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Factory-Installed Radios

Facts:

  • If Shelby American, Inc. (SAI) didn't specify an AM radio on the DSO, Ford San Jose (FSJ) didn't install them in the cars. 

  • Radios were NOT standard equipment on a '67 Shelby GT. They were an option.

  • 'Radio delete' would therefore be an incorrect term to use. 

  • The Ford San Jose assembly plant only installed AM push-button radios into approximately 462 cars (less than 15% of total Shelby production). +1 if you count car #0176 (which was not ordered by DSO). This number has been confirmed by cross-referencing the '67 DSOs from Microfiche with the metrics we've gathered from stdying Ford Computer Records (FCRs).

  • SAI added AM radios to many cars at LAX before the cars were sent to dealers.

  • SAI added AM-FM mono radios to one or more cars before they were sent to dealers.

  • Not all cars received a radio before being sent to dealers.

  • If the car didn't leave San Jose with a radio, SAI would only add one if a radio was requested by the dealer's purchase order for a so-equipped car (just like or upgraded wheels).

  • For an AM push-button radio, FoMoCo charged SAI $41.25; SAI charged the dealer $47.41 (13% markup); the window sticker's retail price of $57.51 allowed the dealer to make 18%.

In summary, there were two opportunities for your 1967 Shelby GT to get a radio before being shipped off to a dealership. If a radio was added by Shelby, it was likely done at the airport facility -- not offsite at Hi-Performance Motors (HPM) as was the case in previous years.

So, how do you know if your car should have a radio or not? The answer lies in obtaining the car's Shelby factory paperwork.

Depending on what paperwork you have, this is how you would determine if a radio is correct for your car:

  • SAI Production Order - there's an "X" in the radio box (typed or handwritten and circled)

  • SAI Dealer Invoice - there's a $47.41 line item charge for a radio

  • SAI Window Sticker - there's a $57.51 charge for an AM radio.

  • Marti Report - If there's an "AM Radio" listed within the "Your vehicle was equipped with the following features" subsection, that means your car had a radio installed by Ford San Jose, and it is likely that the car left SAI the same way.

Once you understand the above, we circle back to the question. The only way to definitively answer "how many '67s received a radio before leaving SAI?" would be to gain access to all the 3,224 Production Orders to learn from them -- and unfortunately, SAAC won't let that happen.

Looking through the entire Domestic Special Order (DSO) file on microfilm, we seem to be able to create four pattern-based groups when it comes to how cars and radios were ordered:

Group A: DSOs 2501-2523 (the ‘early’ cars), ‘G.W. Nuznoff’ (‘received’ August & September 1966) itemized an AM radio on every DSO except 2513 and 2514, both of which ended up getting cancelled.
 

Group B: DSOs 2524-2540 (‘received’ in October 1966), Ray Geddes, originally all had “AM Radio” typed in the options box; however, each was then scribbled out by hand on every DSO in this range. Perhaps a cost-cutting afterthought?

Note: There is one exception found in Group B, and we believe this exception is most likely due to a human error during data entry into the Ford computer system. DSO 2532 was for 70x G.T. 500 Automatic cars (410F package). The cars on this DSO did receive AM radios (per the sampling of Marti reports collected on cars attached to this DSO), however, no Change Notice was found in the microfilm file. This one exception/mistake resulted in 70 cars getting radios that probably shouldn’t have.
 

Group C: DSOs 2541-2578 (‘received’ in November and December 1966) had no obvious pattern as to which units were ordered with a radio and which ones were not. Note: DSO 2541 is also when item number ranges started to appear on the orders:

  • DSOs without AM radio: 2541, 2543, 2544, 2546, 2549, 2551, 2555, 2557, 2559, 2560, 2562, 2566, 2568, 2571- 2584.

  • DSOs with AM radio: 2542, 2545, 2547, 2548, 2550, 2552, 2553, 2554, 2556, 2558, 2561, 2563, 2564, 2565, 2567, 2569, 2570.

When we further scrutinize "Group C", we see an 'Order Groups' of 4 DSOs each. This seems to begin with DSO 2541

When you group them like this, you see the 'order groups':

DSO  PKG  TRM RADIO  Qty

2541 200F 5A  --     13

2542 200F 5A  AM      2 (same as previous, plus radio)

2543 200F 5U  --      5

DSO  PKG  TRM RADIO  Qty

2544 210F 5A --      19

2545 210F 5A AM       2 (same as previous, plus radio)

2546 210F 5U --      12

2547 210F 5U AM       2 (same as previous, plus radio)

This pattern loosely repeats up to DSO 2569. We find the process of 'Order Group'  started with the '66 Shelby GT350 DSOs . In '66, each Order Group contained four DSOs that separated auto/black, auto/Parch, 4spd/Black, and 4spd/Parch.

Group D: DSOs 2285-2614 (‘received’ in February and March 1967 - the last two months of orders) all followed a precise pattern that included AM radios with all Air Conditioning equipped cars (“Selectaire”). Simply stated: if the car wasn't ordered with air-conditioning, it wasn’t ordered with a radio.

  • DSOs with AM radio (All have AC): 2585, 2587, 2593, 2595, 2597, 2599, 2600, 2602, 2605, 2607, 2611, 2613.

  • DSOs without radio (not AC): 2586,  2588-92, 2594, 2596, 2598, 2601, 2603, 2604, 2606, 2608, 2609, 2610, 2612, 2614
     

Comparing the DSO Microfilm to the Ford record:
 

DSOs (and SVOs) are “pre-production.” The Ford Record (Marti) is supposed to be “post-production,” and is therefore usually the most accurate information we can use. In research, when these two data sources match, we know we have accurate information!
 

DSOs on microfilm (and Ford Computer Records) gave us the following totals:

  • Radio-equipped cars: 462 (461) approx 14% of total

  • Non-radio cars: 2,672 (2,672) approx 86% of total

 

Note: The FCR comes from Marti reports which provide a total of 461 radio-equipped cars. Marti report production quantities have been known to be off by a unit or two on occasion, often depending on the year the report was printed. Kevin's numbers (461+2672) only add up to 3,223 units, which is short of the confirmed 3,225 (serialized) '67 Shelby GT units. #0176, #0131, and/or #0139 may be the discrepancies in the totals.

 

DSOs account for 3,224 cars in total. This differs from the registry’s total of 3,225. The registry counts car #0176 because it has a Shelby sequence number, however, Marti reports typically have excluded #0176 because it has a "C" engine code (i.e. not "A" or "S", as would be the found in the engine code field in the computer record for the other cars associated with SAI dealer code of "X999").

 

Summary

According to the Ford record, we know that a total of 463 of the '67 Shelby G.T. cars (14.36%) received AM radios at San Jose plant. 

That leaves 85.64%. This balance EITHER received a radio at SAI -or- left SAI without a radio.

The only accurate way to further analyze the 85.64% (non-FSJ-radio cars) is by using SAI Paperwork (Production Orders, Invoices, and/or Window Stickers). As you know, Dave M is the keeper of the '67 Production Orders. Unfortunately, the full data set (of factory radio options) was never printed in his registry, and despite my inquiries, the contents of those DSOs have not been shared with me, except for a few one-off requests. (If it were ever re-sampled, there would be other key pieces of data to get from those Production Orders if we had the opportunity). 

Through grassroots efforts, I have collected production orders for only 9% of the total cars (as of today).  Back when I published this research, I had even less. Regardless, I think my projections, based on the 'law of large numbers,' remain fairly accurate:

Analyzing the Production Orders collected up through 2019, the metrics are:

  • SAI added radios to 53.85% of the cars. 

  • 23.08% of the cars were shipped to dealers without radios. 

Adding those two percentage figures to the known percentage of FSJ-installed radio units, we account for 91.29% of the total units. This likely means both percentages have a +/- 8.71% margin of error. 

Estimates/Projections:

  • Between 14.37% - 31.79% of the cars left SAI without a radio.  

  • SAI most likely added a radio to between 45.14% - 62.56% of the cars

  • Adding the FSJ-radio cars (14.36% ) to the SAI-added-radio cars, I'd estimate that between 59.5% and 76.92% of the cars left SAI with a radio.

 

The factory-installed radio research toipic was initially posted by the SRG in February 2019. It remains accurate today. Last revised 07/17/2025 BJS.

 

See Also

 

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