Well, it happens.

Josh

 

where can they be in the door panels?

 

Just behind the plastic, but it's rare to find them there in the trucks;

1) seat springs
2) behind the dash
3) under the mat/ carpet

Would be my top 3. If you don't find it, the truck never had one or it is long gone after 30+ years.

Josh

 

yeah what about in the headliner and i didn't look under the carpet under the seat and behind it.

 

me and a buddy of mine took his headliner out of his truck and found the build sheet there.

 

My 77 Explorer was owned originaly by a company, then sold in 78 to a guy that was 61 years old at the time. He drove the truck till the mid to late 80's and then parked it in his barn till he died at the end of 2007, (80,159 original miles).

He never tore the truck apart, or did any modification to it. I looked ALL through it, and there is none. If there was, it would have been at the most likley place under the seat springs, and was pulled out if there was one. I looked under the carpet, behind the doors, dash, and I also had the headliner down.

So last week I called Ford at 1-800-392-3673, you will have to go through a few prompts, but you will talk with a live person in Florida, and they will take your vin and send you a build sheet, in what they tell me will take 6 to 8 weeks.

I called on Tuesday, and they said someone will call me (thursday) if they need any additional information. I never got a call so I thought I was good to go, but on Friday while I was sleeping they called and had one of the digits wrong in the vin and could not find what I was looking for. I am also getting one for my dad's 77 Explorer.

So I called yesterday morning, and told them my issue and they were able to fix the bad vin and link them together. He went and spoke with someone, and saw where the issue was and he said I should get one, then the other, so I am looking for them around the end of July, or beginning of August.

 

UPDATE: Today at noon, I got a call from Ford, to tell me the second vin number was good, but being that it was that old they had to send to a different department to process it, and I should get it in about a month.



Side note: While on the first call the female I was speaking with told me they do get alot of request for the older Ford trucks. She said that morning she got one for a 1948 Galaxy which said she did not know exsisted, (me either).

 

I bought a new '77 F250 Ranger XLT (wish I still had it) and found the build sheet shoved between the drivers side frame rail and rear fuel tank.

 

I bought my 74 f-100 from the original owner's stepson.
I was pulling junk out from under the seat, couple tools, a yellow Cat hat, old insurance info, leaves and other crap from nature, spair parts... then I pull out a yellowing pice of paper from inbetween the seat and the tranny hump.

The truck had just been gone through by the "stepson" and his highschool class of automechanics.. Its a wonder that nobody had found the build sheet.
Dident quite know what it was at the time but knew it was old and for the truck!!! Has been carefully protected ever since then...

 

Not to burst anyone's bubble, but the "build sheets" that you can request from Ford are a huge let-down. Just a form letter with a small paragraph of "some" of the options the truck came delivered with.

And even then they are known to be wrong.

The real build sheets are pretty cool looking and interesting to think a "computer" encrypted the codes onto the sheet. Even in the 60s!

Josh

 

Is there any way to tell what each letter or number under each option on the build sheets represent???

 

Yeah, I saw a few of the guys on here got, and posted, and your right. It's not as big of a todoo as you would hope for. But this is my first step in this direction, as I continue on with my truck. I am going to get a Marti report to get as much information as I possibly can on my dents first days of life.

I would like to find out the date of manufacture, dealer it was sold at etc, etc,... But all in due time!