1968 Mangusta need to ask 2 questions

Dino, AFAIK there is no database to document your request. Very few owners even have copies of the original build sheets. You can see here what happened to those precious documents. http://gazzettadimodena.geloca...ery-slider=undefined



My own personal registry of 250 cars there are 37 yellow interiors are mostly black, but 2 parchment and 5 with tan interior. Trim is not noted on build sheets.

Hi Denis, thanks a lot for your reply. As far as i can understand there are 37 yellow cars out of the total production. Leaving aside the interior, is there any chance to know how many yellow cars both US and Euro were manufactured for the 1968 model year?

Dino, the only way to know which market the cars were manufactured for is to see the build sheets, other indicator would probably be kilometer odometer. All I can rear from my records is how many ARE currently in Europe. Many US cars have been imported back to Europe.

Hi Denis, i really appreciate your help. I can understand that its difficult to find specific details, however if we only focus on the 68 MY interiors, is there any chance to get information for colors and materials used? I believe that black leather was an option is that right?

I would tend to believe that the black leather was the most common interior produced. Other variations are: tan, saddle, parchment, red, cloth inserts, unfortunately I cant say what was standard. At least one of the early journalists states customers invited back to the factory to chose options.

Dino, if your 'Goose really IS a '68- one of about five built, you may have trouble finding ANY valid comparison info for a completely OEM rebuild! There were also about five '67s built and in '66- maybe two. The most numerous were '69s.

All years vary in detail and the operative word used above is "about". 'Exact numbers' and 'DeTomaso' are never used in the same sentence!

Thanks both of you for replying, it is funny and frustrating (for me) that i don't own a Mangusta. I only saw once in my life a two color car, orange and i think black, in Seal beach CA in 2011. The reason for asking is good intentions related and i'm not trying to waste anyone's time. Something else that i believe is anyone's worry, what is the price forecast?

I have seen some time ago a red Mangusta whit dark brown interior.
Simon

I have been watching this discussion with a smile on my face. The thing to remember is that in 1966, ghia was the major focus of attention for my parents, not the number of cars built. Italy was very "loosie goosie" Pun intended. My mom always talked about the mongoose with lots of "we thought or we hoped". So, if someone came to the factory with cash, and an idea, it was good enough for us. The first couple of cars were completely hand-built, vs the ones later 1969-70-71, which were more just stop gaps for the pantera. There was/is no standard build. If you look at some of the other posts, I talked about the "pink" pantera, but for the most part if you wanted it, we built it. I am not surprised about the delete of the Ghia badges, or the fact that someone wanted a tan interior. Look at the convertible goose, it was a one off for a friend, or the green goose, that was painted for a pilot for Alitalia.

Very interesting information, thanks. I am sure that quite a few Italian market Mangustas and Panteras were exported to the US in the late '70's as a result of the taxation of expensive cars, do you have more information for that?

One thing that has always bugged me....is the rumor mill surrounding 67 vs 68 vs the rest of the pack......

Goose #508 spent a lot of time in our local club and one over zealous owner always called it a 67 Goose. Upon looking at the dates on the window glass, all the dates were March of 68.....meaning that while some parts of the car may have been welded-screwed-hammered together, the fact remains that it could never have shipped in 1967 with windows dated 1968!

I've not seen any earlier cars personally or for that matter any of the immediate later cars.... I know a couple of guys that haunt this site have early cars up to about #524 (with a hipo 289) but I don't know what the window dates are.....

508 also had the steel hatches and steel hood I believe. The heater wasn't connected to anything, and there were a couple other odd things about it...perhaps rear valance..... but the rest "looked" like the rest of the later cars for the most part. There were chassis difference etc........as changes evolved over time.

What also gets lost with the Goose, is model year vs production year.... We never really got a "1969" or a "1970" Goose....you got what was shipped....regardless of when it was actually made. Serial numbers were "probably" shipped mostly in order...but I can only imagine some production line hiccups......

I know that my car has parts from some other cars that were built around the same time...in the interior bits...where the grease pencil markings are off a bit numerically.....likely someone grabbed a part due to a defect somewhere and the ripple effect happened until the original "problem" parts were finally replaced and then peace and harmony returned to the production line.....HAH! In Italy???

Anyway, I think you can understand what I am saying.

So rather than worry about what year you have, pay more attention to when the car was built via date codes on the glass, on the Girling brake calipers, and also the engine cast iron parts....although the latter may be off (earlier dates than glass) by as much as 6 months or so as a guess.

If one were to bet that the glass went in towards the end of the production process, you may add a month or so to the latest date you can find, for when your car actually rolled off the production ramps!

Ciao!
Steve
PS: All of this is based upon pure speculation from what I have found with American Ford cars.....and my experience with piles of them. I could likely be applied to Panteras also. But I think records for them are way better than for the Goose. Just wasn't a priority!