Blue 80-column punch card printed for Ford Motor Company, with square corners and a card cut on the top right-hand corner. The top of the card carries the header “PASSENGER AND TRUCK VEHICLE ORDER CARD”. A ruled layout divides the punch area into large sections including “SHIP TO:” and “REMARKS:” panels, with additional vertical rules defining coding zones.
The card’s fields are documented at the bottom of the card, with each field in the punch area divided by a solid line and labelled with a field label and individual column numbers. All columns are labelled from 1-80 in this field table. In the top print area, a grid of fields is captioned with column ranges that correspond to the punch card’s fields documented at the bottom of the card. A full list of the fields and their column assignments is provided in the appendix below. The card is not punched consistent with the documented fields.
Along the right margin each row from 0 to 9 is labelled. Rows 1-9 are annotated with letter groups “AJ”, “BKS”, “CLT”, “DMU”, “ENV”, “FOW”, “GPX”, “HOY”, and “IRZ” respectively allowing easier decoding of alphanumeric punched data encoded on the card with common BCD/EBCDIC schemes. The left margin reads “PRINTED IN U.S.A.” near the top and “FINANCE MAY 68 AAD 8439” alongside a Ford Oval logo at the bottom.
The reverse side is printed with a seemingly unrelated set of operational instructions and likely indicates this card was re-printed after its original purpose became obsolete. Text at upper left reads “PROGRAM I.D.‘S WRITTEN BELOW WILL BE PUNCHED IN COLUMNS 0-11” and, beneath a ruled line, “IF RUN CODE OTHER THAN ‘C’ POST BELOW PUNCH COLUMN 24.” A central area is headed “REMARKS” with “CU 1” at upper right. Along the right edge three horizontal panels are captioned “STOP”, “START”, and “SET UP”.
The card has been punched in a pattern consistent with the reverse, and printing on the card indicates the reverse was facing forward when it was punched. Several purple stamps reading “214 SEP 8” and “202 SEP 8” are present on the right hand side of the card. Notably the card is also punched with digits 202 and 214 in the punched data.
Appendix: Field Definitions
| Field Description | Columns | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Vehicle serial number — Prefix | 1-5 | |
| Vehicle serial number — Base | 6-11 | |
| Truck Wheelbase | 12-14 | |
| Paint — Bottom | 15 | |
| Paint — Top | 16 | |
| [Unlabelled] | 17 | |
| Trim — Code | 18-19 | |
| Trim — DEV/GBW | 20 | |
| [Unlabelled] | 21 | |
| Order Type | 22 | |
| [Unlabelled] | 23 | |
| Scheduled date — Day | 24-25 | Printed as “SCH DATE” |
| Scheduled date — Month | 26 | Printed as “SCH DATE” |
| Order number | 27-30 | |
| Leasing Co. | 31 | |
| Special order number | 33-35 | |
| [Unlabelled] | 36 | |
| Received date — Day | 37 | Printed as “REC DATE” |
| Received date — Month | 38 | Printed as “REC DATE” |
| Release date — Day | 39 | Printed as “REL DATE” |
| Release date — Month | 40 | Printed as “REL DATE” |
| Option data | 41-68 | |
| Gas/ADV. WAV. | 69 | |
| Dealer No. — Region Dist. | 70-71 | |
| Dealer No. — Zone | 72 | |
| Dealer No. — Number | 73-75 | |
| [Unlabelled] | 76-78 | |
| P.P./P.C./M.S.O. | 79 | |
| Remarks | 80 |