Question about consecutive unit codes

Can anyone shed light on the consecutive unit codes numbering? I haven't been able to determine if you can figure out how low in production your number is. I assume Mavs and Comets were not numbered in separate sequences. My Comet was built in Sept. 1970 so I'm thinking it was a fairly early unit of the Comet family but I have no idea if I can make assumptions from the unit code as to where it would fit in overall production numbers. It starts 512... so I assume it was number 12 thousand xxx car made for that model year. I know Ford typically started new model production in late July early August and if they were building over 200 hundred a day it would work out that by September they would be around 12K so it would likely make sense that the car is number 12xxx for the model year. Can anyone shed any light on this?
Of course how many of those 12K were Comets and how many were Mavericks is likely something no one would ever know. Since the more stylish Comets seemed to be produced at about 1/4 the rate of Mavericks I would guess that my car was perhaps one of the first 3 thousand built.
Can anyone weigh in on if this is how the numbering worked?
Would a MARTI report offer more specifics as far as production count?

 

Well, the numbering started at 100000. That would put you around 412K but you have to figure in that all Ford cars were included in that sequence. I'm not certain if Ford and Mercury were grouped together so in your case it may just be all Mercury cars. A Marti report would be extremely helpful if you want better specifics. The more expensive reports will get you much better info too.

 

Wait a minute.

Mercury VIN numbers start with 500001.

Ford VIN numbers start with 100001.

Each factory starts the model year off with those numbers.
Your Comet is number 12,xxx from that factory.

 

Thanks for the reply Ray,
I did some more research and came across the following on a Mercury site:

"Consecutive Unit Number: Each assembly plant, with each model year, begins with consecutive unit number 100001 (Ford) or 500001 (Mercury) and continues on for each unit built."

So the numbering is supposed to be plant specific. Did they build any other types of cars in Kansas City back then?

My '76 Comet actually begins with a 513 consecutive unit number too so perhaps this is a Ford / Mercury difference in numbering(?). It makes sense, and in this case that would put my '71 around the 12000th Mercury unit scheduled to be built and not 12000th of the Mavericks and Comets

I also discovered that the CUN apperently refers to the scheduled build date and not the actual build date. So it's whatever order the car was slated to be built in.

 

I knew someone would beat me to it.....

 

My bad. Been driving too many Fords. I remember that now, just been a while since I heard it. They say...the memory is one of the 1st things to go.

 

I think nowadays we tend to think of Mercury and Ford as one and the same even though they were quite distinct through the 60's. Perhaps the numbering was a holdover from the old distinctions....

 

The only issue with "Consecutive Numbers" is, thats the number assigned to it by the computer system when it was put into the system, but sometimes due to parts shortages, equipment issues and so on, cars did not come off the line say 100001, 100002, 100003, sometimes they would get delayed, so 100002 may come off the line the next day with 100189, 100192, etc. If you look at the build dates for 2 consecutive cars they may be a week or a day apart date wise. Kinda confusing,I read an article about it in "Legendary Fords"

 

I could see that happening! My car is a '71 serial # 1000052 and was scheduled to be built on Aug 16, 1970...but was actually built 3 days earlier...according to my build sheet and my Marti report! I was told by Ford that I may have the first '71 Grabber as it was used for promotion in the International Autoshow.

 

WOW!! With such a low unit number and early build date, I could believe it was the first 71 Grabber built. Too cool.

 

with a low number like that, it is likely it to be one of the first Grabbers ... too cool.

I am still confused after reading all this ... my 72 Comet is 5001579, does that make it ...

a) the 1579th Mercury for 72
b) the 1579th Comet, or ...
c) the 1579th car from that plant?

 

My understanding is it would be the 1579th Mercury Comet built at that plant. The only variation would be if they built other Merc products at that plant concurrently which at the time I don't think they did. The numbers are supposed to be plant and Ford / Merc division specific.

 

Answer: (C)

 

Does that mean there would be for example no
100001 for Maverick and 500001 for a Comet? But if they were scheduled to be built one after the other they would number 100001, 500002?

 

My other question is the numbers are supposed to be plant specific but doesn't that mean that two cars could potentially have the same CUN if they were built in two different plants like the Comet and Maverick were? I would think they would have to have numbers generated centrally and then assigned to be built at a particular plant so you wouldn't have duplications. Therefore the 500001st Comet would be the first for that year regardless of plant mfg in.
Make sense?