Mine is shiny as well.

 

They must have changed it for the 07MY.

Yeah, it's probably not too healthy for the clutch to keep dumping it, but it sure is fun!

 

Here's a pic of mine. It says 3.55 on the tag, but you can't see it as clearly due to the overexposure from the flash.

 

It looks like your axle housing is painted black as well, or is that just the flash playing tricks on me? Mine is unpainted and surface rusty now.

 

The axle housing was painted black from the factory. The axle tubes weren't painted, so I slathered on some Rustoleum matte black. The axle cover came from the factory like that.

 

Wierd. Cover in black looks good though!

All these little differences between model years... hard to keep up!

 

Bill, here's another weird one for you......my '07 with the 3.55 has the shiny cover. The only thing I can figure is that since mine was built the first week of '07 production (1st week of June), they probably used the leftover silver ones from the '06's. My engine is date coded May '06 also.

Same sort of weird thing with our old '97 Expedition. Mine was built the first month of Expedition production. My Laser Red Expo had mirrored rear and side privacy glass. A few months into the the '97 production, they switched to the black glass color instead. Strange.

 

Who the heck knows what and when they change things in the production line. Like my work, there's constant changes and revisions to every airplane, no 2 are built exactly alike.

 

I've got an '07 built in August '06 and it has the bare metal/shiny rear cover as well.

 

My 07 is a Job 1.9 Stang I bet the Job 2's all have the same style cover as well.

BTW I noticed the pumpkin is of a different design. There is an extruded "platform" right underneath the pumpkin where one normally places the jack pad (part of the cast iron assembly). I've worked on two Ford 8.8"s and neither saw this platform. Either it is standard on rear-ends that came with 31 spline axles and/or Ford changed the design to beef it up.

 

Mine has this platform too.

 

Bill, the part of the pumpkin above the wood is normal. I was referring to a shape that is part of the cast iron assembly above and to the right of the wood (not quite visible in your photo).

When I was jacking up the rear of the Stang, I thought there was a strip of plastic at first until I realized it was part of the pumpkin. AFAIK it was never part of the original 8.8" design.

 

Mines black too Metroman..
I painted everything that was bare metal in black epoxy including the driveshaft. I hate those rusty parts showing under a car.....

 

Bill, I think I liked the shot showing the Shaker Hood moving around the best!