Born-on Dates

[lloyd3]

Back in the mid-1990s, I paid Galen Glovier to decode my car.  Part of that decode included a "scheduled production date" of 705, which translated to a July 5th, 1968 build date.  I had read somewhere how to do this and had come up with a similar date myself before paying for the "decode".  It's scary what you forget as time passes, but I cannot find where I read how to do the decode myself.  Another question, I am aware of a born-on date for a 1968 model-year R/T Charger that is 306, which by my estimates is early in June of 1967?  It that possible?  Were cars produced before the line was shifted over to the "new" model-year (sometime in late July)?  Final question- when did the numbering process (Julian Calender) start for this period at Chrysler? Sometime in 1967?

[hemi68charger]

Typically, the production run of any particular year started during the 1st week of Aug. of the year before (model year) and ended around the 2nd week of July of the model year. The gap in time was for the assembly plants to retool for the next year. So, for the '68 model year, the first run would be in Aug. of 1967 and end in mid-July 1968.

Make sense?

I'm not aware of when MaMopar started the use of the 3 digit SPD format.

[cdr]

Back in the mid-1990s, I paid Galen Glovier to decode my car.  Part of that decode included a "scheduled production date" of 705, which translated to a July 5th, 1968 build date.  I had read somewhere how to do this and had come up with a similar date myself before paying for the "decode".  It's scary what you forget as time passes, but I cannot find where I read how to do the decode myself.  Another question, I am aware of a born-on date for a 1968 model-year R/T Charger that is 306, which by my estimates is early in June of 1967?  It that possible?  Were cars produced before the line was shifted over to the "new" model-year (sometime in late July)?  Final question- when did the numbering process (Julian Calender) start for this period at Chrysler? Sometime in 1967?

306 would be march 6 1968

[lloyd3]

That was my understanding as well.  But I have seen articles about pre-production "mules" that were used as test beds for the new model-year changes.  Any idea when this practice started?  Also, after giving it some thought, I believe that the Julian Calender numbering system was started after the end of the 1966 model-year.  Can anyone confirm that?

[lloyd3]

CDR- is it that simple?  I somehow thought it was the actual numbered days of the year (365 being a full year)?

[cdr]

http://www.mymopar.com/index.php?pid=85

[69CoronetRT]

I'm not aware of when MaMopar started the use of the 3 digit SPD format.

The 1965 model year.

As stated above, the typical scheduled production dates in the 60's ran from August 1 to mid July.
Pre production cars could have a late July SPD.

When you get into the 70's some model years ran long (August to late August) meaning the next year was 'short' (September to August) or ran September to September.

[hemi68charger]

CDR- is it that simple?  I somehow thought it was the actual numbered days of the year (365 being a full year)?

It isn't the Julian Date....

1st digit is the month
1-9 = Jan - Sept
A, B, C = Oct, Nov, Dec respectively..

2nd/3rd is the day of the month.........

[lloyd3]

Appreciate the refresher.  I guess the Julian date affects the actual day it was built (say, a monday verses a tuesday?)

[John_Kunkel]

Unless one was standing on the production line there is no way to know the actual day the car was built...the fender tag shows the "scheduled" build date and that can vary from the actual by several days.

The VIN will tell if a July date was a pre-production or late year production.

[lloyd3]

Thanks John, I always wondered about that.  Were scheduled production dates met with any frequency or were they regularly missed?  Considering my own experience with life in Corporate America, schedules were seldom hit unless there were rigidly enforced penalties backing them up. 

[Alaskan_TA]

Several informational examples of scheduled production dates vs. actual build dates & the situations that could affect them at http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=A12&Number=5776089&page=0&fpart=1

[Chargerguy74]

Great thread. Thanks for the link Barry.