Odd Data Plate

[valhalla4771]

Just acquired 57 project and will have many questions. Here are 2:
1. My data plate located on firewall passenger side engine compartment is plain rectangle blank (no black paint, no lettering) with the correct VIN stamped at the top right center and the following stamped below in the center of the plate
40 FE XL 27M240164P. The data correctly describes the vehicle. But I have no idea what the "P" is at the end. The car was repainted sometime in the past, but the engine compartment appears untouched. Any idea why the plate is a blank metal plate?
2. I'm taking off exterior trim. I can get 4 of the nuts off the posts off the fender hash marks. I believe there are 2 more which appear to be hidden behind a rubber seal at the airintake tubes. How do I get to those remaining post/nuts on the hash tag trim?

[paul2748]

The paint on the data plate is probably worn off.. You can get a decal to fix it or you can get a new data plate. They are reproduced. Don't know what the "P" is.

You will have to remove the rubber seal to get at the remaining nuts. I am not aware of any other way to do it.

Originally Posted by valhalla4771

Just acquired 57 project and will have many questions. Here are 2:
1. My data plate located on firewall passenger side engine compartment is plain rectangle blank (no black paint, no lettering) with the correct VIN stamped at the top right center and the following stamped below in the center of the plate
40 FE XL 27M240164P. The data correctly describes the vehicle. But I have no idea what the "P" is at the end. The car was repainted sometime in the past, but the engine compartment appears untouched. Any idea why the plate is a blank metal plate?
2. I'm taking off exterior trim. I can get 4 of the nuts off the posts off the fender hash marks. I believe there are 2 more which appear to be hidden behind a rubber seal at the airintake tubes. How do I get to those remaining post/nuts on the hash tag trim?

[Jimz Bird]

Greetings,
I would suggest that you check with The Thunderbird Registry.
There are over 58,000 Birds of all years registered. Yours may have been registered before and he may have some info on it.
You can contact them here:
Thunderbird Registry - Contact Form
If you do Facebook they have a group you can join and ask there also.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/tbirdregistry/
or CTCI:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Class...976374?fref=ts

You should join CTCI if you are not a member.
CTCI - Classic Thunderbird Club International

There have been instances of some oddball codes and there is some conjecture that they were typos when the code was punced into the data plate.

HTH

[valhalla4771]

Originally Posted by paul2748

The paint on the data plate is probably worn off.. You can get a decal to fix it or you can get a new data plate. They are reproduced. Don't know what the "P" is.

You will have to remove the rubber seal to get at the remaining nuts. I am not aware of any other way to do it.

OK, thanks.

[valhalla4771]

I'll do some poling around, thanks.