Frame stencil question

[Chuck R.]

When the production dates were created for the frame stencils, did a single digit have a zero preceeding it to denote a single number for example 10-05-68 or was it 10-5-68?

Thanks,

Chuck

[John T.]

Re: Frame stencil question

May have varied by year but my 62 is 4.13.62

John

[Chuck S.]

Re: Frame stencil question

Chuck, it appears no preceding "0" was used (Joe Tripoli's Book), and that would be logical.

On a stencil making machine, there is no preset number of spaces that have to be filled like MM.DD.YY. Therefore, the operator is almost certainly going to cut the fewest number of characters...unless he irons his underwear. If you have ever used one, you know they are a pain in the backside until you get the hang of it.

Another thing that should be noted is that for most model years, the frame stencils use the period or decimal between dates; e.g. "1.10.69". I'm not sure what was done in 68, but in 67 they appear to have used dashes between the date characters as you showed...10-5-68.

[Chuck R.]

I've got your number

The early production 68 donor frame I have also utilized the dashes but of course, the MM/DD/YY were all double digits so I couldn't figure it out!

I would have shot for the single digit if there was no clear answer.

Thanks for the help,

Chuck

[Chuck S.]

Re: I've got your number

It seems to me that 10-5-68 would be an early production 69.

Why is the build date that was on a donor frame important anyway? Use a date that makes sense for your car's build date. Ideally, you could determine the frame stencil date for a 68 close to your VIN, and change it (+/-) appropriately. Otherwise, make one up 1-3 months before your car's build date. My 70 was about 5 weeks. I would definitely use a 67 (68?) calender to make sure my made-up date fell in the middle of the week and not on the weekend. Who's going to see it anyway?

[Chuck R.]

Re: Yep your right

Actually, this is a "cute" kinda thing I'm doing while I'm waiting for my power plant to get back from the machine shop.

Well Chuck, I was infering that I wasn't lucky enough on the donor frame to show me a single digit so I wouldn't have to ask this silly question.

My trim tag puts my car at June 5, soooooo, I was toying with a late April or early May time frame.

Thanks for taking the minute,

Chuckster