Chronology variances

[Jonathan]

Is this a good a place as any for a chronology variance comment?

Kind of like the airbox sticker thread, there are a few things about our cars that changed over time. Some obvious (hoods, wheels, radios, console clocks, antennas, etc.) and some not so obvious.

Not trying to just retype an entire Concours Manual thread, but one I noticed recently and just had it explained to me was the one where late production cars have a slightly different engine wiring harness. The part you'll see to tip you off is where on most early cars this wiring section routes over the corner of the deice shield/throttle spool area. On the late production cars, it is routed underneath. Looks cleaner and the wiring got shorter/less complicated.

Anyway, I just noticed that one when looking over pictures of a new owner's car and thought I'd mention it.

[Ron]

I think this deserves it's own thread...I've noticed several things that aren't mentioned in the Concours Manuals etc.

[Shep]

Other than what's listed in the Concourse Manual, the pins and holes for the battery cover got bigger somewhere along the line. I have the early (small) holes and the late (big) pins, so mine don't even fit :swear1: I'm guessing that was done to match what the grille had. Rich W first mentioned this one to me.

From what I've been told, the engine cover started out with a bare white underside, with minor overspray from painting the sides. Haven't come across pictures of any yet, but some of the vendors have seen them.

The steering wheel started out vinyl and the binnacle started out leather for the first few hundred VIN's, but later were swapped around since no one back in '81 cared if the binnacle was leather or vinyl, but a vinyl steering wheel looked cheap (and the same still holds true today). The vinyl steering wheel continued to have the same basic design throughout production, but a large notch was cut at the 12 o'clock position to hold the leather seam, and much of the spokes had the grain shaved off for a better fit. Leather was most definitely an afterthought for the steering wheels, and this may also explain why the vinyl in the binnacles had padding underneath (the vinyl used is thinner than the leather used).

Early hoods had four 3"-4" holes drilled into the bottom legs of the "X" on the hood in a very engineered pattern (two on each side), with four 1" holes drilled on the very outer edges parallel to this. I have heard there is documentation for why this was done, but never got a response back when I inquired about it. The four 3"-4" holes were plugged up with the same rubber plug found next to the gas cap, and the 1" holes were also plugged up.

When drilling the hole for the windshield washer fluid fill hole, they mistakenly thought it was supposed to be symmetrical, and several hundred VIN's have holes on both sides. They issued a change request for this, and the unnecessary drill was "deleted". I do have documentation for this one. The hole was plugged up with the same rubber plug next to the gas cap and also in the hood.

That's all I can think of right now that the manual doesn't touch on.