'05 and'06 differences

[TEXAS GT]

I was curious about what they may have changed or refined as the build process progressed and my two cars are a good base to use because my '05 is an early car,#298, built in November 2004 and my '06 is #1528, built in May 2006. I compared the two cars side by side and didn't really find a lot of changes. I believe this indicates Ford pretty much got it right the first time.

Obvious differences are:

1. The a-arms are machined on my early car and forged or cast on the '06. The machined arms are much more attractive.

2. The grill was changed at some point (deleted) supposedly to improve cooling.

3. The transaxle cooler bypass hose is solid steel on the '05 and steel braid on the '06.

4. The '05 has a painted clip that covers the body seam on the engine cowl right at the top of the rear window on both sides. I don't see the purpose of this and they obviously agreed since at some point since they discontinued it.

5. One of the better changes was the rubber stops that catch the engine cowl were changed to springs. This makes the hood spring open much better so you can get your fingers under it to push the latches. On my '05 I have to pull up on the air intake to get it to open after I pull the release.

6. The tire read was improved. The '06 has much more tread for some reason.:biggrin

On another thread someone compared the inner front hood between the early and late cars. Some were smooth and some were rough fiberglass. It apparently is not related to production date because both my cars have the rough finish.

There are probably more changes but these were all I noticed in my informal comparison.

Anybody else know of other changes?

 

[nota4re]

7. Early '05 cars has a solid tube and fittings to connect the transaxle "pump out" to the "pump in" on the transaxle. Later cars had stainless flex hoses looping the in/out ports.

8. The brackets that secure the Oil Reservoir to the frame are silver on '05 cars and black on '06 cars.

9. The fastest GT color combination was not made available until '06.

 

[TEXAS GT]

7. Early '05 cars has a solid tube and fittings to connect the transaxle "pump out" to the "pump in" on the transaxle. Later cars had stainless flex hoses looping the in/out ports.

8. The brackets that secure the Oil Reservoir to the frame are silver on '05 cars and black on '06 cars.

9. The fastest GT color combination was not made available until '06.

#7 was addressed by my #3

#8 I didn't notice that. I'll check it tomorrow.

#9 The Whipple will make this a moot point.:biggrin

 

[HeritageBruce]

9. The fastest GT color combination was not made available until '06.

Yep, the heritage blue. :banana

 

[SYCO GT]

9. The fastest GT color combination was not made available until '06.

I'm confused. Black cars were produced in both 2005 and 2006.

 

[FlorIdaho Chris]

Texas GT-

Item #4 above, the seam clip was discontinued sometime during the '05 model run. The later model 2005's don't have it. My '05 VIN 786 does have this clip. It would be interesting to know when the change was made. Makes me wonder if some of the other differences you point out were running changes during production as opposed to a specific 2005/2006 model year changeover date.

Maybe some of the guys who post here that built the cars could comment for us?

 

[bigdan40]

Yep, the heritage blue. :banana

I think he meant Tungsten Bruce, you know it's an '06 color only!!!:biggrin

 

[barondw]

1. The a-arms are machined on my early car and forged or cast on the '06. The machined arms are much more attractive.

All a-arms were to have been cast. Early 05s were recalled because of the failure of an a-arm on one car. Thus if your a-arms are machined, done by Roush, they have the replacement a-arms which were installed to correct the problem while the casting process was being corrected.

These early cars were either impounded at the factory, dealership, or a flatbed truck sent to the owners house to bring the vehicle back to the dealership for repairs.

These repairs took several weeks to be be made and in some cases maybe even 2 months because of the backlog.

Most 05s have the cast a-arms.

Dave

 

[gtjoey]

The so called "band aid" clips, which were a patch on early to mid clam shells were for poor finish on the seam of the clam shell, 1314 doesnt have it , i think around 700 or so the panel was just better made. heard from a birdie :biggrin the front grill was due to cooling :ack but i think the birdie said at a cost of 175 dollars with an extra 1,000 cars being produced saves 172,000,:biggrin but thats from a birdie not me:thumbsup .The spring thing saved 13 cents from the bolt and grommet which is off the defuncted tbird. A neat trick is if you want your gt to look like a proto type buy 2 tbird ones they have a rubber boot protector just like the protos , p.s. the birdie is back, they saved 3 cents by pulling the rubber boot off the gt ones:thumbsup Inside the clam shell on real early cars the serial numbers are painted stamped on, not tape stamped on like the rest, also there are all chalk markings, line up markings on the real early ones , kind of neat.:thumbsup ask dbk but when we were at the factory, very early bottom seats? were creaky or fraying , something to that effect that velcrow and material were changed, forgot the rest though..... all 06 door panels have the holding clips so they dont fall off:thumbsup gtjoey 1314 enjoy:thumbsup

 

[gtjoey]

OOOPPS ALMOST FORGOT THE HALFSHAFT PROBLEM FOR 05, 06 WAS THE SAME.....:biggrin GTJOEY 1314 :thumbsup HAVING FUN.:thumbsup

 

[everetto]

Windshields on early cars are different (how/where the antenna and connections are). I don't have any data on when this was changed.

 

[waterboy]

Door latches were changed over to a quieter version and had cable/lever relationship changed so interior door handles functioned properly with less effort.

 

[GTNJ]

I'm confused. Black cars were produced in both 2005 and 2006.

:thumbsup

 

[FlorIdaho Chris]

All a-arms were to have been cast. Early 05s were recalled because of the failure of an a-arm on one car. Thus if your a-arms are machined, done by Roush, they have the replacement a-arms which were installed to correct the problem while the casting process was being corrected.

These early cars were either impounded at the factory, dealership, or a flatbed truck sent to the owners house to bring the vehicle back to the dealership for repairs.

These repairs took several weeks to be be made and in some cases maybe even 2 months because of the backlog.

Most 05s have the cast a-arms.

Dave

A fair number of '05 cars built post recall were built new (not retrofitted) with the billet arms. Production had not ramped up on the new forged arms so several hundred '05's were built new with the "fancy" arms. In September when I visited Wixom I was told there are a few sets of these billet arms still available, but they are pretty expensive.

Anyone with a VIN over 800 with these arms?

 

[Kave]

I was curious about what they may have changed or refined as the build process progressed and my two cars are a good base to use because my '05 is an early car,#298, built in November 2004 and my '06 is #1528, built in May 2006. I compared the two cars side by side and didn't really find a lot of changes. I believe this indicates Ford pretty much got it right the first time.

Obvious differences are:

1. The a-arms are machined on my early car and forged or cast on the '06. The machined arms are much more attractive.

2. The grill was changed at some point (deleted) supposedly to improve cooling.

3. The transaxle cooler bypass hose is solid steel on the '05 and steel braid on the '06.

4. The '05 has a painted clip that covers the body seam on the engine cowl right at the top of the rear window on both sides. I don't see the purpose of this and they obviously agreed since at some point since they discontinued it.

5. One of the better changes was the rubber stops that catch the engine cowl were changed to springs. This makes the hood spring open much better so you can get your fingers under it to push the latches. On my '05 I have to pull up on the air intake to get it to open after I pull the release.

6. The tire read was improved. The '06 has much more tread for some reason.:biggrin

On another thread someone compared the inner front hood between the early and late cars. Some were smooth and some were rough fiberglass. It apparently is not related to production date because both my cars have the rough finish.

There are probably more changes but these were all I noticed in my informal comparison.

Anybody else know of other changes?

If you look closely the 05's don't have me in the drivers seat, but my 06 does. I don't know I think its limited edition.:rofl

 

[SteveA]

A fair number of '05 cars built post recall were built new (not retrofitted) with the billet arms. Production had not ramped up on the new forged arms so several hundred '05's were built new with the "fancy" arms. In September when I visited Wixom I was told there are a few sets of these billet arms still available, but they are pretty expensive.

Anyone with a VIN over 800 with these arms?

Chris, ENZOBTR I believe has a mid build 05' 1100 to 1200 range and he has the billet arms.

 

[FlorIdaho Chris]

Chris, ENZOBTR I believe has a mid build 05' 1100 to 1200 range and he has the billet arms.

Well that would suggest more than half the '05 cars have these arms. Anyone with a later VIN?

 

[SteveA]

Well that would suggest more than half the '05 cars have these arms. Anyone with a later VIN?

I just looked up his vin, he has #1456, 05'

 

[TEXAS GT]

If you look closely the 05's don't have me in the drivers seat, but my 06 does. I don't know I think its limited edition.:rofl

No, I'm sorry...I ran out to my car and checked real close. You're not in either one of them. :biggrin

 

[STORMCAT]

I had some info that the rough finish hood interior was used until the late Feb early March built 06 cars. All 06's built after that time had the smooth interior hood. It was not random. I looked an many 06 cars and found that to be the case. I'm guessing that any 06 with a vin # of 500 or higher has the smooth hood.