Hey Guys...Maybe one of you historians can help me. I have a '76 F-150 4x4 Custom that I've been daily driving for the past nine years. Just recently I had to look at the VIN# for the insurance company. I apparently have the second F-Series made in '76. I'm just wondering if Ford used this truck for photo purposes. I can't imagine why the second truck would be a 4x4 off the line unless it was for brochures, magazine ads..etc. Is there an online sorce where I could look into this. I can only imagine finding an ad in 1975 Field & Stream with my truck in it would skyrocket the value of it. Any help would be appreciated!

 

To verify that truck being the 2nd truck off the assembly lineI would need to see the compltete VIN #.

Your missing some characters that could make a difference.

 

VIN# F14YRB00002

 

Does Ford allow access to their records anywhere?

 

If you call them and give them the info they will write up a letter about what your truck was built with according to the build sheet.
They will do this for free.

I am not sure about the B00002 yet because I have to figure out when A99999 finshed.

I'll get back to you.

Meanwhile you might do a search on this forum for.

Type *Build sheets* in the text searcher,access is on the top of the page here

 

Ford had a different system for their serial numbers than other makes. What date does your door pillar sticker say it was built? The model year changeover in the factories was usually in August. There was also a few different factories producing these trucks around the country, too.

mike

 

The B00002 is the date code(Month/Year) of manufacture for that truck.
B00002 translates to March 1967 & built at San Jose California.

There is something wrong here with this one though.

So far the number above appears to be a March 67 truck not a 76.


A 76 as stated by the thread starter ,should be about V00002

 

I went out and checked the manufacture date was 11/75

 

my 2 cents..... your truck is not the second one built. i can answer that just by knowing where it was built! the san jose plant is unusual in the fact that they don't start production right away like the other plants do. the other plants normally do the new model year change over during the 4th of july holiday and then start production the last week of july or the first week of august. san jose continues building the previous model during the changeover at the other plants and then once the new models start rolling at full steam san jose shuts down and changes over. what this means is your truck may be the second san jose truck but like you point out it was built in november while a plant like st louis may have built 30,000 trucks in the july-november time frame. this has been heavily discussed by disappointed mustang owners for years! another bit of trivia is most san jose cars are shipped out of state. the san jose plant tends to build more base level vehicles than the high profile plants and since ca buyers tend to buy more loaded vehicles we get cars from dearborn kansas city st louis etc... the percentage of ca built vehicles in our area is amazingly low. this has also been a real stumbling block for many mustang owners who assume that because it was built in san jose it must be an original california car! for those of you that don't know the san jose plant was used until relatively recently and they used to sponser swap meets and car shows in the parking lot. we also have a lot of ex-employees in some of the ford clubs i belong to. the plant is now the great mall in milpitas and i just had dinner there the other night. kind of creepy but its still a neat place and they have a lot of plant related history throughout the mall. hawkrod

 

This is confusing.

After punching the numbers up in here.

http://www.medicine.wisc.edu/~mrm/bronco/ftvin.cgi

It states the truck is a 76.

Yet on Stockman's web site the B00002 is a 67.

 

Had a look at a 76 shop manual on the weekend. The scheduled production numbers for Dec of 75 were B00000 to B24999. That means yours would have been the second one built in Dec or they might have started that sequence a few days early as noted by the production date on your tag. Unfortunately this means that it wouldn't be the second 76 off the line. Since 76 production started with A00000 in Aug 75, that honour would go to A00002.

mike