Why The Extra Hole?

[YellowRose]

Tom ~ scumdog sent me this email regarding a slot in his '66 Flairbird grill with no hole there. See the pic he sent me!

Hi Ray,

Hopefully you’re well and looking forward to Christmas?

I’m posting this to you to get you to post this pic on Squarebirds to see if anybody knows why the extra hole is in the top of the grille in our ‘66 Thunderbird? Note the screw and the the oval hole beside it but no corresponding hole for any screw to go into.

Stay safe and have a great Christmas, Tom Taylor New Zealand

[jopizz]

For some reason that's the way they all came from the factory. Both sides have two holes in the grill but only one screw in the body. It looks like whoever designed the grill meant for it to have two screws on either end but the body was never drilled for them.

John

[scumdog]

For some reason that's the way they all came from the factory. Both sides have two holes in the grill but only one screw in the body. It looks like whoever designed the grill meant for it to have two screws on either end but the body was never drilled for them.

John

Thanks for that John, it’s always bugged me as I couldn’t figure out why those extra holes were there!
’Thunderbird - the car of mystery’

[simplyconnected]

Many times, the engineering boys at Ford cannot anticipate some future changes or situations so they try to make parts for the present and future. For instance, in 1958, Squarebirds, Edsels and Lincolns were to get air bag suspension instead of coil springs. Suddenly, WHQ cancelled the whole program corporate wide due to cost. That is why '58 SBs have an 'extra' shock mount outside the front coil springs and the brake hose is in two parts on each front brake.

Some owners believe their '58 'bird should have two sets of shocks on each front wheel because the brackets are there and hard to deny. Not so. It's beyond me why some owners insist on both brake hoses on each front wheel cylinder, just because that was 'stock'. '59 and '60 SBs only have one hose per wheel, like every other car.

Sometimes, options are not used but dimples are pressed into the sheet metal, where the bolt hole for the mounting location should be drilled at the dealership. - Dave