Rich - but the picture also doesnt show the car with stripes, and has non-stock wheels. Looks like anything could have happened before this picture was taken. BUT, I am not discounting your theory that dealers installed the lights (and maybe yours) with just the square pedestals. Frankly, If I were a dealer, the square pedestal looks a lot easier, and they were off the shelf Shelby parts easy to get at.
A short story in point - I just got my 97 Taurus back from the shop and it needed one new spark plug and wire. I opened the hood and saw a spark plug wire unhooked on one end in the harness. I wondered why the heck the car is even running with one wire loose. It turns out they just decided to leave the bad wire in the harness rather than take 2 minutes to pull it out and throw it away. So I have a 7 wire / 6 cylinder Taurus from the dealer :scared: . Anything is possible for a dealer change-out.
I bet there are more than a few "original" GT/CS with the dealer installed square pedestals out there.
Casey
I hear you loud and clear Casey!
I know it's not written in stone and anything could've happened.
I've been in contact with the 2nd owner and he's been filling me in on a lot of info. And I'm making some assumptions on my part.
From what I've been told, the original owner had it from 1968 to 2002 (the old picture below). She drove it for a lot of miles (139,000) and it sat in her backyard for 10 years before she decided to donate it to her church.
That's around the time of this picture below and when he took ownership.
The 2nd owner indicated the car was rust free when he got it but in need of a restore and had a teal paint job - not a high quality one at that - I assume this is where the stripes were lost. I'm trying to figure out if those are aftermarket wheels or just the covers are removed. I can't tell. The other pics from the ad are too small to tell.
There is also a lot of paint peeling from the top as you can see - confirmed by the 2nd owner as well.
Like I said - I'm not saying this is any concrete proof but could help support the dealer theory. I was never clear if that was assumption or fact that we knew the dealer did that with the square posts.
I just know there wasn't a recent restore in that 2002 picture so if it was part of a restore it was 10 years or more before that.
