My 70 Cuda was built April 21st of 1970. The space saver I found is date coded the 10 month 14th day of 69. Would this work? If not what date should I be looking for. Thanks for any help.

Ken

where did or how did you find decode info for a pre-'71 BFG tire?

The date code is on the space saver that I have. I will try to post a pic of it for you. What I need to know if this date code will work for April of 1970 built car? or should the date be closer. Thanks for any help.

Ken,

From what I've seen on unrestored 70 Cudas, the dates on original space savers are 30-60 days prior to the SPD for the vehicle. Your spare is 6 months in advance, which will work (theoretically), but having a spare with a date in the late-Feb and March of 70 time frame would be ideal.

Rob

Rob
Thanks for the info. Did you happen to get pics of these date codes. I was trying to see if they were consistent or all over the place.

Ken

Ken,

I will look through my pictures; I do believe I have one pic of the space saver spare in an unrestored 70 Hemi Cuda. I do remember that the SPD on the car was 107 (Jan 07, 1970), and the space saver spare was Dec XX, 1969…I don't remember the specific day on the rim.

The same car also had its original, matching set of 450 rims, which were all dated December 14th 1969.

From the 4 or 5 unrestored survivor 1970s I’ve looked at, they were all within the 60-day time frame, but that doesn’t mean a car was built with a rim dated 60-120 days or more away. I would guess that is possible.

Rob

Rob,

Thanks this info. might help others as well. After 10 years its getting close to done.

Ken

My 8/29 SPD has a 7/1 date space saver.

Tom

My 106 SPD 70 Cuda has a 11-4 69 space saver wheel.

Daryl

The dates you are talking about are from the steel wheel not from the rubber tire. Is that what I am reading here.

I believe so since I believe there is no date on the tire prior to 72

That's correct. We are discussing the date on the rim itself, not the tire.

So if you go by the CHEVY WAY for restoration than around three months before your build date, if you know the exact build date not the SPD. The CHEVY WAY that also is why people think a date code on a motor or block is good for a car with in a certain date or time before the SPD of a car. That is not the Chrysler way ONE motor came with every car and that is the original motor.

I would think date codes for tires and rims would be with in a mouth and a half before SPD baring any kind of delay from the manufacturer such as a strike or a transport accident. How much stock would Chrysler bring into the plant for storage back in 1970-71 and how much was used up per day. You also need to know how much FIFO was using back in the day First in First out.

The spacesaver wheel in my 4-15-70 SPD Challenger T/A is dated 11-14-69.
I can't say it is its original wheel but it is the spare that was in the trunk when I bought the car in 1978 so there's a good chance it is.

Does your door sticker say April or did it leave early? Either way that is a good size gap.

Thanks everyone for the information so far. If more AAR ,T/A or cars built in April / May. could post there date codes would be great. Maybe we can see more of a range this way.

Thanks Ken

That is a big gap, Mastershake340. But to your point that probably is the original space-saver spare in your T/A. I'm sure there are probably many examples of this if we could take a cross-section of cars built in the 1970 model year and develop a chart of space-saver rim date codes vs. vehicle SPD.

I believe the 30-60 day is "general guidance" and not an absolute rule with space-saver date codes relative to SPDs.

My car's door sticker is April 1970.
An unrestored twin 2 VINs past my car was in my area until recently. Too bad it was sold as it would be interesting to see what the date code was on its spare. If I run into the car's former owner I will ask him where his car ended up. Anybody know of a recently purchased unrestored red Mr Norms T/A being bought last year?
Having been an engineer in manufacturing most of my career, I do roll my eyes a lot when I see people trying to nail down what date code part is correct for their car. Certainly there would be an "on average" date, but if you were able to document each and every car right after build, I'm sure you'd find dates well outside of what you'd expect to see.
Keep in mind too, date codes are a quality control thing, they are not like a "use by" date on a box of cereal. No one at the plant cared or paid any attention to what date codes were on the parts they were installing.
I've personally called plants to have some parts sent to me for testing or evaluation, and many months later returned the parts I didn't use to the plant, as an example. I'm sure that happens at most manufacturing plants including Chrysler plants 50 years ago.
Inventory control is pretty good today but parts still end up going to the wrong place from time to time, and it might not be until an inventory months later where things get back where they belong.
I'm sure this situation was worse years ago, before inventories were managed with computer programs, and parts bins labeled with UPC codes etc. I would guess people managed the inventories with hand written ledgers then? "Just in time", "Kanban" etc didn't yet exist 40 or 50 years ago either I don't think, so parts management at plants was more inefficient then.
I work at a truck manufacturer now, and I know trucks come off the line often missing parts, they get towed to a storage lot until the "test and tune" department can fix it, which can take weeks. Trucks are more customized and much more variability than a car plant, but still, I'm sure situations where cars came off the line with missing parts or something else wrong and must be fixed happen now and happened then, all the time, so a part might get installed on a new car weeks after a car's manufacturing date at the plant.
Unless you could go back in time and inspect and document your car at the plant you can never say what date code was on a part on your car. That includes my spare. My car sat at Mr Norms for nearly 10 months before it was sold. Whose to say that in that 10 months, they didn't need a space saver for a car being sold or a customer car being serviced, and took the spare from a car in inventory, which turned out to be the one I eventually owned, and then replaced the spare with another one, the one in there now?
So again, you can document and study this issue to death, but in the end, it doesn't change the fact that any individual car built could have rolled off the plant's grounds for the first time, new, with a part that could be date coded 6 months or more before build, to even a week or several weeks after build.

100% That makes total sense to me.

I guess the real question is: "What dates would be acceptable for the core team of judges that examine and score these cars at national shows?" Since one of the main purposes of having a date-coded part (for some of us) is to demonstrate that your car is similar to how it was delivered from the factory. So would the judges deduct points for having a part outside their accepted "norm" of build dates? Or, is it acceptable to have a part installed that was prior to the SPD? If the judging team adheres to a date range for parts, then you’d have to be within that specific range for the part to be acceptable. Otherwise, anything in advance of the SPD will work.

It may make more sense to understand how the part will be graded, especially since I know Ken is going for an O.E. Gold certification.

I can reiterate what shake said. I have over 25 years in Manufacturing Engineering in numerous industries. It's not uncommon for someone to say "Hey we found a two year old pallet of Widgets and we need to use them up or else I'll get my ass chewed for scrapping X amount of dollars". If the parts are still good you use them. You don't care about the date on them.

My observation is that there is an accordion effect with date codes. At the beginning of the year they are pretty close. As you get farther in the year they get father apart, more variability. I think this is even worse in 71.

As for chasing date codes (i do it) I wouldn't worry to much about it. If someone actually questions you on your date codes just ask to see there car then this will happen:

98% of the time they won't have a car or a car of any significance or with most of it's correct parts

1.9999% of the time their car is just as varied as your car

0.0001% of the time you will have met an imaginary character because this guy doesn't really exist.

Enjoy your car and try get as close a date as you can but don't sweat it.