Originally posted by Matt167
If it was a GM, you call up a dealership parts dept, give them your vin and they send you some repro documentation, assembly sheets, maby build sheets if they can refrence it, basicly anything they have on your car, maby ford has a simmilar service.
Matt, that's on late model cars over the last 15 years. Some organizations such as the Pontiac Historical group or the Studebaker Museum have access to build sheet information. Mopars have all their equipment stamped on a plate affixed to the radiator support or fenderwell.

The only thing the VIN (serial number) on a '57 T-Bird will tell you is which engine is original. There are 4 choices. The Patent Plate on the firewall will tell color, trim, and build date.

Now I doubt Ford has kept anything on these, but there may be an organization outside of Ford that may be the keeper of the data (but I doubt it).