[thetvirus]

The question is did they mix together sheet metal parts made from all different plants to make one car. Say a car made in Dearborn, should all the dates on the sheet metal end in D?, like in 9 22 3D. Or can there also be sheet metal on the car made in Clevland ( 9 22 3C) and Windsor (9 22 3W)? So can a car with all original sheet metal have sheet metal from all the different plants: D, W and C? Also all the parts should be made in the same month right? But are they all made from the same plant?

[Veronica]

Hello. On the 65/66 cars the pieces that were structural components, like the inner fenders, radiator core support, strut rod brackets and such, were stamped in Dearborn, and the panels which were painted body color, like the fenders, hood, trunk lids, etc.. were stamped in Cleveland. The things to look for are the actual dates, and evidence of the panel having been replaced. The body panels were all spot-welded together, with the exception of the front end of the strut rod brackets. They were spot welded, but they also got a bead of ugly looking weld along the front where it overlaps the bottom of the radiator core support. The later cars are a little more involved than that, but, the date code/ spot weld thing is still the case, except for cars that came with staggered shocks or reinforced shock towers.

So, the short version of the answer is " Yes, different panels did come from different places."

[thetvirus]

Wow thanks, would you happen to know where the date code on the hood would be located? I looked all over the bottom of the hood but couldn't find any numbers.

[Veronica]

Hi again. On a 65/66 car it's down near where the driver's side hood hinge is bolted to the hood. On the rest, I would have to look it up, but, I don't recall ever seeing one on a 67/68 car.

[Ivy66GT]

Having just painted the underside of my '66 hood yesterday there are TWO stamped dates on it. The one that Veronica mentioned by the driver's hinge seems to be stamped from what would be the inside of the closed hood structure and its rather hard to read since its detail is fuzzy. That stamp had to go on before the parts were welded together. In the middle of the underneath support on the passenger's side is a very clearly readable stamp that was done from the front side of the metal. It seems they stamped it AFTER the hood was welded together since the date is in a the middle of this huge 'dent' that I almost wanted to fill until I found it had a date in it.

Anyhow both of these dates on my car say 7 13 W3 (the one stamped from the back side of the metal seems to say 7 13 3W??) and the door tag is 21G or 21 July. So they made the hood about a week before the car was to be assembled.