Over the counter in 65?

Start checking out concours resto cars.

I think you will have a tough time figuring this out, because I know a lot of things we offered in the 60s, but if you say only over Ford's counter how do you know if it was from Ford or an extra that the Dealer carried?

Do you mean was it FoMoCo stamped? (Or what if it was FoMoCo made and sold to another company who changed it and resold it? Oh... that was Shelby.)

I think your asking for FoMoCo items... than I would tell you to look for the stamp.

(I don't think I helped any. Sorry.)

Maybe the K-code stuff. They probably had a chrome package available.

I have a decent collection of '60's car magazines, and from the Ford/Shelby ads in all of them, I can tell you that LOTS of engine parts were available over the counter at Ford dealers. Solid lifter cams, tri-y headers, Cobra valve covers, single four barrel, dual four barrel and three-two's manifolds were ALL sold over the counter at pretty much any Ford dealer. The dual-four manifolds shown in the ads were equipped with a pair of Carters (same as edelbrocks) carbs, but my car is equipped with a Shelby two fours intake made for Holleys. I also wanted my engine to look like it could have been done in the late '60's and as such, I had to resist the impusle to buy chrome or billet stuff. My car also has an early, non-vacuum advance dual point distributer that is equipped with Pertronix innards as well as Pertronix's 7mm black plug wires that look factory original. It's important to stick with a theme to get the right "look" and the only place I strayed was with ceramic-coated try-y headers, and a dry-cell battery.

zookeeper said:

I have a decent collection of '60's car magazines, and from the Ford/Shelby ads in all of them, I can tell you that LOTS of engine parts were available over the counter at Ford dealers. Solid lifter cams, tri-y headers, Cobra valve covers, single four barrel, dual four barrel and three-two's manifolds were ALL sold over the counter at pretty much any Ford dealer. The dual-four manifolds shown in the ads were equipped with a pair of Carters (same as edelbrocks) carbs, but my car is equipped with a Shelby two fours intake made for Holleys. I also wanted my engine to look like it could have been done in the late '60's and as such, I had to resist the impusle to buy chrome or billet stuff. My car also has an early, non-vacuum advance dual point distributer that is equipped with Pertronix innards as well as Pertronix's 7mm black plug wires that look factory original. It's important to stick with a theme to get the right "look" and the only place I strayed was with ceramic-coated try-y headers, and a dry-cell battery.

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and the body colored engine bay. you could have had the Tri-Y's done in a black ceramic coating and i believe they even have white now as well for that total 60's look....LOL.

other things you could have gotten over the Ford counter were rearend gears, limited slip and locking diffs, factory correct Hurst shifters, factory correct Holley carbs, shift kits for auto trannies, HD clutch kits for manual trannies, transistroized electronic ignitions, wheels, suspension and brake goodies, steering wheels, tach and other gauges, as well as the already mentioned single and multi carb intakes and carbs and headers.

try to find a Rotunda or Autolite Performance catalog (sometimes you can find these viewable online) as well as one of the later 60's Ford Muscle parts catalogs and the many Shelby performance catalogs ( i think shelby did a new one every yearfor a quite a while). it also wouldn't hurt to get a copy of the Boss chassis and engine guides as they had some decent parts listings as well and also a copy of the Ford OHO (Off Highway Only) parts catalogs and newsletters too. one last good source is the Ford Master Parts catalog as it would list most if not all of the performance parts available directly from Ford.

Beleive it or not, I actually got the idea of a white engine bay from a '67 Mustang coupe Trans Am racer I saw at Laguna Seca a few years ago. The car was blue, but the engine compartment was white, according to the owner lots of racers did that to make visibilty easier when working on the motor. I just thought it looked better than the flat black cave that my engine bay used to be!

65FBE2 said:

Does anyone know what parts were available over the counter at the Ford dealer back in 65? I have a 65 that I want to mod the engine with only 65 era Ford parts. I was told once that Ford offered a Cobra kit but I can't find any info on it or if it ever really existed.

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To the original poster: You weren't clear as to engine dress up items or performance items.

I have the "Ford Mustang Special Issue!" from April-May 1964 Ford publication called Shop Tips. It's from the dealer that used to be in the city I was born in.

There are six pages of Ford Mustang Quality Accessories including "Engine Dress-Up Kits". The description reads: Ford's popular "Cobra" dress-up kits are also available for the Mustang. Available in either a full dress-up kit complete with polished aluminum valve covers, chrome air cleaner cover, filler cap, dip stick cap, and master cylinder cap; or a kit that contains valve covers only.

Part numbers:
C4OZ-6980-A
C4OZ-6A547-A
260-289 C.I.D. Engines

I will scan this book into a pdf and post here tomorrow.

Entire brochure scanned in at over 6mb. Here is specific page commented on above:

zookeeper said:

Beleive it or not, I actually got the idea of a white engine bay from a '67 Mustang coupe Trans Am racer I saw at Laguna Seca a few years ago. The car was blue, but the engine compartment was white, according to the owner lots of racers did that to make visibilty easier when working on the motor. I just thought it looked better than the flat black cave that my engine bay used to be!

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can't say i've ever seen one done in white but i have seen light gray and the ubiquitous gray/white/black speckle paint though

Nice engine and bay there Zookeeper, it's damned close to what my 77 Comet's bay looks like with the 331 sixpack motor and primered gray inner fenders. baddad457 - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting