Assitance with build date by VIN sequence?

[Wakko]

Chris, maybe you can look it up in the registry or if someone here has a close sequence to mine...I'd like to know when my car was built.  VIN ends with 137905 and of course it's a 69.

[Johnny SixPack]

Chris, maybe you can look it up in the registry or if someone here has a close sequence to mine...I'd like to know when my car was built.   VIN ends with 137905 and of course it's a 69.

Do you have a fender tag for the car, Wakko?

I can only attest to "70 Chargers for sure, but my fender tag tells the build date.



Tag shows the build date as August 2nd (802)

This is a St. Louis car (as are all "70 Chargers), so your tag layout may be different.

On your driver's door there should be a tag that will at least tell you the month and year the car was built in case your fender tag is gone.

[Wakko]

Nope, previous owner removed it for safe keeping. 

[Johnny SixPack]

Nope, previous owner removed it for safe keeping.  

Yeah, same deal with my "69.  

How about the door sticker?

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

Ian, using your VIN sequence # in the registry I would hazzard a guess to say it was either 9/8/1968 or 9/9/1968

[hemigeno]

Just my  here, but it does make a difference as to which assembly plant the car came from.  As you guys already know, Chargers were made at both Hamtramck (Dodge Main) and St. Louis in '69.  Those made at St. Louis have much lower VIN sequence numbers, since a lot fewer cars were made there.

For instance, my January 27th, '69 St. Louis car has a 210100 VIN sequence number, when that same VIN sequence was used on November 14, 1968 at Dodge Main.  The farther into the year you get, the greater the difference is in the build dates.

With the low number you're talking about, there's a lot less of a spread between St. Louis and Hamtramck, but it might be enough to make a difference.  A lot might depend on how exact you want to be.

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

Just my here, but it does make a difference as to which assembly plant the car came from. As you guys already know, Chargers were made at both Hamtramck (Dodge Main) and St. Louis in '69. Those made at St. Louis have much lower VIN sequence numbers, since a lot fewer cars were made there.

For instance, my January 27th, '69 St. Louis car has a 210100 VIN sequence number, when that same VIN sequence was used on November 14, 1968 at Dodge Main. The farther into the year you get, the greater the difference is in the build dates.

With the low number you're talking about, there's a lot less of a spread between St. Louis and Hamtramck, but it might be enough to make a difference. A lot might depend on how exact you want to be.

I agree Geno.
The closest "G" car I have to his VIN is 10/9/68.

His is a "B" car

The closest "B" car I have to your VIN is 210391 which is an 11/28/68 car.....

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

Nope, previous owner removed it for safe keeping. 

Yeah, same deal with my "69. 

How about the door sticker?

No door stickers in 69.......those started in 70 (for Chargers anyway)

[Wakko]

Ah, didn't think about that.  Mine's a B car. 

[hemigeno]

The closest "B" car I have to your VIN is 210391 which is an 11/28/68 car.....

I figured Wakko's probably was a Hamtramck car, since most of them are.   It's still worth mentioning about the difference in the plants though...

I see I also need to register another car that I got the fender tag info from, with a 210096 sequence number (and a B14 build date, which is why I made the assumption I did in my earlier reply).   I've already mentioned this car to you via PM's, indirectly regarding your Staten Island neighbor Stefan.   It just slipped my mind to register the car, but I'll remedy that here in a few minutes.   Strange that the 210391 car would have a SPD 2 weeks later than the 210096 Hamtramck car, considering the volume of cars that went through there.   When was Deer Season in 1968?   Around here, they shut the Chrysler Plant down now for a week, since they'd have trouble scrounging up enough guys to run the lines anyway.   That might explain why the hiccup in numbers




Oh, and incidentally, for some reason most Daytona's had door stickers...   I think it might have had something to do with the fact that they were shipped to the dealers at about the same time that the '70 model cars were being built and shipped, so perhaps they didn't want to run afoul of the Feds and put stickers on them (but that's just a guess).   My car's original door didn't have one when I got the car, but I have seen original cars with the sticker.   I've also been told by several wing car guru's that mine almost certainly had one when it was originally sold.   It's a peel-n-stick thing, so it could have easily been taken off years ago and all evidences of its existence removed as well.

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

Learn something new every day!
This decal is the same VIN decal like on the 70's?

[69_500]

I believe that the door sticker for Daytona's is identical to the 70 door stickers. Also Daytona's have the 2nd tire pressure sticker as well. which is placed over the origional tire pressure sticker.


Deer season for 68 seems like a logical reason for the hickup in the production numbers.

[hemigeno]

I grabbed the handy-dandy digital camera and a trouble light to see if I could get a couple of the two areas - where the VIN sticker would go on a 1969 model year car (Daytona), and on the double-label tire sticker that Danny mentioned.

The first picture is where you can still see the faint outline of where the VIN sticker's adhesive was, with its decidedly rounded corners.   I've pointed out the top and vertical side of where a little bit of the adhesive still remains.   The service-station label that is hanging below that area would go way past the corners there, so I am fairly certain this is the outline of where the VIN sticker went.   It has been a long time since I looked at this area very hard, but I did remember that there wasn't a VIN label there.

The second picture is of the two original tire labels that are still on my car.   You can see the first one sticking out from underneath the one on top.   The part number for the second (top) label is 3402105, which differs from the "77" (3400477) label that is coded on the build sheet (and is probably underneath this second label).

[kab69440]

For instance, my January 27th, '69 St. Louis car has a 210100 VIN sequence number, when that same VIN sequence was used on November 14, 1968 at Dodge Main.  

January of 69???  Where does that put my 102459 St. Louis  built 69?

[69charger2002]

i would venture to guess that is would be between august 2nd, and august 10th, 1968

[kab69440]

No kidding? Well, no wonder that 68 style dash looks so at home in my car!

[69_500]

I do believe that the origional tire sticker on Daytona's is the same as it was for all Charger R/T's. The Daytona's are the only cars I've ever seen that had a double sticker on  them. Many of them were very sloppy too. I've seen many that are put on at an angle over the first sticker. Yours is actually very straight, and tidy there Gene.

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

For instance, my January 27th, '69 St. Louis car has a 210100 VIN sequence number, when that same VIN sequence was used on November 14, 1968 at Dodge Main. 

January of 69??? Where does that put my 102459 St. Louis built 69?

I would say 8/6/1968

I have 102493 from St. Louis built on 8/6/68

[69_500]

You people realize that most of these statements being made are a guess right? I just hope there isn't a lot of people thinking about asking this question to have a fender tag or something made up. If you just want a fender tag that is fine, but I just hope that it doesn't try to get passed one to someone else down the road as a true tag.

[kab69440]

I have no fender tag. I have no build sheet. In fact, I have little in the way of original parts remaining, save for the roof and firewall. The car is nothing special from a "Resto-Puritan" point of view. There is no way anyone will ever believe that my car came from the factory with parts from everything from Cadillacs to Escorts installed on it. So, all that "factory correctness" you millionaires pay through the nose for, and hence, drive parts prices into the stratosphere in pursuit of, has no place on my old hot rod. I use anything I can find that will work, or maybe  I just think it would look cool on the car. And I don't much care who doesn't like it. Period.  I suppose it's more curiosity, than anything, as I will never be able to restore it. It would be kind of neat to know what all it did come with, what color it was, and all that. But I guess I will never know for sure.

so, 6T9, you think the car was built on 8-6?  I took delivery of it on 8-5-86. Weird...

[69_500]

I'm not sure who your calling a millionaire but I'm a far cry from that. I wasn't implying anything about having to have everything correct on a car to be able to enjoy it. I was simply saying that making a fender tag for your car is fine for a person to do, and its even okay if it doesn't have all the correct codes on it for the way the car was origionally. However it isn't right to later on try to pass that off as the actual information. That was all I was saying.