Very early and very late build dates

[patrick66]

I've been curious lately about very early and very late-build cars. I have the following three:

1966 Coronet 500 hardtop - SBD of 1 September 1965
1966 Imperial Crown convertible - SBD of 6 September 1965

Both pretty early, but not as early as others out there...

For a late-build car:

1978 Chrysler New Yorker Brougham Salon - SBD of 15 June 1978. This car I know to be the last known, latest build date 1978 C-body, period!, based on the SBD!

So, what do you guys have for early and late-build dates? This is not an exclusively "B"-body question, as I have a "D", "B", and "C"-body car each listed above. It would be interesting to see what lines began and stopped on what dates each year. What'cha got???

 

[69Coronetrt]

I think you'll find there is a change in when cars started and stopped over time. For example, the '72 model year ran 'long' compared to previous production years. You'll find 72's with production dates of August of '72 and 73's not starting until 810 or so. The 1973 model year ran into August of 73. Production of the '74s started in mid to late August. Production of 75s at Lynch Road went until at least 722 and likely later.

 

[patrick66]

Sure, of course if the model line was doing a complete change, like the 1970 to 1971 "B"-body line, the changeover could be two to four weeks. But, not necessarily...

As a perfect example, when Hudson changed from the 1947 full-framed cars (top pic) to the 95% different 1948 Stepdown unibody series (bottom, the engines and trans were the same), you'd think the turnaround would've been as much as six weeks...nope! It was just SEVEN DAYS! Pictured below are a 1947 and 1948 Hudson, so you can see the stark difference!