Wiggy333
Terry to get it straight all Capris Mk,1 have ck17me?????p numbers. Built one after another until August 1972. They would have received paint not much else? Thing is that when they were completed in factory from that point is my point. A car made in August could make it until 1973 to be sold and Ford would put a final build date until then. I well agree no Capri was built after August. 95 percent positive of that.

Keith, I think you meant to say that all Capri's Mk.1 assembled in or after August, 1972, through to November, 1972, had the CK17ME*****P Chassis number system. I believe that this occurred due to the fact that the UK received the 'Update' or 'Facelift' model in September, 1972 and, as we didn't, Ford Australia wanted to ensure that our Mk.1s weren't confused with the 'Facelift' Mk.1 or maybe they were instructed to do that from Ford UK. The 17 in this code indicates a GT variant, which could be a 1600GT or a V6 GT, though it could be also be a 14 for Deluxe or a 30 for the XL!
 
Now, I do know that ALL the eleven 'Specials' have the ME code for 1972 (M), August (E) and of these, one has 'final build date' of 8/72, 2 have 9/72 and 2 have 11/72. To my knowledge there is NO Australian assembled Capri that has a month stamped on the ID plate after 11/72.
 
Murray's 'Special' is the only one that I have ever seen that has the 2 plate 1973 Ford system, ie. 1 plate is the Vehicle ID Plate and the other is the ADR plate yet, it still says 8/72. All the others have the single standard 1972 ID Plate. Ron's was purchased on 8 May 1973 from Bib Stillwells in Kew, Vic, but they are all still 1972 builds.
 
Finally, I have the four pages of yearly build sheets from the Homebush factory and they indicate numbers assembled per month/year from March, 1969 (J=1969, M=March) and they stop in November, 1972, which is when all assembly of Capri's ceased. I have done an awful lot of research into our Australian assembled Capri's and I can back up what I say with hard copy evidence, as above. Cheers, Terry

Terry would never question your effort nor knowledge. As you know the last build date is August 1972 or put better the last according to the chassis number. I can only agree that all went down the main build line in August. From then is where the confusion and answer lies. It's only the stamp date that varies from August and only shows they were either hard to sell or Ford dealers were consentrating on 1973 Ford's not caring about 72 Capris.

Weren't they stamped on the line before paint?

Yes would have been. The build plate was stamped later. That is the only reference to the age of the car. All were fine until August.

Here's my Homebush sourced production sheet for 1972 and as you can see there are all models still being listed as being assembled in Sept, Oct and Nov, 1972! But why didn't Ford Australia use the ML (Sep), MY (Oct) and MS (Nov) codes used for the Vehicle ID Plates, as you would expect? The mystery continues ....

All I'm saying is they indeed went down the body production line in August so Ck17Me it was and stamped in the panels during that time. Motor and running gear during this time was not. So not complete or ready for sale. 11 of the cars were left behind further so the others which were not specials got finished but were not sold. 11 got left out and Ford wouldn't scrap them so sourced new running gear to finish them.
I'm sure it had more to do with the individual car the specials were. Paint colour not selling or sunroof or none. Only my theory though I know the specials weren't last of the production line so this is the only Question left unanswered as to why? My theory in practice I've seen before in 2001 working at a new car lot where top sellers went straight out the door. Others could sit for a year.
I think the industry changed with pollution crap and this MY 04 or MY 2017 changed it as dealers and makers were not allowed to conduct business the same way. Now if was built in 2019 it was built then and they flog them off more cheaply which didn't happen in 1972. Only my opinion though with all the evidence life has given to me. Not that any of it matters 50 years on. Just interesting.