Unreal, Like The Dealership (major Duw!!!)

Folly, the black seatbelts came with the standard interior, regardless of interior color.

Sal, what indicated to you that it was an early '77, before seeing the door tag?

Brian, I was thinking similarily about the decal placement being incorrect. I thought however, the were usually placed directly above the cap. The heated backglass may be unusual for AZ, but was an option nonetheless. Car appears to be snobird as you say, as it's DSO indicates Seattle.
 
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LXXVICOBRA said:
Sal, what indicated to you that it was an early '77, before seeing the door tag?

Well, the cluster gives it away as a 77 or 78. The bumper inserts are the three piece, which was used to about mid 77, and then they changed to the "cut off a roll" insert trim. The silver trim grille was a 77 option. The stereo has the Ford logo on it, which didn't apprear till 77. It's got the horn pad with the molded emblem instead of the add on emblem and has the black trim, both of which were the standard wheel for 77 and up. The interior does have the chrome edging, but that was standard on 77 and 78s with the woodgrain dash. Only the aluminum insert dash switched to the black trim in mid 77. Also, the e-brake does have the wood grain handle, but has the black main section, which came out in 77, as opposed to the chrome one used in previous years. The car also has a black lower valance, which was a 77 thing.

Whew. I've spent way too much time looking at these cars :).

___________________
Sal Mennella
Power Surge Performance - Ford Tuning Specialists - since 1997
www.powersurgeperformance.net

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Power Surge said:
Well, the cluster gives it away as a 77 or 78. The bumper inserts are the three piece, which was used to about mid 77, and then they changed to the "cut off a roll" insert trim. The silver trim grille was a 77 option. The stereo has the Ford logo on it, which didn't apprear till 77. It's got the horn pad with the molded emblem instead of the add on emblem and has the black trim, both of which were the standard wheel for 77 and up. The interior does have the chrome edging, but that was standard on 77 and 78s with the woodgrain dash. Only the aluminum insert dash switched to the black trim in mid 77. Also, the e-brake does have the wood grain handle, but has the black main section, which came out in 77, as opposed to the chrome one used in previous years. The car also has a black lower valance, which was a 77 thing.

Good points, Sal....and basically quite correct too.
My initial post about the cluster had me thinking exactly the same from the start about car's vintage (hence the initial question which you've verified)... just the chrome trim had me wondering a bit, so I thought I'd throw my thoughts about it to the board for the hell of it. It just seemed to me, that '77 was the year many other cars started using the metric numbers too. Not having owned a woodgrain dash II, I never really paid much attention to that trim remaining the same as on earlier models. But, it makes perfect sense, and/as I'm pretty sure I've never seen a black trimmed wood dash either.

I stated the black handle was '77 vintage, but thought the mismatch of wood trim just seemed odd as well.... especially since most black handled cars I've seen have had black grips too. Again, probably since most have been either sport models or Cobras. I didn't pay any attention to the bumper stips, as I wasn't even thinking of it possibly being a '78, and I plain forgot about the radio and silver grille altogether. Funny, since I've mentioned these same things in other threads before...lol. Maybe it's the aging process or that terrible hood ornament and chrome mirrors distorting my thinking process.

As for the wheel, yes you're right again, the trim is really the key there.... although the '76' wheels did have the molded emblem too. Maybe some '76's even got the add on emblem as well, but I think that was mostly a '75 thing.
Last but not least, some '76's had the black valance, mine being one.
 
That's the factory flip-up sunroof, I parted a '78 that had it, along with the same interior cover for it. The chrome trim is unusual, I have to agree.

Folly: my white interior also has black belts, but the boot covers at the pillar are white to match the rest of the interior parts. I guess it's sort of like the door speaker grilles on white interiors: some got white grilles, some apparently got black.

Sleeper, I'll bet that the asking price is way deeper than your spare cash, based on what these specialty dealerships usually ask. After all, the cars are gold-plated, you know:p