? Also in the Vin number i noticed that the assembly plant code is S (pilot plant?) which plant is this?

can anyone please hsed some light on this topic please, thankyou all!

Wow, this is one for the real experts. All my decoders show that the car was exported (DSO 90) but none of them can find the "S". So the VIN starts with "8S..."?

OK I'm no expert but I can Google with the best of them )

DSO 90 are Mustangs that were exported to France.

I found this website it's in French.
But near the top left is a link to translate it into English.
http://membres.lycos.fr/gt69stang/

It actually appears there might be a registry of these.
There is a lot of info on the site above but here's the Reader's Digest version.

All of the VINs on this site for 68 start with 8T though no 8S VINs.
The site looks like it might be a few years old but it's worth a shot.

Rich


From the site:
Dedicated to Mustangs exported new in France, (and Belgium and Luxembourg) between 1964 and 1969.
DSO 90's.

The interest of the DSO code is that Mustang intented to be exported carry special DSO codes:going from 90 to 99. Every Mustang with a 90-99 DSO is an export model.

When the Mustangs rolled out the assembly plant, the shipping to europe was made by freighter, and Ford France pick up the cars at Anvers, Belgium, bring them back to France and dispatched them through all Ford dealers.

In France, the buyer rarely order his car as he desire, he most usually go to a Ford dealer and chose between all Mustangs available. For that reason, Ford France order Mustangs by large groups, with lots of options, with all different colors in all body styles.

Back in the sixties, the Mustang was a very luxury car in France, because high price taxes for import cars skyrocketed it's price. And buyers were usually business men or music artists, not baby boomers like on your side of the ocean.
As the buyers were big money guys, options were plenty, that's why all Mustangs imported in France are V8 engined, and when it became available in april '65, the GT option became practicaly standard for french ponys.
Manual 4 speed transmissions was also very popular, as was power brakes and deluxe interior.
That's why these around 2000 Mustangs imported between 1964 and 1969 are so desirable.

For 1968 and 1969, Ford France ordered around 50-100 convertibles, 50 fastbacks, and 150 hardtops.
For 1967, rates seems to be the same, but I've found less cars compared to '68-'69.
For 1966, at least 250-300 hardtops, 150-200 convertibles and 50-100 fastbacks.
For 1965, figures are around 100 hardtops, 50 convertibles and less than 50 fastbacks.
The record year was 1966, just like in the USA. Around 700 Mustangs were imported in France that year.
....

I had a little trouble tracking this one down.

S code does exist, and is Allen Park, MI. It is an R&D facility for FORD, and some pre-production cars are built there, and may be promoted, and then sold later through a dealer.

The real way to tell is to check the rest of the VIN for the date and for the serial number to see if this is early in the numbers (in fact, it would have to be one of the very first 68 mustang serial numbers).

I found most of my information on the Cougar site, where there have been found 3 pre-production S code (at least that was what was on the site). They referred to Marti several times, so if you think you have a lead on an early pre-production 68 then Kevin Marti could tell you.

Also mentioned were mis-stamps of S in place of F in some cases. Casey

http://www.mercurycougar.net/forums/showthread.php?t=8634

Fantastic work guys, Nice going Mr Broadway blue, this mustang is in virginia USA, i dont think its been exported before, it also has the disc brakes and 302ci engine with C4 auto box (rather french sounding right monsieur broadway blue)! any other info will be really appreciated.

Yesterday i was thinking exactly what you are saying Casey, it could have been a possible mis-stamped plant code, but i will run a report on it to double check!

Another item of interest are your T-5 cars which were exported to Germany. Because a German manufacturer already had the rights to the Mustang name, Ford chose to alter a few emblems, rather than pay a royalty fee. Instead of saying mustang on the fenders or dash, the car simply had an emblem that show'd T-5.

Don

GT_CS said:

... this mustang is in virginia USA, i dont think its been exported before,

Click to expand...

Even if the code was mis-stamped S instead of F ... doesn't the 90-99 DSO still indicate it was exported? Are you 100% sure it wasn't exported at some point?

Anyone know the likelihood that an export DSO stayed in the States?

Curious to know.

BroadwayBlue said:

Even if the code was mis-stamped S instead of F ... doesn't the 90-99 DSO still indicate it was exported? Are you 100% sure it wasn't exported at some point?

Anyone know the likelihood that an export DSO stayed in the States?

Curious to know.

Click to expand...

I have read about a few that never left the states for some reason or another.

The guy I purchased my Calspec from owns a 69 T-5 convert. 390 car. He lives in San Jose and purchased it brand new in 1970. I'm not sure how or where, but I will shoot him an E mail and get the details.