I purchased a 57 Fairlane 500 a few years ago for parts and found the vin tag was listed as made in mexico. I have used quite a few parts off of it and most interchange just fine but have had a few parts that I had to tweak a bit. I did not realize Ford had a plant in mexico back then..
Just courious as to whether anyone else has knowledge of 57's built in other countries?
Canada is the only other place I'm aware of that built 57 Fords.
1957 Ford Cars and Thunderbirds were also assembled in Belgium, they were shipped as subassemblies from the Marwah, NJ plant. They carried a Marwah data plate with a export code, and a french data plate.
Would you post a picture of your Mexican data plate.
Correction, the T-Birds carried a Dearborn data plate and a french data plate.
Sure I will post, if I can locate it. I removed it when I stripped the car a few years ago. It looks just like the ones made here but the Vin numbers do not follow the same code for body color, engine and so on.. It does say Hecho En Mexico or Fabricado En Mexico..
Here it is. It's a bit rough. It's difficult to read but it does say Marca Registrada. Right below that it does have Dearborn. I had not noticed that before. It could have been made in the U.S. and exported to mexico
That is legit, notice where the plant code would be in the VIN, there is a MEX there. I saw a 55 Thunderbird on ebay recently with this kind of VIN, and it is like Lou said. The cars were shipped as subassemblies to them, and final assembly took place there. Interesting, as I assumed they had been exported complete, not assembled in foreign countries.
Ford shipped cars as subassemblies for the same reason most imported cars are shipped in subassemblies today, to beat the import fees.
Good to know.. One more piece of 57 history
Did they change the speedo to kilometers? The T-5 Mustangs were converted in Germany to kilometers.
I will check the speedo next time I am at the warehouse I have the parts in. I was planning on using that on the car I am building. Guess I should check that before I install and find out after the fact.....
Lou,
While we're on the subject of Vin Plates. My vin plate says D7RV103794. Can there be a vin plate that says D7FV103794. Jim
Jim: Yes. The serial numbers started at 100001 at all plants, so if the 3794th vehicle at each plant was a 312 powered 2 or 4 door Fairlane, or Farlane 500 Victoria, then each plant would have a D7?V103794.
Thanks Lou, I always wondered about that. Jim
That was a good question, Jim, I wondered about it myself...
right hand drive north american fords were also assembled in new zealand, the last ones if i remember right was in the early 60s. just about all were 4 door sedans and all the same models. 57s all had 272cu in with 3 on the tree.they had a 56 style ranchero only it was called a mainliner . which were also in australia and i saw one in mexico one time and wondered then if they were assembled there.