63-64 Judging Guide Question; I.P. Compt

[Michael H.]

In the 3rd edition of the 63-64 Judging Guide, page 33, section 7, Glove compartment Area, it states that;

"1963-THE LOCK ASSEMBLY HAS A LARGE ROUND BEZEL".

I believe the bezel on early production cars (at least through Oct 62?) was actually "keyhole" shaped, not round, and was slightly below the exterior surface of the door. This "keyhole" design is basically the same style used on all 64-67 I.P. door locks. Does anyone have a good pic of this style lock in a 63 I.P. door? Thanks.

[Mike McKown]

Re: 63-64 Judging Guide Question; I.P. Compt

I have a round bezel on the door on my '63 14,xxx car. It's a nice door. Could be a repop. I have a whole dash I removed from a salvage car in the late '70's. That door has the keyhole design on the lock cylinder. The bezel is gone but the lock cylinder is still there. It looks the same shape as the '65 lock bezel. It has a four screw attachment on the grab bar if that makes any difference.

[Michael H.]

Re: 63-64 Judging Guide Question; I.P. Compt

Thank Mike,

Yes, that would be the 1st design lock assy.

Correct on the four hole grab insert also. I believe the new six hole insert came in during the 66 run?

[Michael H.]

Re: 63-64 Judging Guide Question; I.P. Compt

Tom Parkinson just sent a great pic of his original glove box door with the 1st design "keyhole" style lock assy. Car is in the #3900 VIN range. Thanks Tom.

[Harry Sadlock]

Re: 63-64 Judging Guide Question; I.P. Compt

Michael, I have the same lock on my April 63 car.

Was it hit or miss on the entire model year? There is always the possibility some prior owner changed mine.

Harry

[Michael H.]

Here's Another

Here's another pic of the 1st design "keyhole" shaped lock. This is a brand new 63 as road tested by Road & Track Magazine. (May 63 issue I believe) I have the original 8X10 glossy of the entire interior and cropped to show just the IP door/lock. The car was likely an October or November build.

[Wayne P.]

Re: Here's Another

63 number 4XXX has a keyhole like the one pictured.

[Michael H.]

Re: 63-64 Judging Guide Question; I.P. Compt

Harry,

Pretty sure the lock assy, along with the compartment door and lock retainer, all changed part numbers about the same time. I doubt there was a "mix with" order but rather a "scrap existing stock" order which would have eliminated the possibility of this early lock on later cars. It likely all occured on the same day in production.

[Harry Sadlock]

Re: 63-64 Judging Guide Question; I.P. Compt

Michael, I understand. Mine was probably replaced but let's see if we can determine the last VIN with the early style.

Harry

[Michael H.]

Re: 63-64 Judging Guide Question; I.P. Compt

Harry,

That would be a good idea. I kept good records of this years ago but all of that paperwork is still in Illinois.

The two problems that I can think of along the way would be the fact that I can't find any actual assy line documentation or info in the AIM for the change on the line, and also many of these early locks have been changed to the second design over the years.

The AIM lists numbers for the 2nd design door, lock assy and lock retainer. There's no record of this change on the AIM page but I know just by the numerical value of the numbers, that these items were definitely not original SOP parts. The door, for example, is listed as 3841224. The lock, 3840690 and retainer, 3841223, are far too high numerically to have been even near SOP. I would expect to see numbers in the range of 382xxxx, or less.

If someone has an early printing of the parts book, we may be able to track the original part numbers and find out when they changed. However, the number change in the price book is typically long after the change in production.

I think a survey is probably the most accurate.

[Duke W.]

Re: 63-64 Judging Guide Question; I.P. Compt

My glovebox door (March production) is the follow-on design per the JG. I was not previously aware that there was an earlier design.

I wonder if we will ever be able to catalog all the '63 running changes.

Duke

[Michael H.]

Re: 63-64 Judging Guide Question; I.P. Compt

I started making a list of all the running changes for 63 about 25 years ago. I soon came to the conclusion that there was no end to to the list. I ran out of ambition and paper long before I ran out of items to record.

[Joe M.]

Re: 63-64 Judging Guide Question; I.P. Compt

Late October built coupe with keyhole as in the photo mike posted.