[Shotimes] Plastic Hood Poll

[Ron Porter]

Don, as I mentioned in a private post, look at it from a buyer's
perspective.

I may find a '91 with a steel hood and no spoiler, being sold by a
SHO-illiterate person. I can better determine whether the car was a Plus by
the other clues (chrome trim, blackout, body-color moldings) than by the
presence/absence of the hood or spoiler. I may then be able to get an
original Plus at a very good price.

Frankly the hood and spoiler are the easiest things to replace.

As you know with other collectible cars, if you find what was an original
model of something, you can then replace the missing parts and not be
dishonest in what you're doing.

Ron Porter

-----Original Message-----
From: Donald Mallinson [mailto:dmall@mwonline.net]
Sent: Monday, December 16, 2002 6:24 PM
To: ronporter@prodigy.net
Cc: shotimes@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [Shotimes] Plastic Hood Poll


Ron,
Quit tilting at windmills/listening to others arguments.

I NEVER said that the plus hood was the holy grail of
telling if a SHO is a Plus or not!  I just have good
evidence that all SHO Plus cars got the hood, along with the
other things and maybe not the spoiler.  Yes, is there a
possiblity that a 212A option packaged car made it out of
the factory without the plastic hood?  Yes, I can say that
is possible, I just haven't seen one,, like I said, that
doesn't mean it can't happen, but it makes it a rare
occurance if we do find one.  Every "plus" car I have seen
with a steel hood has been a replacment or a fake plus.

My thought is that the plastic hood is part of the plus
package, and the fact that it isn't mentioned in that one
page doesn't prove a thing.  WE all know that the body color
TAURUS badge is also on every plus car we have seen, and it
was not mentioned in the literature.  Does that mean that
there can't be ONE out there with the chrome badge....NO,
but I think we all agree, that the body color badge is a
good indicator of a plus car, just like the hood, it is part
of the investigation.

Geez,  Can we quit picking at nits and get on to something
else!  ;)

IT takes more than the hood to prove a plus, but even then,
they aren't worth that much more to anyone other than a SHO
fanatic like you or me. and they aren't worth a LOT more to
me (and I suspect to you).

Don Mallinson

Ron Porter wrote:
> I'm looking at it from a slightly different angle.......from someone
looking
> to buy a Plus.
>
> Yes, I'm sure that every Plus car had the plastic hood, but even from the
> responses here, there were a fair number (hell, I believe a LOT) of
non-Plus
> '91s that also got it. I've reviewed a few within the last couple of weeks
> in that category.
>
> The presence/absence of the hood, to me, is a rather weak indication of
> whether a car was a Plus. I am looking at it from a buyers perspective,
and
> am going on the assumption that the original window sticker is not
> available. I personally know of a few Plus cars that had accidents and now
> have steel hoods, and I know of MANY non-Plus Gen 1s with plastic hoods
(and
> I believe you have one in the garage!!).
>
> The window trim, blackout pillar/mirrors and body-color trim are better
> indicators to me if I look at a '91 and the owner  is not SHO-literate. As
> you said, the rear spoiler was a hit-or-miss affair, and I believe that
> there have been imitations produced somewhere along the line. I would also
> have to go with a car with a moonroof and the other options that were
> supposed to be a part of the package, but the keyless entry looks like a
> questionable option also, per the brochure info versus the picture.
>
> As you know, if I found a car that fully appeared to be a Plus, but had a
> steel hood, no spoiler, etc, adding those parts back on gets it to where
it
> should be. It's just too bad that Ford didn't have a VIN code to indicate
> the package.
>
> Ron Porter
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: shotimes-admin@autox.team.net
> [mailto:shotimes-admin@autox.team.net]On Behalf Of Donald Mallinson
> Sent: Monday, December 16, 2002 10:07 AM
> To: shotimes@autox.team.net
> Subject: Re: [Shotimes] Plastic Hood Poll
>
>
> Ron,
>
> My point is that the evidence we have, and we have a lot,
> including everything posted in the latest poll, is that the
> plastic hood was on every true plus SHO, and it got on a FEW
> non-plus SHO's.  As you pointed out Ron, several of the
> other known SHO Plus unique features are not mentioned in
> that infamous salesman's flyer or the showroom brochure, so
> the fact that it is not mentioned is of no importance.  The
> picture doesn't show the hood so we don't know if it was on
> the car in the picture or not.
>
> Those of us that have been to every convention, and have
> paid attention to the 91's (since I was looking for a Mocha
> Plus since about 1992) have noticed that by far, MOST
> non-plus production in 1991 got the steel hood.
>
> The number of 90's that got the hood is miniscule and I
> attribute that to a pre-production "test" of some sort?  or
> maybe they had the plastic hoods ready and some got used as
> inventory of the SHO specific steel hoods dropped to zero
> one time...all speculation, but the hard evidence is that
> the plastic hood was used for the Plus cars.  The new car
> lots of the time had the plastic hood on ONLY the plus cars
> in the dealerships I went to.  The plastic hoods on non-plus
> cars from the factory are rare.
>
> As to why the hood was made, we just don't know.  And I am
> not sure if we will ever find the person responsible, but I
> will continue to look.  Speculation is all we have since my
> best guess (for racing hologation) did not pan out, we can
> guess that maybe they planned a change for the entire run,
> but the extra cost and low production quantity, maybe,
> forced Ford to put the hood on as a plus feature only.  We
> know that the plastic companion spoiler had production
> problems, and that is why quite a few true Plus SHO's got
> the hood, but not the spoiler.
>
> About the brochure print date; Even though it says March,
> chances are the photo's and copy were finalized long before
> that.  This is a common problem with brochures.  They are
> usually put together when the very first pre-production
> prototypes are built.  Final option packages, colors etc are
> almost never in their final stages at this point, even
> today, but it was really bad back in the 60's when cars
> changed a lot every year.  These brochures have to be on the
> dealers shelves before the cars hit the showrooms, that
> means they are written, photographed and sent to the
> printers several months before Job 1 on the production line.
>
> I am just trying to prevent yet another rumor from starting
> about these cars (the Plus models).  WE know pretty much
> what happened with them and when.
>
> BTW, the PLUS designation is official on the order forms,
> and it was NOT unique to the SHO.  only the 212A package
> number at the time was unique to the SHO.  There were Plus
> packges for the regular Taurus the same year.
>
> Don Mallinson
> SHO Club
>
> Ron Porter wrote:
>
>>I see the point that Scott was making, which I believe is basically that
>
> the
>
>>hood was not made purely as something that was to go on the Plus cars, but
>>it ended up being used on the Plus cars (in addition to many others, many
>>well before the Plus models were produced). When some '90s came with the
>>hood, those were cars that were built almost a year before the Plus cars
>>rolled off the line (well, 9-10 months, anyway).
>
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