1969 & 1970 Front turn signal lights
As you can see the 1969 front turn signals housings were plated zinc dichromate and the 1970 housings were silver zinc.  The bracket/housing consist of two pieces spot-welded together.  The rear section of the two-piece housing used to mount the lens is the same between the two years (except for engineering number) but the bracket section used to mount the assembly is very different (see picture).  The lenses are exactly the same except for the SAE year code.   The only lens reproduced today is the 1970 lens.  The 1969 lenses are very difficult to find today since they only were serviced for one year until they were superceded by the 1970 version.  The 1969 wire harness has three wires, one extra wire for a ground.  1970 versions and later 1969 NOS (service parts) only came with two wires.  Only real early 1969 Ford Autolite service versions had three wires.  This is the easiest way to tell if you have true production 1969 front turn signal lights.  The 1970 production wire harness had a blue rubber socket.  1969 production wire harness came in three slightly different configurations but they all had three wires and black rubber parts.  Many collectors are confused when it comes to determining the correct plating for their front turn signals because over the years Ford would service both years with silver zinc brackets and then later service them both with yellow zinc brackets.  This is another good example why you should always question anyone who uses NOS parts to prove a correct finish or construction.

Front Licenses Plate Bracket
As you can see there is a big difference between a NOS (service part) version and an original production front license plate bracket.  The first thing I look for on originals is the deep groove in the middle and a date code.  The pictures really explain the differences so you don’t really need me to blab on what the differences are.

1969 Vs 1970 Leaf Spring Shackles
In 1969 the rear leaf spring shackle used fine threaded stud but in 1970 Ford engineers changed to a coarse thread (16) and the threaded portion of the stud was also longer.  Other than these minor changes nothing was different.  Maybe this "production enhancement" was made to make the shackle more durable, coarse threads are more tolerant of abuse and will assemble and disassemble more easily and quickly than fine threads and are less likely to cross thread.  In 1971 the thickness of the shackle plate steel was increased considerably and they went back to a fine thread.  After 1970 Ford serviced 69-70 shackles with the 1971 shackle (D1ZZ-5630-A) so finding any correct NOS shackles for 1969 and 1970 Mustang/Shelby is very difficult.  Correct finish is bare steel.

1969 Vs 1970 Upper Radiator Support Bracket
We are always asked what is the correct upper radiator support bracket for my car?  The brackets are exactly the same except for the screw mounting section was bridged in 1970.  We suspect Ford had some kind of problems with the 1969 bracket (C9ZZ-8A193-A & C9ZZ-8A193-B) so they simply bridged the mounting section to improve it’s strength and gave it a new engineering number (D0ZZ-8A183-A).  We have never seen a 1969 bracket fail in any way but maybe in extreme conditions it did so it was improved for 1970.

1969 Vs 1970 Hood Latch Strikers
The 1969 hood latch striker was phosphated and the 1970 striker was zinc dichromate plated.  Both will function on either year.  It’s easy to tell them apart when they are together.  I always look for the area pointed out with the arrows shown to tell the difference.  We see this type of improvement in plating quality with many parts in 1970.  It should be noted that we have found both strikers on late 1969 and early 1970 production Mustangs.  We have also found that most all Shelby's made in late 1969 production had the 1970 type of striker.

Rear Tie Down Brackets
The rear tie-down brackets were a piece of hardware that should not be on your car but it usually was.  This is because they were supposed to be removed by the transportation or dealer prep guys before the car was delivered to the customer per the decal placed on the rear license plate mounting location.  The ones shown in this picture are the duel exhaust type, the single exhaust type doesn’t have the third mounting tab and they are smaller.  We suspect most of them stayed on the cars because the credit given for there return wasn’t worth time it took to remove them.  The originals had a bare steel finish and the bolts/nuts were phosphate plated.  It's not uncommon to see original duel exhaust cars that only have the two bolts that go through the frame to keep the bracket in place. Both tie down brackets and mounting hardware are available from our online store.

Body Buck Bolt
The previous picture of the rear tie down bracket showing the two round paint less areas on the rear frame rail were created by assembly line body buck contact points.  During assembly the Mustang body was mounted to a special frame “body buck” that carried the car down the line as it was assembled. This bolt went through the frame to attach the body to the assembly line buck.  The factory buck bolt shown here with heavy paint build up from years of over spray was found by Ed Meyer many years ago.  It's one of three known to exist.

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