Early 66 Cuda/ Valiant badging in 1966

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Kerry123

Kerry123

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What's the story with Valiant badging on 66 Barracudas. My 66 was built in LA on Nov 10,1965. Car number 81 off the line. It has fish badging. Has the Valiant badging been swapped out?
 
Probably not, only the very early 66's had a "V" valiant grille emblem, that's it as far as I know, maybe a few suck out with the valiant rear window trim....they all had the Barracuda badging on the fenders as well.
 
To the best of my knowledge only 64-1/2 and 65 cars had the Valiant badging. It's possible that some very-early 66 models might also have it.
 
Oh, early 66's had the "V" as well, and as far as rarity goes, the front "V" emblem for the 66 only grille is probably rarer than the fish! I can't remember what the build date of the black 66 I had was, but it had the V in the front and back!

Kinda like this one in my yard right now!! There's no fender tag on it, but it also has the V in the front and back!!
 

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Congrats Kerry! Great history lesson guys!
 
Timing is tough. The dealer brochures are not dated, but have the barracuda emblem

Owner manuals do give a clue
1st edition July 1965 doesn't have barracuda club
2nd edition October 1965 has the barracuda club with the depiction of the barracuda emblem. Based on that, the emblem took place around this time. And of course based on stock on hand at the assembly plant.

And don't forget the rear window emblem
 

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Thanks for the info guys. I have a follow up question. When did production start in LA in late 1965 to build 1966 cars? Kerry
 
Kerry123 said:
Thanks for the info guys. I have a follow up question. When did production start in LA in late 1965 to build 1966 cars? Kerry
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Probably as early as the 2nd week of July 1965, with a debut date of August 1st!
 
If you look closely at I believe it was motor Trend test drive of the "new" 1966 Barracuda, the can in the pictures has the "V" grill emblem. (as does one of my B'cudas). There was on on E-Bay not to long agao which also had the "V" grill emblem.
 
I wanted to see if anybody could include the build location and dates for their V grill and barracuda emblems on their 1966 barracudas

Mine was built in Hamtramck in August 27 1965 with V badging

Here is a pretty solid link to decode the fender tag (nice job by the charger site)

http://www.dodgecharger.org/cgi/f66.cgi
 
My (and LilCuda's) old '66 was an October 19, 1965 LA built car with fish on both ends. History of the car is known back to 1975.

To the OP. Your car was NOT #81 off the line. That is probably the SO # as the SO# of my old car is 00082. The sequence # on the VIN is closer to the number off the line, but still may not be precisely linear.
 
My 66 was built August 23 1965 and had V emblems, the front grill was also aluminum, later on they were steel. You can see the car if you do a search n my posts. I had in the classifieds. It was car 521 off the line I think if memory serves
 
thank you, great looking car. Funny enough mine was 552 off the line and the same color
 
what are you basing your "off the line" numbers on? SO? I got a good one if that's it.....
 
pishta said:
what are you basing your "off the line" numbers on? SO? I got a good one if that's it.....
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Like I stated above, even the sequence number on the VIN is not necessarily exactly the order they came off the line. The SO # is simply the number on the form that ordered the car...
 
I was basing it on the shipping order that runs after the production date

Based on information from other members, V Emblems where in production in early September 1965.
As started earlier, the 2nd edition owners manual with Fish Emblem (and barracuda club membership forms) was printed in October 1965
 
Like I said, you cannot deduce the order a car came down the line using any information on the fender tag. The VIN tag will only get you close.
 
Jim Lusk said:
Like I said, you cannot deduce the order a car came down the line using any information on the fender tag. The VIN tag will only get you close.
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An so order number of 9999 Will be built way later than 0521.... So one would think that it does have a bearing and does matter?
 
The order numbers came from order blanks - pieces of paper. They were filled out internally by Chrysler for sales bank cars & by dealerships all over the country ordering cars for lot stock & for clients.

So, the numbers could be high or low throughout the year because there were 1000s of order blanks that could be filled out & submitted at any time during the model year.
 
It looks like my 66 Production date is Sept 1 1965. When my father purchased the car he had the dealer change out the badge to the fish. As a side note the rear window trim piece is a Valiant emblem.

Dan
 
4mulas said:
An so order number of 9999 Will be built way later than 0521.... So one would think that it does have a bearing and does matter?
Click to expand...

As Alaskan_TA pointed out, there is no necessary correlation between order number and build order (and he IS the expert on this...).
 
My first 66 was built in August, if I'm remembering right and it had a fish in the grill and a "V" on the back window trim.

Don't know the entire history though so anything could have happened.
 
Aw man! I was stoked to find my SO number was 0001 with an April 1 build date for a '65 S. 5540100001 is the number on the rad support. Maybe its the 1st down the line on April 1?
 
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