date compatability

[cuda hunter]

My V code is a december 69 car. C06
I have found a March 70 car that is mostly complete. 305

Are there enough difference's in these months that I should not use the March car for transferring parts? 

[anlauto]

I guess it depends on what parts and if the date codes really something that bugs you 

[cuda hunter]

Well, I wouldn't normally let it bug me for the cars I have built in the past. 
but, with the V i'm doing I really want to use parts that are appropriate for that year and date.
I'm not looking to build the V for resale, however when I am ready to sale it I would like to get the proper amount for the car and date coded parts make a big difference for those who buy these pedigree cars.  It seems. 

[JH27N0B]

For a car to be OEM correct the dates need to be prior to the build date of the car.  But if you aren't going for an OE gold level restoration, the dates aren't that important.  Certain parts like a master cylinder or mufflers, finding original parts with the appropriate date codes can be damn near impossible.  For other parts, most people would have a hard time seeing the date code after the car is assembled so why get too carried away worrying about it?  Some parts are pretty open and obvious so even for a nice local show level restoration it's good to find correct.  A correct date code 3 speed wiper motor for example, important.  A correct date code oil pressure sensor or starter motor, not so much.

[70Barracuda]

Was thinking this thread was about my dates compatibility with my car..  Off topic now, usually they think no big deal who cares about your hot rod car.  Then they go for a ride!

[anlauto]

For a car to be OEM correct the dates need to be prior to the build date of the car.  But if you aren't going for an OE gold level restoration, the dates aren't that important.  Certain parts like a master cylinder or mufflers, finding original parts with the appropriate date codes can be damn near impossible.  For other parts, most people would have a hard time seeing the date code after the car is assembled so why get too carried away worrying about it?  Some parts are pretty open and obvious so even for a nice local show level restoration it's good to find correct.  A correct date code 3 speed wiper motor for example, important.  A correct date code oil pressure sensor or starter motor, not so much.

well said

[76orangewagon]

I'm not going for OE Gold but date codes are important to me ...part of the thrill is the hunt... but yes, the date code should precede the SPD. Here is a chart from Dave Wise's guide to show approximately how far before the SPD should be. I had all my original switches and relays in my Cuda and some were date's are only a few days prior to my SPD.

[JH27N0B]

Not to disrespect Dave Wise or yourself, but as an engineer who has spent over a quarter century at automotive parts and truck manufacturers I always get a laugh out of reference material, books and magazine articles and such that purport to give accurate date windows when parts on a car would have been manufactured.  At my present employer who builds trucks, you'd be surprised just how many new trucks are delivered with parts datecoded after the truck is manufactured on the line.  I'm sure that situation is more common in truck manufacturing with the amount of variation and even multiple models getting built on the same line on a given day versus automotive where the line is dedicated to one model with much less variation, but I'm sure it still happens. 
Parts in low supply come in at the last minute, in other cases bins of parts turn up that got misplaced and didn't turn up until an inventory 6 months later.  Quality control takes some parts to reinspect, later returns them to the line.  I've got parts from plants for engineering tests and then returned parts later when the test got canceled or I only used a handful of parts and they'd sent me 100.
Happens all the time.
If judging standards are based on some experts fairy tale story of how manufacturing works then someone needs to follow the standards when building a concours restoration to "win" but that doesn't mean the car is as built on the assembly line.
I would argue that any part date is OK if before the car was assembled.  But even SBDs are not necessarily accurate as some like Dan here on the board has explained, as he has documented cars built before and cars built after their SBD as SBD is just scheduled not actual build.
My T/As shoulder belts date code cloth tag is about a year before the car was built, and I'm pretty sure they are original as they were there in '78 when I bought the car, probably never used as almost no one wore shoulder belts then! Hope no judge dings me for my incorrect date coded seat belts!

[Cuda Cody]

Also, there are exceptions to V codes and Hemi's that normally do not apply to other cars when it comes to dates.  For example, my buddy has a numbers matching V code built in late 1970 and his engine was cast almost a year earlier.  His car is very well documented and I have inspected it to confirm the dates.  It blew me away that his engine was cast so early and when I started talking to people "in the know" they all seemed like I was crazy that I didn't already know that a lot of late built V codes had very early cast blocks.  They made it sound like it was common knowledge.     So you're going to have more runway with date codes with a V code or Hemi than compared to cars they built more of and had more parts.  It mostly applies to special Hemi of V code parts, not the normal parts that are on every car.

[pink aar]

Date codes are up in the air, I don't really believe in them on Mopars. Because of the low production numbers compared to Ford and Chevy. I know of a all original B5 blue AAR with side glass with a date codes of Sept, Nov and the car was built the last week of March. I also had a 70 cuda with a 318 and the block was a July of 69 and the car was built on Jan of 70. These are just small examples to show that mopar dates are not like Ford or Chevy due to production numbers being so low.

[cuda hunter]

Thanks for the knowledge and opinions guys!

Cody, when you speak of V code parts, I would assume one of those major parts that held up production on V's is the shaker hood's.  Correct?

Since my V code didn't have a shaker would it have been regular schedule down the line? maybe

[JH27N0B]

Vehicles are scheduled for a certain date to build but final production can vary depending on a variety of reasons.  I don't think actual build versus scheduled build would vary more often with more limited sales type cars like Hemis or V codes.  It could shift because they wanted to run a bunch of cars the same color for a couple hours to make things more efficient in the paint process for example. Or line schedule is low next week so they pull ahead some builds from further out scheduled build to keep the line output constant rate week to week.
Other than some special cars like Superbirds, Daytona's and sunroof cars, I don't know if there were any options or models that routinely got assembly completion off line after rolling off the assembly line. What I referred to earlier about trucks with datecoded parts after scheduled build, are situations where a part was missing as it rolled down the line, or there was a problem found after build and mechanics at the plant had to fix it with a new part or parts days or weeks later when they were able to rectify the problem. Which surely happens at auto plants too.

[Cuda Cody]

Missing any single part at all could slow or delay the build so rare cars that have less popular options could throw all the date codes off for the build.

[indytomVcuda]

Hello & Happy New Year all. Love this site. You guys & ladies are awesome with the info you share to help each other.  Have learned so much from Cody, 6bblgt and all of you that post.  I have lurked & learned forever but first time posting here. 
My name is Tom V. Kelly and I'm a retired Facilities Engineer & Mfr Engineering Supervisor from Chrysler.  I have some info that may help on discussions related to the lag between engine block casting dates & engine plant machining/assembly dates that comes up periodically.  This is a rehash of info I posted on Moparts last year (March 2018).  Wanted to share here since it's a topic in this thread.
A bit off topic but some history on the Chrysler Indianapolis Foundry where I started my career as that's where the engine block castings came from.  The sand mold, grey iron plant was originally named the American Foundry when first started in Indianapolis in the 1890s.  It was relocated a bit further west in town later before being purchased by Chrysler around 1949.  It officially became the Chrysler Indianapolis Foundry in 1958.  It was closed down by the Daimler 'braintrust' in 2005, block production farmed out to Germany and South America and the Indy facility was subsequently bulldozed a year or so later.   
The Indianapolis Foundry's heritage was producing the 426 Hemi blocks that won the 1964 Daytona 500, the subsequent casting of iron 426 Race Hemi and production Street Hemi blocks, thousands of 273, 318, 340 (including the TA and race blocks), 360, 361, 383, 400, 413, 426w and 440s.  All the blocks for the muscle car era.  The plant also cast the iron 2.2, 2.5, 3.9, 3.5 and later 4.0 L Jeep blocks before being shut down. Our product was rough castings, cleaned of excess flashing only.  No machining was done at our facility though we did have an off-line heating & annealing oven for minor exterior defect repairs.  Actual machining was done at the engine plants.
I started at the Indianapolis Foundry in July 1972 in Production Control. Being the 'newby' I pulled different clerical duties over time including monitoring in-process casting production, shipping and for a while ended up on night shift taking in-plant casting inventory. At that time there were over 100,000 rough castings of various displacement palleted in the outdoor storage yard and a few thousand more of high demand blocks in a large storage warehouse on the site. The bare block castings were stacked on pallets, 24 small blocks per pallet, 18 big blocks per pallet, three pallets high, in long rows by part number. At that time if the engine machining plant called for a quantity of blocks and that block was in production on the line, they were palleted, banded and loaded straight off the 'cleaning (flashing removal) line' onto the semi-trucks and headed to the Engine Plants.
The Indy Foundry produced all of the V8 iron blocks for the Corporation at that time, though I do recall some were outsourced to International Harvester Foundry across town in Indy when we couldn't keep up with demand.  This was primarily 318s while I was there, but my brother had a 383 in a '64 Fury with an International Harvester tag riveted to it so obviously there were others.
The B/RBs went to the Trenton MI Engine Plant for machining, 318 & 340s to Mound Road MI Engine Plant and the 360 to Windsor Ontario Canada plant for machining and assy in '72. 
Of interest, in 1972 when I inventoried all plant castings, though no longer in production, there were still numerous rough casting 273, 361, early and late style 383 and 413s stacked in the storage yard.  And the coolest thing, there were even a few hundred HEMIs still palleted in the yard that had been poured some time earlier. I was in awe of those HEMIs so kept an eye on them. The Hemi tooling was still in a secured, caged area of the warehouse at that time. I even loved looking at it when walking the area. I was drafted into the Army in October 1972 so no direct knowledge of production operations during '73 through mid '75.
Now to the discussion on Casting Date versus Machine/Assy dates on blocks:
When Engine Plant orders exceeded in-process production output of a specific part number block or an order came in for a casting not coming off the line at the time, the blocks would be pulled from the warehouse if available.  If none in the warehouse, castings were pulled from the outdoor storage yard.  We had two production casting lines at the time and one was generally dedicated to 318s due to demand and the second line could be "A", "B" or "RB" blocks so yard pulls could be fairly random based on engine plant requirements. 
When required, 'yard blocks' were moved from yard (last in-first out based on the long rows in the yard), removed from their wood pallets, hung on conveyor hooks & sent through one of two huge shot blast machines (Wheelabrator & Pangborn equipment manufacturers) to clean off surface rust.
After blocks were shot blasted & tumbled on vibratory conveyors (the reason you have metal shot in some of your water jackets!), they were put back on wooden pallets, banded and shipped.  So of note, depending on demand, older cast date blocks could have set in the yard for a long time before being pulled out randomly for blasting & shipment. That helps explain old casting dates with much later machine/assembled stamped dates at the Machine Plants.
When I got back from the army, I started engineering classes at night and got called back to the Foundry in late 1975. Things had changed due to gas/oil embargo, economy, etc. Chrysler had tightened its belt and yard storage of blocks was eliminated. Don't remember seeing the HEMI blocks anymore. The 'out of production' blocks were gone too (likely written off and re-melted) and I don't remember seeing that Hemi tooling anymore.

I'll end with this info for the 'Hemi guys': one of the accountants at the plant gave me a copy of the Plant Gross Production Record from 1961 thru closing. Columns list blocks by displacement and I was told the 426w & 426 Hemi could have been combined in 1964 (evidently not all accountants are car guys!). Anyway the list showed the following rough 426 castings cast in the following years (numbers listed in '000s'): 1964-3; 1965-3; 1966-11; 1967-0; 1968-6; 1969-3; 1970-3; 1973-1; 1974-1.

In closing, I look forward to this group's assistance in future.  In 1989 I bought a '70 Cuda V-code (OB146491) as a roller.  Unfortunately, there was no fender tag or build sheet though body numbers and original mylar door tag (MFR 10-69) all check out with its original 1975 Indiana Title I received at the time.  I met the 1972 owner a year or so ago and he had a pic (Red, black vinyl top, Red shaker, front & rear rubber bumper car) and told me other options it had on it then.  So I got excited and started acquiring parts for it.  Hopefully I will get started on it within the coming new year. More on that car's story later.

And though it's not an e-body, my other pride and joy is a PP-1 red '68 hemi-Road Runner with it's original drivetrain that I pulled from a field in '82 and completed in '87.

All the best. Have a Happy, Healthy & Blessed New Year!
Tom

[Cuda Cody]

WOW, Tom that is fantastic info.  @indytomVcuda   Thank you for sharing it.

@wanderlustin  you might want to read this post.

Tom, do you need any rubber bumpers for your Cuda?  I think I have 1 or 2 originals in my shop that I am thinking of selling.  I would have to double check the year, but I think they are 1970.