The 15 1963 Pre-Production Mustangs Built at Ford’s Pilot Plant in Allen Park
From August to December 1963 Ford built 15 pre-production Mustang chassis to establish assembly procedures, to determine engineering revisions for future production at Ford’s Dearborn Assembly Plant and to create concept show cars.
These 15 pilot Mustangs were built at the Allen Park Pilot Plant prior to the first assembly of production Mustangs in early 1964. Ford's Allen Park Pilot Plant was a scaled downassembly line, allowing Ford manufacturing to make adjustments before bringing the Mustang to the mass production assembly line.
Each of these pilot cars were assigned special "S" VIN numbers. After their use, all S-coded Mustangs were scheduled to be destroyed since they were not meant to be driven or sold to the public.
In the April and August 2015 isues of Mustang Monthly, early automotive historian Bob Fria, author of the book Mustang Genesis, describes how Mustang production began over 50 years ago.
Below are highlights relevant to the 15 pre-production S-Coded Mustang built at the Allen Park Pilot Plant including the Mustang III (5S 08F100009).
Enjoy,
Howard Kroplick
See the Mustang III tomorrow at the 3rd Annual Mustang Showdown in Levittown.
Mustang Monthly- April 2015
Bob Fria's list of the 15 Allen Park S-Coded Mustangs. There are only three S-Coded Mustangs known to exist today.
As seen in the above list, the Mustang III (5S0F100009) was the ninth pre-production Mustang built. Since the first eight pre-production S-Coded Mustangs have been destroyed or unknown, the Mustang III is likely the oldest Mustang on the road today.
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The 12th S-coded Mustang (5S08F100012) was shipped to Ford's Dearborn Assembly Plant in early 1964 and assigned the VIN 5F08F10001. It is currently displayed at the Henry Ford Museum.
The 15th S-Coded VIN (5S08F100015) was shipped to Ford's Dearborn Assembly Plant in early 1964 and assigned the VIN 5F08F10002. The car is owned by Bob Fria.
Mustang Monthly- August 2015
Bob Fria confirms that the Mustang III is "the only known pilot car to survive today as a pilot plant VIN identified chassis, 5S08F100009, exists as a Dearborn Steel Tube company project, which modified the convertible into a fastback confirguation."
Comments
Hi there all,just sitting here relaxing inside keeping cool,too hot and humid to go outside,the temperature is about 95,humidity is 100. There certainly is a lot to know about the Mustangs,very interesting.We are really finding out a lot about them,leave it up to you Howard to find out things that you’re interested in and relaying it to us.Always finding out something that wasn’t known
Dear Howard,
Thank you for going with ConstantContact; I stopped receiving email notifications each week. I was 16 y/o when the 1964 and 1/2 Mustang came out. I was a passenger in a convertible one in August of 1964 when I was working at a summer camp. What a ride. It felt like a race car. From what I remember, a 289 V8. Roy Warner. Boca Raton, FL.
Greetings.
Is it possible to get a higher resolution image of Bob Fria’s chart of the S-Code Mustangs that were delivered to Dearborn Steel Tubing; the image on your page is so small that it can’t be printed and read with any degree of clarity.
I’m trying to chase down the history of the Mustang Vivace (built at DST) and I think it was built on one of the S-code Mustangs. Please advise.
Thanks for your time.
Mark
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Mark, I will email the scan to you. Howard
So I haven’t gone to check the vins and confirm this yet but, recently I was told about a rare mustang a 1963 and before I was told this I knew the history so I immediately asked about the vin numbers on the car and was told that it was one of the first 15 pilot cars built by ford so before I make a long trip to see this is there a possibility one of them made it out of the factory in diving condition?
Josh, Bob Fria has done extensive work on the 1963 Pre-Production Mustangs: https://www.vanderbiltcupraces.com/blog/article/the_15_1963_pre_production_mustangs_built_at_the_allen_park_pilot_plant
Do you have any images or the vin #?
Howard