No “biggie” but…I often run across articles that flatly state that the trim tag date is the car’s production date. Although that will often be the case, it is not always true. If a car is “stuck” on the line at the end of a shift, the production date will be the next day (the day it actually clears the line).  In the case of my ’72, the trim tag says “Friday the 14^th, while the production records indicate “Monday the 17^th because that was the day it cleared.

|UPDATED|2/23/2014 3:57:49 PM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

 The "Trim Tag Date" is only the approximate build date.It is, in fact, the day the tag is attached to the car. The early cars had the tag attached after paint, but before final assembly, while the later cars('77>) had the tag attached before paint. The final assembly could take 1-2 days after paint, depending on what time of day the car was actually painted, and if there were any flaws that needed to be corrected before final assembly. Of course, you have to consider weekends, and holidays. Oh yeah...and labor strikes. My '74 sat on the line for over a month due to a strike.

Just to expand on what Adam wrote, once that trim tag is riveted to the body, in your case the 14th, it still had to have the interior trim installed, glass mounted, emblems installed chassis married to the body, and all the various testing of systems...than it was cleared. In the case of your 72, that date became the 17th.

Ok...my 76  tag looks like  C 19, but that would put it in Oct. 75 on a "Sunday". I always thought it was a G...just not completely formed...now I am thinking it is a "C", but date is off. vin number is 423243..so that is middle of the total numbers? I you can shed some light on this...it would help clear this conflict. LOL No biggie just wondering...(G)

VIN # 23243 puts the production date around the middle of Feb '76.....

A "C" date is Oct '75, "G" is Feb '76.....

The birthday book shows that VIN in the Feb 19-20 '76 range....


|UPDATED|3/26/2014 4:35:40 AM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

Sometimes it's hard to differentiate between the "c" and "G"on trim tags, but if you REALLY look, you'll see the difference.
We've been thru this here before....here's the pic of the tag in that case, where the owner thought it was a "C", but it is actually a "G".
Look at this first pic....at a quick glance, it looks like a "C", right?




But look closer...you'll see the little "hook back" to form the "G"....