How do You determine the id number of a 1957 Ford with a 312 Supercharged engine? What numbers and letters should it have to be a real Supercharged car? I know that one code is the letter F for a Supercharged engine and the part number and casting numbers for the cylinder heads and the part number for the Camshaft. I believe the Supercharger should be a McCullough but have heard of Paxton to I believe.
The first letter of the vehicle number would be F if the car is factory supercharged. There were a very few very early supercharged cars with D as the first letter. They are difficult to verify without the original factory invoice. The blower would be a Paxton, but are often called McCulloch since Robert Paxton McCulloch formed both companies. The factory Paxtons had a ribbed appearance of the outer case, the McCulloch versions of the same era were smooth cases. John
I think all the "D-F" T-birds were built on Jan 25, 1957. The information I have is that all Phase One passenger cars were build on the same day or very near that date. The problem is that there were three plants Other than Detroit involved in the production. Still that will be a good indicator. A number of Phase One convertibles wee produced for the race teams at that time. Jack Anderson in Dallas recently acquired the only known survivor of that group. It would be interesting to know the production date and plant of origin of that car. For reference, in my world of t-birds we have always referred to what is called here "Paxton" blowers are Phase One and the Phase two units are Mccullochs.
Jack Anderson lives in Edwardsville Illinois. Known him since he was a kid. Haven't seen him in years, Need to visit him and take a look at his extensive Ford collection. Got his first T Bird around 16.