When was the last production day for C-Bodies?
- Thread starter 1978 NYB
- Start date
78Brougham
"Chump"
The one in the b&w pic does have a black roof... That eliminates the Fawn yellow... Can't someone who has FB contact whoever posted it and ask where the pic is from? Maybe that would reveal the date anyway....
Robert Saigh
Senior Member
That's a nice looking Grey 2 door '78 on the prior page. Is that a blue top with blue interior?
ceebuddy
Well-Known Member
Nope, black top with grey leather interior. The car depicted was discussed in this Thread
Because of the last C-body VINned for Canada that just popped up, here is an updated list of known late C-bodies (June 1978):
CS43T8C173849, SPD XXX, MDH 060510
CS43N8C178624, SPD 612, MDH XXXXXX
CS23XXXXXXXXX, SPD 619, MDH 061611
CS23T8C181510, SPD 619, MDH XXXXXX (same as CS23XXXXXXXXX?)
CS43T8C181574, SPD 619, MDH 062011
CS43T8C181591, SPD 619, MDH 052212
CS43T8C182748, SPD 626, MDH 061309 (the Canadian car)
CS23T8C183615, SPD 626, MDH 061413
CS43T8C173849, SPD XXX, MDH 060510
CS43N8C178624, SPD 612, MDH XXXXXX
CS23XXXXXXXXX, SPD 619, MDH 061611
CS23T8C181510, SPD 619, MDH XXXXXX (same as CS23XXXXXXXXX?)
CS43T8C181574, SPD 619, MDH 062011
CS43T8C181591, SPD 619, MDH 052212
CS43T8C182748, SPD 626, MDH 061309 (the Canadian car)
CS23T8C183615, SPD 626, MDH 061413
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Samplingman
Old Man with a Hat
What we know so far is that there was no production past June 1978 correct? Anyone find out the date of that photo?
Would be great if the foto date could confirm this!
commando1
Old Man with a Hat
I got lost. Which car is this one, again?
commando1
Old Man with a Hat
That's the car that we all got so excited about, or rather, the owner of which made us waste so much energy: Richard.
If the last day of production was 6/24 how could Richard's car be 6/26?
Bill Watson
Active Member
The "626" is the Scheduled Build Date, and the car was assigned that date when the car's order was received and processed. Once the date is assigned to the car, it's stuck there. The actual date of production may be moved, but the SBD will not change. Same with the MDH.
Being the end of the line for the C body Chrysler the production people probably took all the cars left to be built and set them up for production until the last car was built. Which meant the 626 car got moved up to June 24.
Being the end of the line for the C body Chrysler the production people probably took all the cars left to be built and set them up for production until the last car was built. Which meant the 626 car got moved up to June 24.
I haven't asked you yet.....
By chance do you know what the VIN of the last Formal produced?
Chrysler shut down the plant one week earlier than originally planned, I would say.
Note the regularity in the SPD succession: incrementing by 7, they all indicate Mondays: 612, 619, 626.
The SPD here rather indicates the week of scheduled production. Needless to say, the actual date a car was produced (check your MDH's!) mostly didn't even fall within its scheduled production week.
Richard's 626 car got actually moved to June 14. We have no car with an MDH for June 24 yet.
Because of this beautiful Newport an update of the Late C-Bodies List is due. In bold the last known C-body:
CS43T8C173849, SPD XXX, MDH 060510
CL43N8C175464, SPD 606, MDH 051011 (the Newport)
CS43N8C178624, SPD 612, MDH XXXXXX
CS23XXXXXXXXX, SPD 619, MDH 061611
CS23T8C181510, SPD 619, MDH XXXXXX (same as CS23XXXXXXXXX?)
CS43T8C181574, SPD 619, MDH 062011
CS43T8C181591, SPD 619, MDH 052212
CS43T8C182748, SPD 626, MDH 061309 (the last Canadian car)
CS23T8C183615, SPD 626, MDH 061413
SPD 606 is interesting, because it was a Tuesday. Up until now, all SPDs were Mondays.
CS43T8C173849, SPD XXX, MDH 060510
CL43N8C175464, SPD 606, MDH 051011 (the Newport)
CS43N8C178624, SPD 612, MDH XXXXXX
CS23XXXXXXXXX, SPD 619, MDH 061611
CS23T8C181510, SPD 619, MDH XXXXXX (same as CS23XXXXXXXXX?)
CS43T8C181574, SPD 619, MDH 062011
CS43T8C181591, SPD 619, MDH 052212
CS43T8C182748, SPD 626, MDH 061309 (the last Canadian car)
CS23T8C183615, SPD 626, MDH 061413
SPD 606 is interesting, because it was a Tuesday. Up until now, all SPDs were Mondays.
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Biggest reason for short shut downs is this: Common practice at virtually every automaker was to pre-fit as much of the new tooling as possible into an existing line prior to the "official" shut down for retooling.My '78 and '79 New Yorkers. MUCH difference between the two, as you are aware. Like the Hudson example, I do not believe that the '78 production was cut off sooner than normal for retooling. Retooling really does not take a lot of time, in the majority of cases. Another example was when the local GM plant went from the Cutlass/Malibu to the GMC/Chevy/Isuzu SUV in 2004. The complete retooling took just three weeks; and this was for a completely dissimilar vehicle from the previous build line.
Knowing the "SPD" which is actually the body frame date, not the scheduled production date, and knowing the date on the MDH label are two parts of the equation involving knowing when the "last" of anything was built. The only really reliable document to show when a car came off the line is the shipping invoice. The shipping invoice carries a lot of the same information as the window sticker about the car itself, but unlike the window sticker, it will list the day the car was considered to be built. It won't be the SPD and it may or may not be the date on the MDH label. I know this flies in the face of a lot of popularly held conceptions about all of this stuff, but I spent years with the people in Windsor who were involved with this stuff. I got my ear chewed off about calling the date on the fender tag the build date and was told in no uncertain terms that it was not.
What no one seems to talk about is that when a car got built was entirely at the whim (and it sometimes really was a whim) of the individual plant scheduling people. THEY were the ones who determined when a car got built. Case in point, when Windsor was building '66 Monaco convertibles (a car Canada got that the U.S. didn't), orders were taken throughout the model year. They were all held and the cars were more or less batch built from late April through early June. Why? Because the build of the car was so different from what the plant was used to building, that nobody would remember what was involved in building a convertible if they only built one every couple or three weeks during the model year run. By building and scheduling them to be build as every 10th or 20th car on the line, line people whose job involved something unique with the convertibles would remember what it was. The first cars built were probably pretty scary and likely hit every repair bay along the line. But as the build progressed, there'd be fewer repairs and better build quality. And while Windsor offered everything from 318s to 440s in these cars the VAST majority of them were 318s with minimal optional equipment. And while I have nothing to prove it, I strongly suspect that a lot of the convertibles built were spec cars, built without a firm customer ordered and sent to dealers in markets that the sales people figured would generate an impulse sale.
The attitude toward Historical varied wildly from one day to the next. Depening on whose budget Historical operated under (I think it's currently under Public Relations) there could (a) be a push to close it, lock the door and forget about it, (b) close it, lock the door and throw it all in a dumpster, (c) keep one person on staff to handle information requests from P.R.. What no one EVER considered was that Historical could be a PROFIT CENTER, i.e. Chrysler could actually make money by keeping it open. I'm sure as it stands now, the volume of requests comes close to paying the paid staff salaries. But if the income volume dropped, then it wouldn't be hard to see it all close again.
The drug and other problems at Lynch Road were horrendous. Once heard a story that two guys had just driven '79 NYs off the line and were hotdogging them around a yard. At one point the two of them crashed into each other, and the drivers got out, laughing hysterically and walked back into the plant.
One thing I've never had made clear to me was the "hour" portion of the MDH. Not sure if it's 2pm as you stated, or if it's the 14th hour of production on a particular day. If so, hour 14 would be 9 or 10pm at night.
So one possible answer to this is simply: Anybody got an "HOUR" later than 16?
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