Couple of 68 GTS questions

68 gts dart bucket seats, could you order them with Head rests? Or was that a 69 and up thing? The GTS emblems, why do I find some that are bordered with Red and some with black? The Fender GTS emblems are they a standard item or did different stripe options dictate whether a car would have the fender emblems or not?

From my research over the years:

I believe in 1968 the headrest were a option you could add, but in 1969 they were standard due to safety.
The emblems are all standard on gts cars for 1968. The color depended on the color of your car.In 1969 If you had a stripe delete car you got the front fender emblem. If you had a rear stripe you did not get the front fender emblem.

Head rests became standard in all vehicles built after 1/1/1969

Head rests were optional in 1967 and 1968.

GTS letters could be in red on green, white, and black cars I have seen over the years. I have been looking for the factory paperwork (TSB) on them for years, still haven't found it.

How about Yellow W/red GTS emblems? Also what about the rear stripe placement on the car? I'm seeing it run up from the rear edge of the lower part of the quarter panel to a few inches away from it....

Can't recall ever seeing them stock on a yellow car, but anyone can buy them in reproduction and add them to a car. I have the factory TSB on the stripe, and the rear most edge should come very close to the edge of the quarter panel bumper indentation.

So would it be safe to say the above picture showing the stripe, that it's in the wrong place? Here's a shot of the red GTS Emblem with the yellow car

Big thing in those pics that stick out (literally) is the gas cap.

Is that just a wrong cap? Or bad quarter quality/replacement? Or gas tank tube with flange on wrong side? Or ?

Probably wrong cap, seen it dozens of times. And the 69 hub caps too, I see a few other things that are not quite right too.

My GTS (PP1) had red letters (in poor shape, I might add) when we bought the car in 1983. It had 70,000+ miles. I painted them black in the 1980s because I liked the look better. I will probably go back to red this next time around. You can see the red in this pic. You can also see that the replacement hood (from 1970) was not drilled very straight for the letters.

That's a new one on me, why would they put red letters on a red car?!?

If the hood was replaced the letters may have been as well.

Jim, were the other emblems on the car red as well ??

Yes, all were red. Fenders were also replaced, but the deck lid was original. The front end parts were replaced in 1970, likely with factory parts. Can't imagine a body shop would replace all 12 letters on a near new car.

My S1 yellow 68 emblems didn't have the background. I have pictures dating back to 78 and it appears the emblems had a black background

would love to see some back in the day pictures for reference points, especially stripe and emblem placement.

I use advertising literature and old magazine articles from when the cars were new. here's a link to get you started
LINKY

Google is your friend

Well the factory brochures are only so accurate as they were made when the prototypes and the first pilot cars were coming out, some things changed along the way, though it is a good starting point.

Jim, any chance the red letters were early cars?

Having been on the line back in the day, anything is possible.
The union contract at Ford where I worked, had a clause that stated if the line had to be shut down due to a parts problem, the workers went home with full pay for the day.

That clause can explain a lot of mid stream changes that took place. Not sure if it was across the board at all manufacturers but it was in the UAW 1971-73 contract at the plant I worked at

I'm sure it was. There were a bunch of '68 Valiants that came with Barracuda dashes due to a supply problem...