Another recesessed gas cap ...
I don't agree.
If you look at how the panel fits on the blue car the largest gap is on the bottom of the opening where there is no adjustment for the panel. The bottom half of the panel screws onto the body with no opportunity for horizontal adjustment. Add to that the fact that these huge gaps are only found on early cars leads me to agree with Paul that some strange taillight panels were being produced yearly in the run.
Maybe such large gaps are not found on Shelbys because those panels were rejected and not used, then some bright executive came up with the idea to use the reject parts on the California Specials. Ford was into saving money at the time so taking rejected parts from their premier cars and using them on their lesser cars would earn someone a promotion and/or a bonus.
Hey Arlie!
Here is a little bit more "fuel for the fire" on this discussion of the early (?) production recessed gas caps. We took our car up to Parksville today for the Ford Spring Spectacular hosted by Joe Cunningham Ford. Finally got to meet Bill and "Tanner" as he was up to display his blue GT/CS and parked beside us. I also finally met "Pete" from up at Port Alberni, who has a Candy Apple Red "J" code with automatic. I'd heard of the car, but had never seen it or met the owner until today. There are two very interesting things concerning Pete's GT/CS.
1. Pete's "J" code is only 15 units higher in production than our car when we compared VIN's! (Ours is 161311 and his is 161326)
2. It has the somewhat baffling "recessed gas cap rear panel"! Our car was produced in July and with our VIN's so close together I would assume that they were on the line at the same time, so Pete's GT/CS would most likely be a July production car. This makes it very late for this "early production" recessed gas cap on the rear panel. As far as he knows this is the original rear panel on his car. Do you think that the fact that our car is "S" code and his is "J" code would make any great amount of difference on production dates? (Pete didn't have a Marti report on this car with him, so we're not sure of the actual production date that it might list.)
3. It also turns out that Pete was the original purchaser of the elusive Highland Green "S" code 390 w/ 4 speed GT/CS that is now in Victoria and undergoing restoration right now! He still has the original bill of sale, a receipt from the dealership, and the original warranty card too. He bought the car new from a dealership in Nanaimo in 1968 and later sold the car. It has "lived" in Port Hardy and Port McNeil (both here on Vancouver Island) He had been trying to track it down to buy it back, but the car's owner up in Port Hardy refused to sell it. Sometime later it was sold though and went down to Port McNeil where it sat for several years. That owner sold it to the fellow down here in Victoria before Pete could track it down. Small world ...
Anyway, here are some photos of the recessed gas cap and rear panel on Pete's car that I shot today.
The mystery continues ...???