Restoration Exasperation: the '70 SFGT basket case... and an S23

[kmccabe56]

So coming into the home stretch on this expedition:
Code J21 Dash mounted analog clock… ooooh, nice. Next to it is the J25 3-speed wipers.
View attachment 112150


Black dash, black vents, black steering wheel, black pillar posts, black kick panels, black seats…. That’s spells “TX9” interior color code.

View attachment 112152​

Faded and dirty speedometer with 18k on the odometer. Could it really be just 18K? eh, probably 118K but the brake pedal doesn’t have much ware for 118,756 miles so it must have had the J41 pedal dress up kit
View attachment 112153...until somebody yanked it off for some crummy B-Body resto... boooo!


So basically the “fender plate” that develops from these details might look like this:

R22 V4X YO5 26 END
M26 M31 N41 N42 P25 P31
C55 G15 H51 L31 L42 M25
V1X A01 A04 A52 B41 C16
?Y6 H6X9 TX9 ??? ??????
E65 D32 PH23 TOD 155756


Its crowded but the reality is that this car was just 2 features short of “fully loaded”. The remote trunk release and the rear window defogger would have made this the total package!


Question to the membership:

1) The paint code: it’s a 3 place alpha-numeric on all the fender tags Ive seen, but on all the Plymouth paint chip charts I can find, it’s only a 2 place alpha numeric, so where do I find the 3 place codes –or how do I figure out what the first letter in front is supposed to be??

2) Is there ANY WAY I can find out the day the car was built for making the 3 place build code? The month I can figure based on the door sticker but how to narrow the build down to the day?

3) Is there any way I can find the 6 digit order sequence number? Would there be an archive of the Belvedere plant production orders?

As best as I can tell, I have a genuine GT... any doubters? I even have a "genuine" fender plate blank... but I cant make a legit plate if I don't have the 6 digit order sequence # and I would like to keep the whole project "legit" -especially since you guys will "flame" the S#!T outta me if I don't. lol.

More to post -we got 2010, 2011 to cover- and pics of the tree that fell on the godd@#m car!

Just getting around to re-reading the entire post. Guilty of skimming the first time and not paying enough attention.

So, to the questions:

1. I believe your paint code is going to be FY6. The first letter of the code identifies the first model year that particular shade, in your case, of gold was used. The number at the end of the code is the version of gold. So there will at some point have been a Y1, Y2, Y3 and so on. 1970 is the "F" so it's the first year the colour was used.

2. The short answer is, I don't believe so. As I mentioned earlier this build date is actually the body frame date. It `can' be the date the car came off the line, but there's no more than a 50% chance that it is. Also previously, I mentioned that recording build dates of every piece you take off the car can help to determine the build date of the car.

3. Sorry, again, the short answer is I don't think so. I've recounted the horror story of how factory records from some point in 1965 through to some point in 1972 were tossed by a moron supervisor. At one time I believe there existed a way to re-run the master computer tapes to put all of that information back on paper, but since all of my contacts at Chrysler are long retired if not deceased, I have no way of knowing if that can still be done.

Still haven't made it to get out the order guide for 1970, but I will.

 

[kmccabe56]

actually restorer finished it up....l had the dumb luck of having a few extra parts come with the car from the previous owner and a mint dash pad was one of them...
my old one was kinda like yours but not quite as bad...theres new repos that are worth looking at that just came out
wondering if all 71s come out with the holes for the brougham nameplate or holes need to be added?,,,was thinking if theres holes on the roof for the nameplate may be a lead as to what it is..
View attachment 112570

I think it's safe to say that holes for a "Brougham" nameplate would only have been made in the roof if the car was going to be a Brougham.

 

[1978 NYB]

Kevin, I tried twice to find out what the last C-Body produced in 1978 and what was the production date? Chryler Historical said that they don't have a clue.

Is there any way you would know?

 

[polara71]

thats a great question Bob. If anyone would know, it would be Kevin

 

[kmccabe56]

Kevin, I tried twice to find out what the last C-Body produced in 1978 and what was the production date? Chryler Historical said that they don't have a clue.

Is there any way you would know?

Sorry, no. I bet Historical has the information and no one either knows how to look for it or doesn't want to spend the time it would take.

Years ago I got a call from a fellow who did accident reconstruction. He needed to know the turning circle of a D600 truck with a 175" wheelbase. I "knew" I had the answer to his question but I was absolutely stymied as to where it was. I finally made a mea culpa phone call to a truck expert whom I considered a friend, and without a moment's hesitation said "It's in the truck engineering data book." After slapping my forehead in stupidity, I thanked him profusely and looked up the answer. Plain as day and easy enough to find. Felt like an idiot for not knowing where the answer was, and learned a great lesson that day.

I guess my point is, a lot of the questions we ask aren't nicely organized in one place in one book. Sometimes it takes some work to come up with the answer. Thirty some odd years ago when I had great access to historical, I taught the librarian as much as I learned.

 

[polara71]

Kevin, have you been back to Carlisle or do I have to come to Moparfest to thank you?

 

[kmccabe56]

Kevin, have you been back to Carlisle or do I have to come to Moparfest to thank you?

View attachment 114628

Dunno. Haven't been to Carlisle probably since that picture was taken. Got to Moparfest last year. Haven't found out if I have permission to go this year or not........

But what the hell are you thanking me for? I haven't done anything!

 

[polara71]

The knowledge you've shared over the years on a variety of sites. You also took the time to give us 70 polara convertible owners some numbers to go by..

You've done more than you know

 

[kmccabe56]

The knowledge you've shared over the years on a variety of sites. You also took the time to give us 70 polara convertible owners some numbers to go by..

You've done more than you know

Gotta take your word on that. When I win the lottery or get that magic want I've always wanted, I'm going to conjur up one hell of a file clerk. I really enjoy looking stuff up and posting stuff, but even more than that I absolutely HATE (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) having to put stuff away again. Nothing is ever as easy as grabbing one normal sized book and flipping through it to get the answer. I used to file like kinds of information together which was OK, but then I found myself with all sorts of oversize odd shaped floppy crap which required a whole different means to store. Then when space started to get really tight, I had to resort to filing stuff by physical size, which really beat the **** out of keeping stuff organized since the brain trust couldn't make up their minds what size a particular document should be.

If anybody's independently wealthy and wants to spend the rest of their lives holed up in a basement library, I'm taking applications.

 

[Davea Lux]

SPD is easy...it's tied to the cars vin #.0D153922 IS B07. 0D158285 IS B13. So yours is somewhere in between those two.
I'm currently adding 1970 C Body info to my spreadsheets....have 500 or so to add so I might get lucky and be able to nail the date.US order #'s are not easy...sales bank cars are pretty much guess work, ordered cars from a known dealership are a bit easier as the order # is on the paperwork.

I have also got a SFGT with a missing fender tag. I got a little more lucky that sport fury basket case in that I have the original build sheet. Who would contact to re-create a proper fender tag?

 

[detmatt]

I have also got a SFGT with a missing fender tag. I got a little more lucky that sport fury basket case in that I have the original build sheet. Who would contact to re-create a proper fender tag?

How about some details, have we seen it yet?

 

[polara71]

How about some details, have we seen it yet?

Yeah ...

 

[detmatt]

We have not seen it, we're going to have to work some pics and details out of him.

 

[CanCritter]

perk.......

 

[marty mopar]

As far as hunting NOS or used parts:

calling a dealership with part numbers that far back usually will yield:

1. part is NS1....discontinued

2. part is invalid...not really but Chrysler deleted them for their system

3. if you are Lucky there is a dealer somewhere that has the part

when calling them ask if there are any superseded #s for your part

I have various COS (Cancelled Obsolete Superseded) part books including some from the early 1970s that cover superseded numbers

there are 2 helpful parts locators

www.partsvoice.com individual #s can be entered

www.rearcounter.com you can copy and paste a list of #s here


When using google to search do it this way:

3443226 Mopar

if you just put a part # in there you'll get a million hits of crap you are NOT looking for

 

[Samplingman]

A little more than a year later.... @70GTbasketcase, any update?

 

[LeBaron1973]

Their profile says last seen January 23 2018

 

[Marv]

jeez how could I miss this thread?! I really hope that the story will continue, the cliffhanger was 7 years ago
that´s a lot of time for progress, even if it comes with babysteps