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Can anyone supply info about, or offer reference sources for, the following?

What is the date of the first Road Runner production vehicles to roll of the line? The earliest production vehicles each model year are cars like pilot cars and press review cars. They tend to have scheduled production dates in late July and VINs in the first 100. Regular production vehicles usually have an August 1 SPD.

Is there a record of quantity of the 1968 production, by both month and assembly plant? I imagine there were production records at the time but I don't know if they still exist.

Is it a different start date for each of the 3 assembly plants (Lynch, St. Louis, LA) or did they all start simultaneously? I don't think you'd ever know the exact start date at each plant but the earliest regular production cars all have 801 scheduled production date (SPD). The SPD is not an exact date. The car may or may not have been assembled on that actual date.

On the fender tag what does the shipping order number signify? (the tag in question is a 1968 Road Runner, SO# 900505, what does 900505 mean?) The SO, and later VONs, can mean a variety of things. The 9 at the front of the SO tells us this car was built for a special purpose such as a dealer demo, press release car, outside vendor, etc. or required special modification such as paint, sunroof, or conversion of some kind. The 505 means this was the 505th car assigned the 900XXX SO number.

On the fender tag are the codes Y9 (special order) and 999 (special paint). Unfortunately, there is no broadcast sheet. Is there anyway to know the dealer for the Y9 (can’t locate previous owners) and anyway to know the original paint (besides the physical inspection)? No to both. It sounds like the paint code triggered the SO number

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To my knowledge...yes.

The example you use are two RR built at different plants. The VIN's would be unique in that the 7th digit is different (Lynch Rd vs St. louis plant).

It is possible but a very remote possibility. Remember, some plants built different body style at the same location and the last 6 digits of the vin were sequential as they were assigned to the vehicles.

Frank

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Yes it is possible. I asked this same question a while back and someone posted a couple of VIN's that were really close (or the same, ???) from two different assembly plants. The same final sequence numbers should have happened THOUSANDS of times I would think if they all started with 0000001 but the body/model, engine match up would be coincidental and a given it would never have the same plant code


MikeR