1965 The 18 month production year
1964 1/2 Mustang, 1965
Mustang: March 9th 1964 Ford began the production of the
Mustang. On April 17th the first Mustangs were sold to the public.
Hard top and convertibles were the only models available. August 15th
1964 the production of the
1965
Mustang begins and the 2 + 2 Fastback is introduced. October 1964
Carroll Shelby begins production of Shelby Mustangs in California.
January 17th 1965 Shelbys are introduced. The vehicle warranty plate:
Mustangs made between March 9th and August 17th 1964 have a letter of
"C' through "H" stamped in the date code. A good way to quickly tell
an early 1965 Mustang from a later 1965 Mustang is to look at the
hood, the early hoods had a beveled edge on the front corner edge, the
grill was also beveled. In the later part of the 1965 production year
the bevel was deleted. Another way to quickly tell is to look at the
hood bumpers. The early 65 Mustangs had a phillips screw holding the
bumper on in the later production they have a domed shaped bumper
molded on to the stud. On the 1965 V-8 Mustang you will find a 4 1/2"
wide chrome emblem showing the engine size. The 1965 Mustang was
offered in a choice of five, all-vinyl colors: black, white, red, blue
and palomino. The cloth and vinyl combination could be had in in black
or palomino. A sixth color choice was added "Ivy Gold" in the fall of
1964 and in mid summer 1965 palomino was replaced by the lighter
parchment. Bucket seats were standard however, a front bench seat was
an option in the hardtop and convertible. The "pony interior" was optional
beginning in March of 1965.
You can seem really smart to all you friends by knowing the correct
name which is simply "interior decor group". In the "interior decor
group you will find: Luxury seats, and door panels, padded sun visors,
wood grain 5 dial instrument panel and glove box door, deluxe simulated
walnut grain steering wheel, pistol grip door handles, brightly
trimmed
foot pedals, partially carpeted kick panels and red and white lights
located in the door. The body style code stamped onto the Mustangs
warranty plate should include the letter "B" for the "Interior Decor"
models. The "Standard Interior" cars will have an "A". An
interior point that is of interest is that the seat belts in the early
1965 mustangs were attached with eye bolts, in mid year they switched
to a standard hex head. An often misunderstood option in 65 was the rally pac, many will tell
you that the rally pack was only available in the GT. Not true, the
rally pac option was available on all models. In mid 1965 the GT
equipment group was introduced along with a new lower profile tach /
clock on the steering column. The standard V-8 cars came with a 6000
rpm tach. The "hipo" V-8 cars came with a 8000 rpm tach.
Of course one of the easy way to tell a V-8 cars from the six cylinder
is the wheels. All V-8 cars had 5 bolt wheels while the 6 cylinders
had 4 bolts. In early production there were 3 engine choices, the 170
6 cylinder, 260 6 cylinder, and the 289 8 cylinder. In later 1965 the
only 6 cylinder that was available was the 200. The 170 and the 260
were both dropped. Also, you now had the choice of the 200 hp 2 barrel
289, 4 barrel 225 hp version, and the "hipo" 271 hp 289. On the
first anniversary of the Mustang Ford by introducing the "GT equipment
group". If you are looking for an original GT look for "disc brakes"
on the brake pedal, large disc brake master and remember power brakes
were not available on the GT. For a true GT the warranty plate must be
"P" through "V' denoting the later production. Look also for the
exhaust through the rear valance, and the GT fog lamps on the front
mesh grill. But don't be fooled in 65 the dealers pushed to have some
or all of these options installed at the dealership. So, not all cars
with the GT options are real GTs.
1965
Mustang Shelby
On January 27, 1965 Carroll Shelby introduced us to the Shelby
Mustang. It looked very much like a fastback Mustang but there were a
lot of differences. First you'll notice that it has no badges, only
the Mustang gas cap and one small horse with the tri-colored bar
remain. The fiberglass hood with hood scoop and hood pins replace the
old sheet metal. Interior: In the 65 Shelby you could have any
interior color you wanted as long as it was black. On the center of
the dash you'll find a pod with a tach and oil pressure gauge.
Also, look for the large 3 inch competition seat belts. Engine: The GT
350 had one engine choice the 306 hp 289, look for the special "COBRA"
high rise intake and the 715 cfm Holley Carb. Shelby VIN Plate:
All Shelby had a special VIN plate riveted over the Ford VIN number on
the drivers side inner front fender. If you want to take a look under
the Shelby plate you find that all 1965 Shelby's have original VIN
numbers that start with 5R09K. This denotes that they were built in
the San Jose plant with the high performance 289.
65 PRODUCTION
NUMBERS Hardtop (Standard) - 372,123
Hardtop (Luxury) - 22,232
Hardtop (Bench Seats) - 14,905
Convertible (Standard) - 65,663
Convertible (Luxury) - 5,338
Convertible (Bench Seats) - 2,111
Fastback (Standard) - 71,303
Fastback (Luxury) - 5,776
Indianapolis 500 Pace Car - 37
Total - 559,451
65 VIN NUMBERS
- 5F08T100001 5 - Last digit of model year
F - Assembly Plant (F=Dearborn, R=San Jose, T=Metuchen)
08 - Plate code (07=Hardtop, 08=convertible, 09=fastback)
T - Engine Code
100001 - Consecutive unit number
65 ENGINES/ENGINE
CODES T - 200 ci 1valve 6-cyl. with 120hp
C - 289 ci 2valve V-8 with 200hp
A - 289 ci 4valve V-8 with 225hp
K - 289 ci 4valve V-8 with 271hp
65 FACTORY
OPTIONS
- Manual front disc brakes
- Limited slip differential
- GT Equipment Group
- Styled steel wheels (V-8 only)
- Power brakes
- Power steering
- Power convertible top
- Rear Seatbelts
- Deluxe front and rear seatbelts
- Air Conditioning
- Emergency lights
- Back-up lights
- Full-length center console
- Full-width bench seats
- Tinted glass
- Vinyl roof
- Push button radio
- Deluxe steering wheel
- Seatbelt delete
65 EXTERIOR
COLORS/COLOR CODE Raven Black - A
Midnight Turquoise - B
Honey Gold - C
Dynasty green - D
Caspian Blue - H
Champagne Beige - I
Rangoon Red - J
Poppy Red - 3
Silversmoke Gray - K
Wimbledon White - M
Tropical Turquoise - O
Prairie Bronze - P
Ivy green - R
Sunlight Yellow - V
Vintage Burgundy - X
Silver Blue - Y
Springtime Yellow - 8
65 INTERIOR
COLORS/INTERIOR TRIM CODE Blue vinyl with blue - 22
Red vinyl with red - 25
Black vinyl with black - 26
Aqua - 27
Ivy Gold with Gold - 28
Palomino vinyl with Palomino - 29
Parchment with blue - D2
Parchment with Burgundy - D3
Parchment with black - D6
Parchment with palomino - D9
Parchment with Ivy Gold - D8
Luxury Ivy Gold and white - 68
Luxury Black - 66
Luxury Blue and White - 62
Luxury Red - 65
Luxury White and Aqua - 67
Parchment with red - D5
Parchment with aqua - D7
Luxury Palomino - 69
Luxury Parchment with blue - F2
Parchment with Emberglo - F4
Parchment with Burgundy - F3
