66GT350's with original Konis

Hi Dave,
6S923 had Gabriel/Autolite shocks (painted blue).
Strange thing is that the car had under-rides and
the special bolts for the limiting cables.
66 Koni's, were they 1326/27 or 1388/89?
Texas Swede

 

Interesting stuff. I just would have assumed that Koni's would have disappeared after override traction bars were used up. Maybe a few after the last override were used.

Any cars with Koni's, I would have assumed that the axel limitating cables were mandatory?

Rohan

 

6s1159 had original koni's I still have the front, they are not on the cat they are in storage the rear koni's snaped off the bolts when i tried to take them off years ago i should have saved them!
the car also had over ride tracktion bars i removed them for vintage racing

manny

 

Well at least we are making a little progress. Up until a few years back you couldn't get anyone to even admit that the Autolite adjustable shocks even were used in 1966. A interesting note I have had 66 Autolite adjustable shocks factory painted Koni orange, it was as if Ford was trying disguise them to look like Konis. I have had dozens of the 66 Autolite shocks over the years and 99% of them were the blue.

 

Sorry for the ignorant question , but how do you decipher the date code on Koni's? I went and dug under my workbench for one of the rear Koni's I pulled off 6s524, which is a 82-1327. The only other number is a 11 64. Does that mean Nov 64? If so, they must have been at least a year old when installed. It also has a broken stud as mentioned above. I don't want to hijack this thread, but can those studs be repaired? Thanks, Ken.​

 

You are correct, 11 64 means Nov 64. Koni USA kan repair
the shocks for you and fix a new stud. Two things though,
the color they put on won't match the early type and the
bushings are smaller overall diameter than the originals.
When restoring front shocks they replace the complete
top ring that holds the bushing which means the shocks look
different.
Texas Swede

 

Just to carry the discussion a little further... let's remember that before the AUTOLITE stamped adjustables were used (or during the same period) FoMoCo stamped ones were used also. (Autolite's were stamped MADE IN CANADA while FoMoCo ones were stamped MADE IN USA)

Here are a couple of shots of original (and not refinished) FoMoCo versions







I would guess it will always be difficult to tell for sure which cars got the Koni's (other than early cars) as Pardee mentions especially since so many were added by the first owners as soon ( or sooner) as they got them home.

Hard to believe they built five cars with ajustables then one with Konis, then back to adjustables IMHO

Can think of a number of original owners who still have their cars and if it was not for them remembering the addition of the Konis the fact that they are nicely dated to the car would only lead us to assume they were originals. 6S2268 is one great example of this.