how rare are the pony seat interior?

[admin]

Seeing the same interiors all over the country on the '66 and '67 tells me plainly that "Pony Interiors" were a factory option! I don't think you will be able to find code on the vin tag of a '66 that tells the interior "Pony" code, nor can you get a Marti report on a '66! .....This is just my .02!!!!

You're correct that the earliest Marti report you can get is for a '67, but since some have mentioned seeing the Pony interior in 1967 Broncos my thought was to get a Marti for one of those.

 

[Scott C.]

OK, if 1 was the standard silver bench, 6 was silver left bucket only and 7 was left and right silver buckets. Does any one out there have a 66 with silver buckets and a silver rear seat that can look and tell us the body code on their VIN plate? To help varify witch color the 9 is for? I think Tim might has the answer to this. If he is out there reading it?

 

[bmc69]

My guess is a company advertised to dealers accross the country about the pony interior packages and sold them to dealers not unlike Hickey, Stroppe, Koenig did back in the day, that is why they are so wide spread.

That's a guess that makes sense to me too.

 

[matts460]

Hey now all i ment about finding some facts/detailed info is that after years of studying Mustang history you be suprised what kind of literture some folks have stashed away! Anyway speaking of Mustang history hear in Kansas city there was a Dealer only Twister Special option for the early 70's Mustangs. So mabey the running pony seats could be the result of a certain reginal Dealer option? Like mabey only midwest dealers did a complimentry pony interiors to help boost sales intrest of the new Bronco!? And yes i know a Bronco can run too! I knew somebody would throw that in my face! Whatever! LOL

 

[77Bronco636]

I think it was a factory option or some kind of promotion for the 66. Too many have been found and the dashes and door panels have been painted to match the seats also (tan instead of grey). I also don't believe the dealers would go through the trouble of trying to get mustang rear seat covers to fit on a bronco rear seat (I have seen a hand full of the rear seats and they look like they wear made to fit the bronco frame). Also if I remember correctly the vin has a special code in it. I have seen a few unmolested pony broncos in person and I could not see a dealer going through all the trouble to make one like that, I believe they rolled off the line like that. Just my 2 cents!

 

[matts460]

I think all the folks who are able to do so that have pony interiors in there Broncos should/need to find out what Dealership there trucks came from (if possible) to mabey see if a single dealer in the US were infact putting the specail interiors in there Broncos. Soooomany Dealers have gone to far more trouble to have there own specail packages for certain cars. I belive i had just mentioned the Twister special Mustang from one single Dealership here in Kansas city! They went to the trouble. Also speaking of alot of trouble uh hum Yenko anybody! Nuff said! All it takes is one Dealership to have contracted/sublet out there own upolstry shop to make up the running pony interiors for there Broncos on the lot. Hell if all they made was 20 Broncos with it each year for couple years thats enuff. Like sombody said people move. Cars get traded in at differnt dealers etc. Forty years of moving around the states and that would explain why sooo few have turned up.

 

[Crush]

Back in the dat a dealer could order different paint not offered on a vehicle line. different seats/interior. different drivetrains. they just had to do the proper paperwork. it is feasable that a dealer or two could have ordered the pony seats on one of these special order procedures. Proof is in how shelby recieved mustangs with special items installed. saleen would order lx mustangs with gt seats ands svo dead pedals. saleen also ordered svo leather seats minus headrests for some cars. so it is possible that they were ordered that way but the ONLY way to tell is by a build sheet. the marti report will sometimes have this info but not always. On the bottom of a build sheet is a notes section. I have a 96 mystic cobra and in this section it says COBRA so the line workers would know to put the correct items on it. Likewise I have seen the saleen buildsheets that say install gt seats on an lx car. so bottom line is it is possible they were installed at the factory.

sorry so long!

 

[half cab]

Somewhere out there is a '66 half-cab with the pony seats that the present owner prolly wonders how they got there.....I took the bench out in '79 and put the pony's in out of a wrecked '66 Mustang.

 

[Blue71]

Just bringing this to the top to see if any new info has been found about the Pony Interiors being factory, dealer add-on, or a do it yourself thing. Anybody out there got that one special ad or brochure showing the good old "Pony" option could be ordered Come on...show yourself...I know your out there somewhere

Andy
Blue71

 

[NGABronco]

Yo' Andy, you may have this already, it's the build sheet from the 77' Ranger I had. It shows 12 different packages?? One being "Special"???%)%)

 

[Viperwolf1]

Yo' Andy, you may have this already, it's the build sheet from the 77' Ranger I had. It shows 12 different packages?? One being "Special"???%)%)

Special Decor maybe?

 

[BajaBronco]

Would be my guess too, Viper.

Neat Build sheet - thanks for sharing.

Many folks say that , if factory literature doesn't exist for a part/option/truck then that part is not a factory item. However, in the end, paper printed in one location months before metal, rubber, people put together cars in another location - That's receipe for some variance.

It would be fun to figure out the pony interior as I'm not a 66 expert, but I've owned two very original 66 wagons with this pattern interior/seat foam different, etc.

 

[DirtDonk]

Just to be clear, I'm totally on the fence about this. I believe it could easily have been a factory installed item, yet still never an official option. Totally agree that with the '66 model year they were experimenting with just about everything and made running changes, but that the pony interiors could have had any number of normal, or strange and bizarre reasons for having been installed at the factory.
Even perhaps a special promotion group that never made it to the '64 World's Fair on some car and someone decided to use it up on the Broncos!
Maybe it was simply the late-66 built transitions between the '66 and 67 model years? Could be they were missing something between the transition from Silver to Parchment and someone said "hey, we got there here funny looking material that nobody's ordering for the Mustangs" or "we were going to put it on the Falcons, but decided to stop making them..". That might explain why some registered '67's had it too.

By the same token, it's not out of the question that it could have easily been dealer installed. Especially by one or at most a very few dealers who were trying to make a statement. The material could literally have been ordered in bulk, or in premade covers for the front and bulk material for the rears.

I'm with those that think we should try to get the origins and build dates of as many Pony Broncos as we can. It would be extremely interesting to find out if they were built in the same time frame, or separated throughout the year.

Here are some pics of the one I had. Like I said, as far as I could tell, they are the only covers that were ever on the seat. So if the PO theory is true, they would have had to find a new seat frame, foam, and the wood backing. Doesn't seem likely. Plus the one BajaFresh75 had was all the evidence I needed.

I'm curious what you see JG? What about them says they're original? And what does that decal with some shipping info on it say?

...I really had my doubts several years ago, but the past several years I have seen the interiors from all over the country, even one '66 that was beyond bringing back....had been sitting in a field for years and years,(in the midwest) and it had the "pony" interior...

Seeing the same interiors all over the country on the '66 and '67 tells me plainly that "Pony Interiors" were a factory option!...

I'm curious about this too fordfan. Why does their spread out nature have anything to do with the factory? If they were dealer installed, wouldn't they be all over the country too? Even if it was just from one dealer, they could still be delivered all over the country. My '71 was as original as they get and the first owner was in Montana. But in just over two years it was registered in CA. Even if only one dealer in the US was installing something, vehicles could easily end up all over the country in a very short time. Change that to multiple dealers, and all bets are off.

So again, I'm not against it being a factory installed item. In fact, I lean more that way than the other, but I don't see the fact that they're all over being proof of it.

Paul

 

[Razorbackbronco]

Back in the dat a dealer could order different paint not offered on a vehicle line. different seats/interior. different drivetrains. they just had to do the proper paperwork. it is feasable that a dealer or two could have ordered the pony seats on one of these special order procedures. Proof is in how shelby recieved mustangs with special items installed. saleen would order lx mustangs with gt seats ands svo dead pedals. saleen also ordered svo leather seats minus headrests for some cars. so it is possible that they were ordered that way but the ONLY way to tell is by a build sheet. the marti report will sometimes have this info but not always. On the bottom of a build sheet is a notes section. I have a 96 mystic cobra and in this section it says COBRA so the line workers would know to put the correct items on it. Likewise I have seen the saleen buildsheets that say install gt seats on an lx car. so bottom line is it is possible they were installed at the factory.

sorry so long!

Hey I'm a mystic guy as well. Just sold mine to make room for my bronco. I've owned two mystics, and hope to get another or two