Lets Play A Game: Last Of The Convertibles

polara71 · Jul 17, 2020

69CoronetRT said:
I responded to the caveat. Whether other information is available or not is irrelevant. Even in the absence of other information, the SPD should not be considered a born on/ built on / birthday. To consider otherwise perpetuates a myth. It is, by definition, a scheduled, not absolute, production date.

Humans want absolutes and finality when often times it doesn’t exist.

Understood and point taken. However, when I get a new pet they say he's " X " weeks old. I subtract those weeks and pick a day/number it may have been born on. Its the best we can do .

Samplingman · Jul 17, 2020

We've been round this merry-go-round so many times my head is spinning. I get Doug's point as the scientific, and I get Dave's point as the common acceptance (we don't know my dog's birthday or year, so we celebrate his "Gotcha Day"). For me, my vert's birthday will always be June 11, 1970. Accurate? No, but a good day to raise the glass non the less.

Here is the question, what exactly would be the documentation needed to show the correct day the car rolled off the line, and would that documentation actually exist for any car?

69CoronetRT · Jul 17, 2020

Samplingman said:
Here is the question, what exactly would be the documentation needed to show the correct day the car rolled off the line, and would that documentation actually exist for any car?

Paper documents like window stickers, shipping and sales paperwork, including Advance Dealer Shipping notices, broadcast sheets, and door stickers always help. As with anything else, patterns emerge when you compare data.

One line of ongoing research: It appears that St. Louis Plant broadcast sheets carry a different print date when compared to the SPD. This variation in date, if the theory holds, seems to give a more precise plus or minus assembly date to the SPD. As plants number sheets differently, this concept may or may not hold true with the Jefferson, Belvdiere or Newark C body plants. One needs to collect and review sheets to see what they tell us.

Some plants (Hamtramck) number sheets sequentially meaning you can place relative order of production for the car regardless of the SPD. With Lynch Road cars you can use the body in white sequence number to help with same concept.

Researching and documenting dated coded parts always helps. One indicator of a more precise assembly date for 69 Lynch Road cars seems to be K frames. Does this hold true with C bodies? Maybe. It could be checked.

It could be done but I think documenting C bodies to get the desired information will/would be incredibly difficult compared to B and E bodies.

1) lower initial production numbers meaning lower possible data points 2) lower percentage and number of surviving cars to document 3) lack of credible current industry research available (no widespread documentation like the Options and Accessories reports in the market. IF the same shipping data exists for C bodies as it does for A,B and C bodies, it needs to be put into a similar format as to what GG uses and disiminated) 4) Apparent lack of ongoing research and sharing of results. Para Fuega (sp?) is doing some excellent and necessary documentation and research on the last C bodies. 5) Lack of concern or care for the above topics.

People have to care about the topic first before anything can or will be done. Someone needs to actively seek out and compile broadcast and window sticker information in C bodies. Someone needs to collaborate with others in the hobby to share info. Someone needs to look at the comparisons between the information and SPDs to see how each year and plant is similar and different.

Does accurate information matter? To some but not all.

LocuMob · Jul 17, 2020

The ship date would be a day or more later than the day the car was produced, correct?

71Polara383 · Jul 17, 2020

LocuMob said:
The ship date would be a day or more later than the day the car was produced, correct?

Could be weeks or months

I've seen cars sit a Belvidere for a long time before vanishing.

The process took about 4-5 days from VIN assessment to completion as long as there were no issues during assembly. This was in 2013 when the Dart launched.

I could see back in the slower days about 7-10 days to build a car with no issue...

Throw in holidays, parts shortages, weekends. Its certainly possible for cars to be completed far after the date on the fender tag...

But that's all we have. It was the day the idea of the car was conceived and stamped onto a tag to stay with the car.

That's the cars birthday to me. It's all we have to go on normally unless you have all the original documents like mentioned above.

ayilar · Jul 20, 2020

ayilar said:
Thanks to a recent thread on cars for sale, and @rags's quick postings above, we now have two more Polara 'verts in the present thread. Both are currently red, but whereas DL27L0D136136 was painted ER6 red on 9/29/1969, DL27T0D137741 is a fully loaded "Rose Bowl" car and, as such, was originally EW1 white when it came out of the factory on 10/15 of the same year.

For records, a few more photos of the "John" Rose Bowl car, DL27T0D137741, that went up for sale on CL in Sacramento in July 2019. One can see the EW1 paint code on the tag, and the original white paint on the firewall in a couple of the photos below. Credits to @69monaco and @rags for the fender tag, and to @polara71 for the info on the three known Rose Bowl cars.

polara71 · Jul 20, 2020

I find it interesting how many 70 polara convertibles have been listed the weekend of Chrysler's at Carlisle.

Almost every year a new one appears in July

69monaco · Jul 20, 2020

I was thinking the same last week............

So if you,r looking for one..........

71Polara383 · Jul 20, 2020

I drove mine right through Amherst. They saw me. They had to have. Car is for sale 2 days later...

ayilar · Jul 22, 2020

71Polara383 said:
I drove mine right through Amherst. They saw me. They had to have. Car is for sale 2 days later...

Well, the 1970 Polara 'vert to which you refer sold to Illinois earlier today. DL27L0D208692 lost her fender tag when she was repainted (in the correct EB3 Light Blue) about 15 years ago. Attached below for records is her VIN door tag, showing a build date of Feb. 1970 (using the dataset started by @polara71 of all known Polara verts, the SPD must have been in the last week of February). I guessed the list of likely options here; the only mistake is the radio, which must have been R11 or R13.

polara71 · Jul 22, 2020

ayilar said:
Well, the 1970 Polara 'vert to which you refer sold to Illinois earlier today. DL27L0D208692 lost her fender tag when she was repainted (in the correct EB3 Light Blue) about 15 years ago. Attached below for records is her VIN door tag, showing a build date of Feb. 1970 (using the dataset started by @polara71 of all known Polara verts, the SPD must have been in the last week of February). I guessed the list of likely options here; the only mistake is the radio, which must have been R11 or R13.

View attachment 390265

I AM glad you got my back!

ayilar · Jul 23, 2020

@Jer just posted the tag of CM27T0C119509 . This loaded EW1 white 300 ‘vert with M6X9 black buckets and C21 buddy, V3X black top and V7X black pinstripes will soon be parted out in upstate NY.

69monaco · Jul 23, 2020

ayilar · Jul 23, 2020

Thanks @69monaco for posting CM27T0C143401 's fender tag. I remembered seeing another photo of your friend's Citron Gold 300 'vert in your post here (probably taken on the very same day), but it is nice to see the (short) options list! The black interior, top and pinstripes are great complements to the FY6 metallic paint :thumbsup: