Part not available - ETA Unknown
Description: Standard Trunk Gas Tank Underlayment
Year: 1968
Model: Mustang, Shelby Fastback, Coupe, Convertible
Model Options: All
Engine: All
Transmission Type: All
Factory: San Jose, Dearborn, Metuchen
Accuracy Rating: 9
Best Repro Available: YES
Jack's Comments:
All Mustang's and Shelby's came from the factory with this standard sound insulator trunk underlayment that covers the gas tank and a small amount of the rear floor.
We made our template from original surviving examples and help from Tim Lea, Pete Disher and Scott Fuller. The color of the paper side will vary as it did from the factory. This underlayment piece should be installed paper side up for best fit.
Common Questions:
Q: Will your underlayment crack and fall apart like the originals did?
A: No, we used binders in the tar that hold it together so you can put it in and out without it ever breaking apart.
Q: My original underlayment is a lot darker than some of your pictures. What gives?
A: The darkness of the paper varied in our original examples from very light to almost black. Our experience is that slight changes in the tar and the our shops ambient temperature during manufacturing effects the final color. Cooler temps will make the paper lighter and hotter temps will make the paper darker. Take a look a the last picture showing the two extremes in color variances. We shoot for the somewhere in the middle but you could get a piece that is closer to one of the extremes. Good news is all are correct.
Q: My original underlayment seems thicker than your reproduction. Are you making it the correct thickness?
A: Bob Perkins said the same thing when he first got his first piece of underlayment. If you look at an edges of original pieces they are swollen at the edges from years of heat cycles so they look thicker but when you cut down the middle of it you will find ours is the same approximate thickness.
Q: Wow, thats a lot of money for a piece of tar. Why does it cost so much?
A: Yes, we totally agree it's expensive but its not cheap to make. We make it ourselves in California with our own custom production equipment in small production runs. The materials are not inexpensive and our partially automated manufacturing process is labor intensive. The size of the die and the equipment to stamp it out is another reason. If we could source the material itself from a mass production manufacture it would be a whole lot less but its just not available.