[Keith Seymore]

No hood pad on the red car.

I'll let Tenney answer (Scott Tiemann would know for sure) but my bet would be any insulator that is a loose part at the assembly plant would be left off. Any insulator that is part of an assembly (like the backing on the carpet) would be installed.

K

[War eagle]

Thanks Keith. I think the hood pad is on in the Car Life June 1964 issue. Magazine lead times etc. would not date the photo correctly, but I do see the pad, vac operated trips, and no W on the firewall. However April 64 Speed and Custom article has no pad, the W on the firewall and of course the 421 pyramid. Evidently the 2 different cars, one red and one blue.

However is it true the Blue Car paper work has never been found? If so it may not have specific instructions on the build sheet.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by War eagle

Thanks Keith. I think the hood pad is on in the Car Life June 1964 issue. Magazine lead times etc. would not date the photo correctly, but I do see the pad, vac operated trips, and no W on the firewall. However April 64 Speed and Custom article has no pad, the W on the firewall and of course the 421 pyramid. Evidently the 2 different cars, one red and one blue.

However is it true the Blue Car paper work has never been found? If so it may not have specific instructions on the build sheet.

Correct - blue car paper work has not been found.

There is some discussion, too, on the origin of the blue car (ie, was it special ordered by Mr Wangers or was it a pre-existing car he grabbed for his use). If it was a generic existing car that he procured then it would likely not have any special instructions.

K

[John V.]

Interesting what you found in magazine pix. I would have guessed the Blue car was built with Hood Pad and all other standard Insulation. Possibly the hood pad was removed post-production. The Blue car Manifest record has never been made public. Wangers held to the story that it was a non-VIN'd pilot production build. I've never believed that and always believed that I would be able to locate the Manifest record if given access to the PHS records. Perhaps it was bogusly/illegally adorned with regular issue Michigan plates and perhaps they sent it to NYC for C & D testing wearing no VIN tag but that just seems unlikely to me. The option content is pretty well detailed in the Car & Driver article. If I'm correct, the Speed & Custom article shows a GTO wearing the same license plate as the Blue car wore in Daytona, so most likely one and the same.

I have no idea what Insulation was omitted on the Red car during the build but I can tell you the following from Reference document 9775022, the '64 Tempest Acoustical Materials document.

1. The molded fiberglass Hood Insulator Pad was installed during Final Assembly.
2. The 42316 x Tufflex Left & Right Instrument Panel Insulators were installed by Fisher Body.
3. The 52316 x Tufflex or 52790 x Stearns & Foster Left & Right Shroud Center Duct Panel Insulators were installed by Fisher Body.
4. The Amberlite Rubber Dash Panel Insulator was installed by Fisher Body.
5. The 62316 x Tufflex Shroud Side Finishing Panel Insulators (I think these may have been when no duct kick panel duct was used) was supplied by Fisher Bldy but installed during Final Assembly.
6. The 52341 x Fiberglass Inner Surface Shroud Side Panel Insulators were installed by Fisher Body.
7. The Mastic Composition Deadener Front Floor LH, RH, Center Upper, Center Lower, Under Front Seat Cushion, Rear Floor, Under Rear Seat Cushion, were all installed by Fisher Body.
8. The 62316 x Tufflex or 22790 x Stearns & Foster Coupe Front & Rear Roof Panel Insulators were installed by Fisher Body.
9. The 62146 x Tufflex Package Shelf Insulator was installed by Fisher Body.
10. When equipped with the rear speaker, a specific Package Shelf Insulator was installed by Fisher Body and then the Amberlite Rear Seat Speaker Enclosure Assembly was installed at Final Assembly.
11. The sound deadener in the doors is identified as F.S. 1163 and in the rear quarters and for the wheel housing it is identified as F.S. 1300. It was an asphaltic based asbestos fiber material, sprayed on. Not sure what "F.S." means or why there were different nos. associated with it. I'm guessing it is the abbreviation for a particular brand of sound deadening undercoating.

In '63, on at least one '63 SD Manifest, the instruction to "DELETE ALL DUM DUM INSULATION" was found. No idea what "Dum Dum" referred to, but another guess, possibly the floor insulation and possibly the spray on asphaltic material were referred to as dum dum.

The other insulation material was so light weight, I doubt it was useful to delete it. Unless the Red car has been stripped at some point, evidence of the spray on material would probably be visible in the trunk unless it was never sprayed on.

Will be curious to hear if Tenney can identify what was or wasn't deleted.