Born Date

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Twisted-72

Twisted-72

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How can I find out what day my car was born on ? Door sticker has 10 - 71 and the build sheet tells me the time of day 22:12, but I can't find the day.
 
SO/PO number on rad support? Found out mine was built April fools day! 4-1-65 decoded...
 
There is no way to know the actual build day unless you have a newer car with the MDH (Month, Day, Hour) on the mylar door sticker.
 
Twisted-72 said:
How can I find out what day my car was born on ? Door sticker has 10 - 71 and the build sheet tells me the time of day 22:12, but I can't find the day.
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Look on your fender tag, my 70' has the estimated build date on the last line near the right. It might be on the second line up. It will be a three digit code. 110 will be Jan 10th.so 1 thru 9 is Jan to Sept. A is oct, B is November,etc. the next two numbers are the date of the month. That date is approximate, It could have been a few days later. That's all we get.
 
What would you concider the build date as?

My Prowler was started on the line on June 26 but came off final on June 29th, so what would you say the build date was?

So does it really matter?

Yes we would all like to know more info on our cars. I would like to know about my Dart but waited too long to check and the dealership closed a few years a before my search began. Had I done so when I 1st bought it might have been able to find the original owner.

The date code on the seat belts were from 1966, so it was an early car

Sorry I'm no help
 
oldmopardude said:
Look on your fender tag, my 70' has the estimated build date on the last line near the right. It might be on the second line up. It will be a three digit code. 110 will be Jan 10th.so 1 thru 9 is Jan to Sept. A is oct, B is November,etc. the next two numbers are the date of the month. That date is approximate, It could have been a few days later. That's all we get.
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Will check the fender tag tonight.
 
The SPD on the fender tag is just when the factory "planned" on building the car. Most of the time, the vehicle was NOT built on that day.

Sometime in 72, the door stickers were changed and an MDH code was added to them. My 73 Challenger has an SPD of 927(September 27th) however, the MDH code says 101212.(door sticker says 10-72) The car was built 2 weeks after its SPD.

If you have an earlier 72 or older car without an MDH code on the door sticker, there is no way to know the exact date the car was completed.
 
burdar said:
The SPD on the fender tag is just when the factory "planned" on building the car. Most of the time, the vehicle was NOT built on that day.

Sometime in 72, the door stickers were changed and an MDH code was added to them. My 73 Challenger has an SPD of 927(September 27th) however, the MDH code says 101212.(door sticker says 10-72) The car was built 2 weeks after its SPD.

If you have an earlier 72 or older car without an MDH code on the door sticker, there is no way to know the exact date the car was completed.
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It is possible to get close, if not the day. If you have your original build sheet with the Inspectors Initials on it, then that was the day the sheet was put wherever they put it. In 1967 and 68, if you look at the top of the sheet,you have the sequence number, second box is build date, third is the
shipping number. My 67 GTX has a build date of 5-16 on the fender tag, and a code of 516 on the build sheet, with the Inspectors Initials on it.
My 68 charger has a build date of A22 on the tag, and A23 on the build sheet. The warranty card issue to the buyer was November 67, as it was an ordered car, and picked up upon delivery.
 
I don't see any connection between the sceduled production date on the build sheet to whether the sheet has Inspectors Initials on it??

So the inspectors only put thier initials on buildsheet if the car was built the same day as the SPD Sheduled Production Date on the buildsheet?? Couldn't the initial have ment lot of other things??
 
There is an Article in Mopar collectors guide dated Nov '13 by Walt Redman, who was there at Chrysler back then. it's worth reading. Yes, When an Inspector signs off on a build sheet, that had to be done prior to sticking it under the seat. The seat was on the assembly line, according to many pictures I've seen, the seats wereone of the last things to go in the car. My Brother ordered cars for a dodge dealer in 1968, and they Input a request for a reported build date for every order taken. The request then came back from Chrysler when the dealer verified they could pay for the car. 99% of the time the cars were built on the date provided, and arrived on time. Only dealers with Inadequate credit, or too small of an order were put back. Costs were a big deal, and there were a lot more dealers then. So if you didn't have a big enough order, your orders were put back. Then the estimated build date is no longer set in stone. I have three cars with the original bill of sales,and those cars were purchased as pre-ordered cars and delivered within ten days or less from the fender tag build date. They obviously were on time, and nobody is saying they were built at 4:00 on a exact day. Friday cars frequently were finished on Monday, or after a holiday. The estimated build date was just that, but Chrysler did a very good job according to many retired employees in conforming to the date. If they were late, whose cars were they? it cost Chrysler money for not producing on time.
 
9-4 -67. My soul's ,still fighting everything. That simple....
 
There are many things that can be considered the "build date".

One could be the day that the vehicle was scheduled to begin on the assembly line. that starts in the body shop with building up the sheet metal. This is what I call the "frame date" - the date the car body (& frame) were built.

It usually takes 5-6 hours to get built in the body shop. then it is off to the paint shop. When I was in the assembly plant, it would take approximately one day for a "first time through" vehicle that did not need any "repair" or touch ups after paint.

Then it comes to the assembly line where all of the parts are assembled and the car drives off the final assembly line.

After it gets off the final assembly line, it goes on the finish prep line and then out the "shipping tunnel" into the shipping lot at the plant. this is where the MDH stickers are applied. This could also be considered the "build date" or shipping date.
 
I would say the seat installation would be about 3/4 of the way through production. It was done before undercoating and before body drop.(engine/trans/rear/exhaust).
 
Everybody here is correct. The car could have been built several days before the exact day, or a few after. Nobody said it had to be the exact day. In the end Chrylser couldn't finish them too soon, because then they would have to store them, or ship them. The car was paid for by the bank once it was done. If they built them too soon, and sent to the dealers, then they would have cars on the lot before the build date. Not possible. There are many examples of owners on this site showing the build date within 10 days of sale, so Chrysler did their job on the back end. An old friend of mine at Chrysler laughed at me when I asked him this question, he said why would we build them sooner then the estimated date? We sold a million cars a year, Imagine a freight train pulling a million cars, if one got done too soon, what would happen to the rest? Build dates were there to keep order, nothing else. He said keep in mind this applied less in the 70's when Chrysler had financial problems, and the Bank had more cars than dealers wanted, or the wrong model that may have been less popular. Then, an estimated production date was pushed back for lack of demand or cash, and they didn't bother to update the build sheet, other doc's or the fender tag. Today I believe the point is to help the Guys get date coded parts to help restore their cars the best they can. Clearly an owner that has a build dated 1 aug car will have a lot more trouble authenticating his car than a 30 June car, as early cars are a lot more difficult to bring back with early build dates. Sorry to go on so long, I only want to help other mopar guys get the best Information in order to preserve the brand.
 
It is my understanding that a "Sales Bank" car was a car built that was not specifically ordered by a dealer. Such a car could be used to fill a fleet order or fill up a transport bound for a particular area. It could have also been built to keep factories running as it cost more to close a plant than to have it run at "idle". A common tactic was to require dealers to draw from the "Sales Bank" if they wanted to receive a better allocation of more desirable models. "Sales Bank" cars contributed to Chrysler's financial problems in the late 70s because Chrysler was growing inventory faster than they could sell it.

All the same, it seems to me the build date ought to be the date that the uni-body structure was completed. After the body is completed, everything else is merely an attachment. There may be disparity between the dates on various documentation, but it would probably take tracking down what happened at a particular plant during the time period in question in order to resolve it. e.g. work stoppages, component availability, holidays, etc.
 
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