robert campbell
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2007
- Messages
- 4,322
All,
I have been helping a friend of mine that purchased a 1968 Cougar GTE which is the only platform other than the Galaxies, Fairlane's and Comets that Ford offered a 427 engine in. A very rare car. This car had a checkered past and was flagged as a rebody. I took on the task to authenticate it and let the car tell the story.
In this effort a lot of interesting things came to light. One of the anomalies on this car was a dash VIN tag with screws vice rivets. In my mind a bit of a red flag by itself. As luck would have it Kerry Wortman (sportyworty on a lot of Ford sites) who I had met before on the SACC site and other sites had knowledge of this car and also brought to my attention that the use of screws had been research by him for the last 20 years. He has provided evidence of 15 1968 cars with screws holding the VIN tag on. He assisted me in proving that this car was a "real" GTE and it has had its rebody status removed.
Below is a link to the thread on the Classic Cougar Community website. It is 15 pages long but worth the read to see the extent you have to go to authenticate a car. The last two pages discuss the fact that screws were used vice rivets. A Marti report just authenticates a VIN number. In some cases you need to go the extra mile and look the car completely over. In the past two weeks another 3 1968 cars have surfaced with screws vice rivets.
I think you will find it an interesting read as all GT/CS cars were produced in 1968. Of note, Marty's new HCS project has screws vice rivets and its is totally original.
Rob
https://classiccougarcommunity.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=9361
I have been helping a friend of mine that purchased a 1968 Cougar GTE which is the only platform other than the Galaxies, Fairlane's and Comets that Ford offered a 427 engine in. A very rare car. This car had a checkered past and was flagged as a rebody. I took on the task to authenticate it and let the car tell the story.
In this effort a lot of interesting things came to light. One of the anomalies on this car was a dash VIN tag with screws vice rivets. In my mind a bit of a red flag by itself. As luck would have it Kerry Wortman (sportyworty on a lot of Ford sites) who I had met before on the SACC site and other sites had knowledge of this car and also brought to my attention that the use of screws had been research by him for the last 20 years. He has provided evidence of 15 1968 cars with screws holding the VIN tag on. He assisted me in proving that this car was a "real" GTE and it has had its rebody status removed.
Below is a link to the thread on the Classic Cougar Community website. It is 15 pages long but worth the read to see the extent you have to go to authenticate a car. The last two pages discuss the fact that screws were used vice rivets. A Marti report just authenticates a VIN number. In some cases you need to go the extra mile and look the car completely over. In the past two weeks another 3 1968 cars have surfaced with screws vice rivets.
I think you will find it an interesting read as all GT/CS cars were produced in 1968. Of note, Marty's new HCS project has screws vice rivets and its is totally original.
Rob
https://classiccougarcommunity.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=9361
