Who's the A body fender tag deciphering guru? Question about a car in the"For Sale" area...

[4spdragtop]

The ambiguous AC stuff would be enough to question ALL of that car. As well as the "original " paint, which is clearly BS.
Fendertag looks like its been painted with nail polish for crying out loud.
So 72 and up cars had charcoal canister?
Where is that? I guess in the trunk?
"If" that is a true "barn find" and as original as seller claims it is, wouldn't it be priced at like $20k?
Sure seems like he's hoping for a quick flip and no scouring over the car.
Its a good price, but everything is in question due to the ambiguity.

 

[peterbog]

I just looked at my tag and it doesn’t list my tinted glass code, but it is on the build sheet as tinted G11. It’s a non AC car
The G33 code is RG MIRROR - LEFT SIDE - REMOTE CONTROL

 

[TT5.9mag]

I would do nothing, zero, nada, zilch, with that car until all of the vins were verified.

 

[YY1]

Could get IIRC-

No glass tinted
Windshield only tinted
All glass tinted.

Wasn't the tinted windshield only the mandatory option with AC?

 

[Bennoel 10]

Ok, I did say my eyes along with my brain are old. My apologies.

 

[Bennoel 10]

Could get IIRC-

No glass tinted
Windshield only tinted
All glass tinted.

Wasn't the tinted windshield only the mandatory option with AC?

Not mandatory but recommended. Probably to appease the customers on a budget while also selling tinted glass as an alternative ? Just my thoughts ??

 

[Bennoel 10]

69 340 swinger with factory air, no tinted glass.
Build sheet has G21 but doesn't show on fender tag. Maybe things changed by 1972 I.D.K. ??

 

[72bluNblu]

Here is my take...

AC firewall is different than a NON AC firewall. BUT ONLY in hole locations and number. The heater core holes are the same on both. If the fender tag doesn't call out AC then one of a few things happened.

1. AC was added by the dealer or owner using factory parts, cutting the holes needed to convert the firewall to AC
2. The fender tag didn't have the option printed on it in error or its part of some other package with a different code.
3. The BODY is an AC body (or at least the firewall) and some one is not on the level (re-body? wrong fender tag? Firewall replacement, mistake? intentional?) Being such an easy thing to check to the hidden body numbers, (which in that time would include partial or full (I don't recall which) VIN) it would be easy to verify, especially on a survivor car, no one one FABO would attempt to sell it here.

67 AC firewall
RED holes are AC specific
GREEN arrow points to standoff where a hole would be on a Heat only firewall for insulation pin
BLUE arrows point to where I modified the OEM holes for clearance for an AC to Heat only adapter plate
View attachment 1716479894


68 Heat only
RED is the heat only opening
GREEN is the insulation pin hole
ALL other AC specific holes are not drilled
View attachment 1716479895

Things that make me think the AC was added on at some point in its life (dealer or owner)

BLUE Circle #1 hole punched for the heat only insulation
BLUE Circle #2 lower mounting hole has remnants of the original heat only hole (where I had to cut out of my AC dash for clearance)
BLUE circle #3 1 of 4 small holes from a heat only firewall. On my adapter 3 of the 4 small holes are visable and only the lower hole is hidden by the AC firewall.
GREEN circle looks like there is a hole there but taped or something from the back side.

View attachment 1716479903

THATS MY STORY AND IM STICKING TO IT!

This x 1000.

That's a non-AC car that has had AC added to it by someone at some point using factory AC equipment. Because it was a non-AC car pretty much all the changes involve drilling extra holes or making existing holes larger.

Honestly, that's the better option as far as the car goes, because adding AC is very explainable and doesn't involve any VIN tampering.

 

[YY1]

So if the rest of the car is legit.....and it's looking like it might be...

That's a pretty good deal.

Heck, I'd be tempted to put it back together, and see if the survivor's tent would take it in.

 

[4spdragtop]

I bet whomever is in charge of the survivor tent would laugh at the description of "all original paint".
Still a good buy tho...

So if the rest of the car is legit.....and it's looking like it might be...

That's a pretty good deal.

Heck, I'd be tempted to put it back together, and see if the survivor's tent would take it in.

 

[NC Engine Builder]

Another thing of concern, the pictures from underneath dont show the torque box areas. Could be lazy picture taking or could be purposely cropped out. Who knows. There are a few other things to verify, to confirm its legit. Buyer beware! It appears to be someone's unfinished project, with "barn find" thrown into the description to increase intrest

 

[JDMopar]

If the hidden VIN's match the dash VIN and drivetrain VIN's, I'd be perfectly fine with the AC having been added to it. Not all that hard to strip all the paint off the bottom, get the rest of the car to bare metal and start over. A car like that deserves to be unF'd and done right. I'm like @Bennoel 10 ....it's too far away for me to worry about.

 

[slantsixdan]

The ambiguous AC stuff would be enough to question ALL of that car.

And aside from the firewall, there's the RH inner fender area, which looks to me like it is missing (drilled) holes for A/C components located there: vacuum reservoir, heater valve, high-side line, etc.

So 72 and up cars had charcoal canister?

Yes, in all 50 states and Canada. Details here.

The fender tag on this car – I am not saying "this car's fender tag" because I'm not sure it is – also lists N95, which signifies California emissions (NOx control), which in '72 was a seriously crummy no-valve EGR system: a hole in the floor of the intake manifold that admits exhaust to the intake tract 100% of the time. While cranking, while idling, while cold, all the time. Requires high idle speed and causes rotten driveability. Likely also secondary air injection ("air pump", "smog pump").

Where is that? I guess in the trunk?

The charcoal can is in the right front corner of the engine bay.

 

[mopardude62]

You guys be careful not to trigger Oldmanmopar. He will swear it’s not a real 340 car because the right hand exhaust hanger wasn’t put on with a Phillips head screw from the inside (or whatever the deal was)!

 

[72bluNblu]

Yeah I'm not sure I see any real big issues to get wadded up over on this one, other than calling it a "survivor" or "barn find" is a pretty big stretch because the bottom of the car and engine bay have absolutely been repainted and AC appears to have been added.

I mean, if the intent of the owner was to leave the original paint on the body (which I can understand), stripping and painting the bottom of the car isn't crazy because that would prevent rust, take care of other issues, etc. The engine compartment too makes sense, if you've got the engine out and are painting the bottom then freshening up the paint in the engine compartment also makes a lot of sense, since it's usually pretty rough in original condition. The other thing is, you can do that painting yourself because you don't need to be a paint and body guy to paint the bottom of the car and the engine compartment. Plus, with that work done if you did decide to repaint the car (or have it done) you wouldn't necessarily have to blow it all apart again, you could repaint the body and leave the car mostly assembled to minimize downtime. Not saying it's "right", but, you wouldn't have to drop the engine, running gear etc because everything underneath has already been done.

And adding factory AC to a non-AC car? Again, makes sense. And if you wanted to keep it factory looking, well, adding the factory AC makes even more sense.

Obviously any potential buyer would want to confirm the body numbers and VIN's match, I think that's part of ANY car purchase.

To me though, the work done on that car makes a lot of sense for someone that's trying to get the car back on the road with a mostly mechanical refresh while doing most of the work themselves and without going the full on multi-gazillion dollar restoration.

Could be wrong, but it looks like a pretty good deal to me IF there's no funny business with the body and VIN numbers.

 

[4mulas]

I agree 100%

 

[NC Engine Builder]

I would think it would have sold allready at the asking price if it's legit on the vin numbers

 

[72bluNblu]

I would think it would have sold allready at the asking price if it's legit on the vin numbers

Eh, that’s a funny bit of psychology. If you price something too low then everyone assumes something’s wrong with it. Price something obviously or ridiculously too high and they all think you’re nuts. But then lower the price (and it’s stayed on the market) and everyone assumes something’s wrong with it.

Houses, cars, etc, there’s a whole game to setting the right price so people think they’re getting a deal on something that’s hard to get.

 

[TT5.9mag]

Send uncle Tony over there to debunk it.

 

[- Marvin -]

As far as I understand, only cars with AC could have clear glass.

And this Duster has clear glass all around:

 

[abodyjoe]

i think its a neat car.. if closer i'd have liked to check it out, i'd repaind the engine bay and put the thing together and drive the hell out of it just the way it looks. i like it...

looks like the drivers fender is a slightly different color.. maybe the car was hit somewhere along the way...

 

[YY1]

It's kind of unclear on that options doc.
It could also be interpreted as clear glass standard, but only coded if AC is ordered and no tint desired.
There are no "S" codes for either tint option, indicating that might be the case.

I'd be tempted to get the "patina" paint color matched and respray the engine compartment and underside to match better.
(I could possibly do that myself)

...or just finish painting the entire car.

 

[4mulas]

Black car, 1970 duster factory 318 automatic factory A/C with clear glass.

Only picture I had remaining of the firewall. Shows a bit of it if yah zoom in, albeit the focus probably won’t be great.

I don’t think the drivers fender is a different colour on the orange car, different light or slight different angle perhaps.

It hasn’t been for sale long and will be sold soon, anyone looking for a descent rust free project A-body (that looks cool as is) should consider this car regardless of whether or not it authentic 340 car, which it probably is. 12 grand asking price a for a RUST FREE cool A-body mopar with motor, trans, and bunch of 340 specific parts is nothing. Once it’s gone people who were on the fence will likely regret it as they continue their search and come across nothing but roached out dented rust buckets for about the same cash.

 

[YY1]

As far as I understand, only cars with AC could have clear glass.

And this Duster has clear glass all around:

Interesting that lists AC as "N/A" on a 318 car with manual trans.

Never heard that before.

 

[Dana67Dart]

Something else I just notices...
That looks like a truck or slant 6 mount. Too thick AND on the drivers side the stock mount typically hangs off UNLESS a 340/360 metal motor mounts on the engine changed that from the 273/318 layout?????

mybe the trans is not installed and they used what was laying around to set the engine in place