Where did this come from?

[Champale]

Hey guys - discovered this random castle nut sitting under my passenger door today (!?!). Each door hinge appears to have 1 of these and they are in place on both doors (2 per side). Is there a 3rd location one of these nuts goes on the door or somewhere else that I am missing?

 

[Bill Pemberton]

I wish I knew , I have found two of those over the years with my Mustangs and I never knew where they came from? Now that you brought it up I will find where to put the dang things -- I have three in my tool box.

 

[Champale]

Oh wow that is too funny, Bill! Thank you for telling me that. It's definitely the same as the but that holds the hinge to the door (one upper and one lower, both of which are in place (here is the top one).

 

[johnjamesmiller]

You guys just gave me a great idea for what I think will become my new favorite game of leaving random nuts and bolts laying around other peoples cars.

 

[Bill Pemberton]

Hmmm, so that is why my passenger door is laying on the garage floor?

 

[TMSBOSS]

A not so funny at the time story related to Phantom Hardware.

When I was in high school I prepped new cars for delivery. One of the first things I was told was to look for excess hardware inside the car. Why? A customer will eventually come in with a screw/bolt demanding someone find where this piece of hardware was “Missing” from.
Assembly line workers were famous for Taking excess hardware, screws, nut bolts into the car during assemble. Makes sense to have too many, you could drop a few.

Well, it happened one day. A lady came in with a single self tapping screw and demanded we locate where the screw was missing from and install it while she watched. Charlie, my boss, did not hesitate. He took a 3/8” impact and went under the dash and attached something. She was happy and left. So I asked Charlie, how did you find where the screw was missing from so quickly. His answer, there wasn’t a missing screw.

The moral of the story that day was to be sure you made the customer happy.

That screw was excess from the assemble process. Ford had assembly line PR videos which showed workers taking a Dixie cup full of such screws and dumping them on the floor of the car making access to them easy while screwing in the interior panels. There is a good chance your hardware may have a similar origin. Unless of course your door falls off, then call Bill. Lol.

 

[Bill Pemberton]

Hence the term we hear so often, " You've got a screw loose !"

 

[Champale]

Great story, TMSBoss! I still am scratching my head as to why after 8k miles this nut revealed itself and where the heck it had been hiding this whole time! It definitely seems to be the same as the door hinge nut and I see two correctly installed on each door.

Does anyone know if there is another location on the car that uses the same nut? Am I just overlooking a 3rd location on the door?

 

[Dave_W]

Not sure if this is the right nut, but I tried looking at the diagram on Tasca's parts pages for the door hinge hardware on an S197, I found this

Lock & Hardware for 2013 Ford Mustang | TascaParts.com

www.tascaparts.com

Ft Seat Air Bag Nut - Ford (-W520111-S424)​

Other Names: Knee Air Bag Nut, Door Check Nut, Support Bracket Nut, Upper Hinge Nut

Gives you some ideas of other places to look.

 

[Champale]

Hey thank you Dave_W. I have noticed a similar nut on the diagrams for the S550s but none of the fiche pictures seem to show exactly where that nut is. Does anyone have any pictures? I might go to a Ford dealer and poke around some Mustang door hinges!

 

[xr7]

Reminds me of the time my boss had bought a T-Bird for his junkyard, 64-65 if I remember correctly. I was stripping it down for parts and when I pulled the carpet out the rear footwell behind the drivers seats there must have been 50 dollars worth of quarters laying on the insulation pad. Our best guess is someone must have grabbed someone stash of quarters and tossed in the Bird before they threw in the carpet.

 

[blacksheep-1]

Back in the late 80s I was dating a buddy's sister, we went on a road trip and I usually am armed, when I was loading my revolver I dropped one of the rounds... The car was an 84 Z28 Camaro that she owned, nice car, 5 speed, all the options
Fast forward to 2001, I now owned the car as it was passed down through the family and the last owner really didn't take care of it. As I was removing the carpet I found the .357 round that I had lost 14 years before.

 

[TymeSlayer]

You guys just gave me a great idea for what I think will become my new favorite game of leaving random nuts and bolts laying around other peoples cars.

That's just mean. I've found a loose flange nut in my Boss once and spent the afternoon trying to figure out where it came from before I gave up and threw it in the tool box. Years have passed and nothing blew up, so I assumed it was left over from the manufacturing process. What a complete waste of tyme. That being said, it is funny when it happens to someone else!

 

[byronj]

It even looks new, was probably lodged somewhere and finally got loose.

 

[Bill Pemberton]

Was it a ......................loose nut behind the wheel?

 

[302BOB]

OMG!!!!! There's a new pandemic on the horizon.......There are loose nuts springing up everywhere!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.......Not to fear.....Dr Fauci has the wrench to tighten them................

 

[EF1]

You guys just gave me a great idea for what I think will become my new favorite game of leaving random nuts and bolts laying around other peoples cars.

Now that is funny, unless it happens to you. I found a money clip in my car at the track a few years ago with about $40 in it. I thought it may have come from an instructor that rode with me and I tracked him down and it wasn't his. I asked everyone I could think of that had been in my car in the last few months and nobody claimed it. I kept it intact for a year or so, before spending the money on lunch.

 

[GB899]

those belong in the ashtray...