I'm currently restoring the original interior of my '57 Skyliner. As I was pulling up the vinyl tray cover behind the rear seat I found these washers tucked in there. The number 500 is stamped on both sides at opposite edges. My guess is that they were attached to some part or assembly intended for a Fairlane 500. I could be way off base and was wondering if anybody knew for sure what their function was?
I have taken lots of 57 Fords apart and have not seen those before. It could have been something that fell out of the pocket of the guy that was working on it in 1957.
Maybe they're $500 tokens. Now if I could just figure out where to cash them in.
They look like tool check out tags or coins. My dad usta work in a very large fab/machine shop and would have to go to the tool room and check out the tools he would be using for the specific job and the tool room manager would put in its place a round brass tag with my dad?s specific number stamped in it. my dad wouldn?t get the tag back until he turned the tool back in. I found a stack of them in one of his old tool boxes a few years back
They had a similar system for checking out tools at the Boston Naval Shipyard also.