93 Triple White Restoration - Gold edition

RAWingfield

Disclaimer: Over the years there has been some discussion about a few Triple Whites having gold attributes such as gold ford emblem inserts for the wheel center caps, all gold emblems (e.g., LX emblem, Ford emblem) and gold pin striping. I do not know why this was done to a few of these cars and want to ensure that everyone knows I don't claim this car is a "Gold edition" because there is yet any evidence that this was done officially by anybody or any dealership. For this discussion, I would like to open a forum/discussion to find out why someone would do this to a already special car - so I will just label the discussion title - "Gold Edition" just to open. Restoration: I am restoring my 93 Triple White and will be putting everything back as I found it when I first purchased the car. Questions: Does anyone know the history of the "gold" attributes - if so what are they? How many cars are known to have the Gold attributes? Did a owner just do this on their own because they liked gold- maybe? The last 6 of my VIN is 209042. I do not know if that will help. Any help on this would be great to get to the bottom of why some of these cars have gold? Thank in advance.

RAWingfield

Update: I have received my Marti Report for my TWF with Gold accents. The last six numbers of the VIN is 209042. The build date is 7/93, the DSO is 24, Orlando Sales District and the car was sold in October 1993 from Deland Ford in Orange City Florida. There is mention here that possibly one or two other TWFs exist with the Gold accents and those cars are suspected to be from the Illinois Sales District and built in 03/93. Looking at the new data posted here in July 2021 it looks as if my TWF is among the last produced. In the Marti report a statement is included that states, "your vehicle was actually produced on July 2, 1993, twenty-four days ahead of schedule". The schedule for build is stated to be July 26, 1993. Could this be a clue to why this car has the gold accents?

TWF_John

That's great information and investigation. July 26 was very close to if not the last day of feature car production. I've had about a half dozen people contact me over time about gold emblems. Mostly on white cars but once on a yellow car. I checked the VINs in my registry and see two other cars besides yours which indicated gold badges. Both are white cars. One was built in March 1993 with DSO 41. The other was built in June with a DSO of 21. The others I was emailed about. Perhaps the most interesting one came from Florida and was shipped to Spain and when I heard about it, it was in the UK.

RAWingfield

Thanks TWF_John. In my opening post, I asked the question, "How many cars are known to have the Gold Attributes"? As I understand that makes four (4) cars with Gold accents since they each have a separate DSO. I would be interested to know if the TWF that was shipped to Spain is a 24, Orlando Sales District. Maybe Deland Ford sold that TFW?
In my research I have found that "gold accents/emblems" were popular in the
1990s with other makes/models of cars. According to an Autotrader article, Why Don't Cars Have Gold Trim Anymore? Dated 10/30/2017, by Eric Brandt, who states, "gold emblems were signifiers of luxury and opulence in the 1990s - even though they did not necessarily mean anything. It was this weird sort of trend left over from the old days of luxury cars, with gold being used in a way to let people know you're so rich you can afford to drive around in a car gilded in precious metal." Examples of gold emblems were on the Toyota Solara, Land Cruiser, Supra, to the Oldsmobile Aurora and many Lexus cars. An interesting fact is other OEM dealers did option gold accents. On a SN95 Forum I found that Ford dealers did do it, but it was NOT a Ford option. I have yet to find any official order or invoice requesting a dealership perform the work to 10k or 24k gold dip the OEM emblem(s). I plan on contacting Deland Ford and asking them if this was practiced by there dealership on Ford vehicles in tbe 90s. Hopefully a grey bearded person from the 1990s is still hanging around the shop that would remember gold plating a new feature car.

RAWingfield

Update and recap - 22 SEP: My TWF build date is 7/93; the DSO is 24, Orlando Sales District and the car was sold in October 1993 from Deland Ford in Orange City, Florida. Today, I was fortunate to speak to a Coggins/Deland Ford Manager of Orange City, FL who has been in the car business since 1992. He has not worked for Deland Ford his entire career, but has worked for Deland for over 20 years. When I asked him about the origins of the "gold accents/emblems" that exist on my TWF purchased from Deland Ford, he stated that Deland Ford and other select Ford dealerships would offer/advertise a (what he referred to as) "Presidential Package" for purchase within the dealership. The "Presidential Package" would offer to upgrade any selected standard appearance/trim feature(s) on any Ford vehicle (e.g., LTD Crown Victoria, Taurus, Probe, Mustang) to gold pin striping, gold flaked/colored ford emblems (e.g., pony, ford, 5.0) or gold center caps. The Presidential Package would be priced based off of a grouping of what the customer wanted. Deland or other dealerships would utilize selected vender(s) to perform the work. To the best of his knowledge/memory, he stated prices for the Presidential package could range from $100.00 to $250.00 based off of what package group the customer selected.

CONCLUSION: Through my research, I have concluded that the (as I referred to in my original post) 1993 Gold Edition TWF is a specific/select dealership offered appearance package upgrade, tailored by the original vehicle owner, purchased and then installed by an outside vendor at the dealership (in this case...Deland Ford, Orange City, FL). The Presidential Package (as formally referred here as the -Gold Edition-) is a personalized owner touch, purchased to add "flare" or show "opulence" to a unique ride/vehicle in a decade when "gold features" were popular on many makes of vehicles.

TWF_John

Thanks for such a detailed explanation of your findings! You really did the groundwork to figure this out. I really appreciate you sharing it here.

I remember the Toyota dealership near me having a "gold package" for certain cars in the 1990's. I always thought it was a factory option but I think now that it may have been a dealer added option.

Thanks!

TWF_John

I am pinning this to the top of the discussion threads as an announcement so that I and others can find this in the future. It's been one of the most difficult questions I have had to answer. Before this, I had no answer.

RAWingfield

Thanks TFW_John. As I opened with in the subject line of this post, my TWF is currently in restoration. One important decision for me to make is- do I or do I not restore the Gold accents/features that exist on this TWF? My goal is to ensure the car is restored to an all or as close to (as possible) "original" condition. But does "original" include the "Presidential package" addition installed on an OEM car at a dealership and as delivered to the original owner? Fortunately for me, there has been a lot of interest in getting to the bottom of the origins of the mystical "Gold Edition-Presidential package" TWF feature car/pony, therefore I have had good help from several experienced professionals who have been in the industry for thirty (30) plus years. They have explained that many customers loved this appearance and chose to purchase this upgrade; not only on/for Ford vehicles, but on Toyota, Oldsmobile and others. In a previous post, I left out an important statement made by the Coggins/Deland Ford Manager. He stated that there was documentation provided to the purchaser at the time of delivery. He did not know what that documentation would look like though as he, again, did not work for Deland Ford in 1993. Whether the original owner kept this documentation with any car is very unlikely. In my case, I have the Owners Manual only. Maybe, the TWF that was shipped to Spain still exists today and by a miracle, that owner pops up here on triplewhitefox.com with that evidence. What do you think? Do I restore the Gold Edition-Presidential Package on this TWF? No documentation, just a story to tell. Right now, I am leaning heavily towards, Yes, but I would like opinions.

TWF_John

100%, I think you should restore it to the "gold edition" spec. You've done the legwork to prove that it was legitimately a package and came like this from the dealer. It's a great story to go along with the car that makes it even more unique.