Early vs Later 1969 Polaras (and Monacos)

[MrMoparCHP]

In working on my car I have found several parts with differences that may be related to when the car was assembled.
I have three cars that I have been using as a reference.

Early
08/28/68 (Parts Car)
01/03/69 (My Driver)
Later
05/30/69 (CHP Car)

First up is the body side moulding, this is the moulding the runs the length of the car about half way up the door (base models only). The Early is a simple 3/8” trim with no bumper and the later is about 3/4” with a rubber bumper.

Next up is the door sill plates, The early has the three sections that are smooth and the later has one section that has grooves.

Next is the vent screen/grill. The early has an expanded metal mesh (I have two of these so I know it is factory) and the later has the molded plastic grill.

Finally is the lower windshield trim. The early has a rubber flap on the ends and the later does not. This is my design and not just missing the part.

I’d be interested in hearing from others with 69’s on what they have along with the scheduled build date of their car (that can be found on the data plate).

Thanks,

 

[Big_John]

Interesting stuff..

We discovered on 69 Plymouth B-Body cars that there were several differences in early and late cars too. There was a difference in the underside of the deck lid and shoulder harness and head rests were part of the government mandate effective 1 Jan 1969. We also found that there was one other thing that was changed to meet the new government specs.

At the rear of the car, where the gas tank fill went through the body, the hole was round in the early cars and oval shaped in the later cars. From what I believe and has been theorized by others, this was to meet a new standard for rear end collision. I've never gotten that confirmed though.

I wonder if there is a similar change in the 69 C-body cars.

 

[Rattle Trap]

Please excuse my ignorance...
Were the Polara's, like B-bodies, made in more than place? That alone could account for difference in parts.

The 69 4-dr's door sill trim @ my local salvage yard is of the ribbed design, and so too on the 70 2-dr. But the 71's all seem to have the flat style. I could have had a pair of good 4-dr ribbed front sill plates for $15 @ the swap yesterday, but needed 2dr.

Our 72 NYB has the rubber pieces on the cowl w-shld trim. It's difficult to tell what gets swapped around 40 plus years after the fact. You can't trust "the experts" to know either.....

I would bet the wire mesh was only used for as long as it took to bid out and tool up for the plastic part. Really Cool!

 

[MrMoparCHP]

Interesting stuff..
We discovered on 69 Plymouth B-Body cars that there were several differences in early and late cars too. There was a difference in the underside of the deck lid and shoulder harness and head rests were part of the government mandate effective 1 Jan 1969. We also found that there was one other thing that was changed to meet the new government specs.
At the rear of the car, where the gas tank fill went through the body, the hole was round in the early cars and oval shaped in the later cars. From what I believe and has been theorized by others, this was to meet a new standard for rear end collision. I've never gotten that confirmed though.
I wonder if there is a similar change in the 69 C-body cars.

None of these fall into anything that you would think of as a safety change or a federally mandated thing.

Please excuse my ignorance...
Were the Polara's, like B-bodies, made in more than place? That alone could account for difference in parts.
The 69 4-dr's door sill trim @ my local salvage yard is of the ribbed design, and so too on the 70 2-dr. But the 71's all seem to have the flat style. I could have had a pair of good 4-dr ribbed front sill plates for $15 @ the swap yesterday, but needed 2dr.
Our 72 NYB has the rubber pieces on the cowl w-shld trim. It's difficult to tell what gets swapped around 40 plus years after the fact. You can't trust "the experts" to know either.....
I would bet the wire mesh was only used for as long as it took to bid out and tool up for the plastic part. Really Cool!

Whereas that may be true I believe that all 1969 C-Bodies came out of Belvedere
It might be possible that someone swapped out the parts but highly unlikely. One car sat in a field for 30 years and was intact down to the tiny details, one was purchased with 80,000 miles and still had the factory belts hoses and spark plug wires. As for the parts car it was in a previous wreck and was a mess when I got it but was consistent with my other car.

I firmly believe that these were production changes, when and why? This is more a curiosity as I will be putting the style that came off back on.

 

[Rattle Trap]

There were always running engineering changes. Model, year, and legislation, are irrelevent to that. You should try tracking down the changes on F-bodies. Some of them are absurd, undocumented, and unknown to the uninitiated, yet tracable by the means you've used, of documenting undisturbed cars. One reason beyond the expected is in dealing with the UAW. An engineering change opens the rebalance window for adding work to a job or eliminating a job by adding work to others. The mega-corporate taxation/welfare system is such that they can regularly do things which would kill a lesser volume business immediately. And they shrug it off like it's nothing... Another unusual thing about maMopar is that they will introduce a product before completing engineering/sourcing, and have all the pieces made to even produce it. Hence your mesh cowl screens. Also, and you may not believe it, but, the first several thousand 4.7L engines made in 2001 didn't have head gaskets for the same reason. That they ran well, mostly, was a testament to good machining. But it became a dealer service concern which wasn't admitted to by a TSB, anyhow. There's alot that goes on which can only be documented by having several cars to compare. Looks like you're doing a Great job in finding differences.

 

[bluefury361]

My 69 300 is an early build car, (OCT8, 68), and had several carry over items.

[QUOTE=MrMoparCHP;103490]First up is the body side moulding,
I'm not familure with the Polaras trim levels, maybe Dave can shed light on this.


Next up is the door sill plates, The early has the three sections that are smooth and the later has one section that has grooves.
My 300 has the three section sill plates. I believe the grooved plates came after January.


Next is the vent screen/grill. The early has an expanded metal mesh (I have two of these so I know it is factory) and the later has the molded plastic grill.
I have both the expanded metal screen and the plastic cover on my car and the parts car I had.


Finally is the lower windshield trim. The early has a rubber flap on the ends and the later does not. This is my design and not just missing the part.

I also have the plastic rain deflectors on the ends of the lower windshield trim. Not sure why they may have deleted them on later production cars.

I’d be interested in hearing from others with 69’s on what they have along with the scheduled build date of their car (that can be found on the data plate).
QUOTE]

Headrests were mandated on Jan 1st and later cars but were optional on all early cars.

My car is a console shift car and came with the chrome shifter knob, later 69's used a woodgrain knob.

 

[polara71]

None of these fall into anything that you would think of as a safety change or a federally mandated thing.



Whereas that may be true I believe that all 1969 C-Bodies came out of Belvedere.

I would imagine the CHP cars all came from Belvedere in 69 I do believe they also made C's in Newark and Windsor

 

[MrMoparCHP]

I would imagine the CHP cars all came from Belvedere in 69 I do believe they also made C's in Newark and Windsor

Whereas that may be true all three of my examples came out of Belvedere.

 

[kmccabe56]

Whereas that may be true all three of my examples came out of Belvedere.

Agree. 1969 Dodge "C" bodies were built at Windsor, Belvidere and Newark.

However,

ED2K (Police) were all built at Belvidere 2832 of them.

ED2T (Taxi) were built at Belvidere and Newark (87 & 116)

All plants built all body styles for the U.S. except convertibles. Convertibles for U.S. consumption were all built at Belvidere.

Canada built its own convertibles as Monaco and Monaco 500

Because the auto-pact was ramping up between Canada and the U.S., Windsor also shipped a lot of its production to the U.S.

 

[polara71]

Thank you Kevin, knew you would clarify things