Hamtramck fender tag finish

I want to be very specific on this question, since all the previous posts I have seen on this question had the tendency to steer to a more general answer.

For 1969 Hamtramck cars, were the fender tags painted, just oversprayed, bent at the corner..how were they handled? What did they end up looking like with regard to finish?

What about 1970? For ‘70, my Challenger also has a punched tin strip inspection tag. Is this painted or natural?

Hamtramck only, ‘69 then ‘70.

The David Wise books are contradictory. I know Lynch road was different and a light overspray, at least for the 69 1/2 cars that I had.

I want to make sure my cars are right, but also want to be able to argue with the people that come up to tell me something different every time.

So what did you find that was contradictory in the Dave Wise books?

I haven't seen Wise's book so can't comment on what he states. The paint on the tags seems consistent with the degree and thickness of the paint on the rest of the inner fender. The tag was held on by one screw until sometime later in the assembly process, therefore only one screw is painted. Maybe the tags were rotated by several different assembly line workers as the car moved down the line, and they looked at it from different angles depending on what their job was, so that would be why the tag was only held on by one screw?
And some tags seem to show evidence of a slight bend by the corner near the painted screw, it might have varied depending on how the worker looked at the tag. Some workers might have been rougher in their handling or twisted it up to view a code better, and others didn't?
As far as the inspection tags, they weren't on every car. I'm not sure if they were even on most cars. Maybe someone has studied that, but unless you are restoring a car that has an inspection tag, there is no reason to add one.

Contradictory might have been too strong. I found it to be more pictures and captions but not a definitive statement as on other topics.

Example…the finish of the inspection tin tag which isn”t discussed at all. So sorry to David Wise on using too strong of a word.

I always thought the tags were held on with 1 screw and bent up so that the underside(tag and inner fender) would get some paint on it. If there wasn't any primer/paint under the tag, it would start rusting immediately.

The inspection strip is original to the car.

I have one inspection tag that I bought off ebay years ago, and it's not painted.
Of course I have no idea what kind of car it was taken off of or when,
Of all the hundreds of E bodies I've seen over the years, I've only seen a handful that had inspection tags. I want to say the ones I've seen were painted, but I'm not 100% sure on that. Maybe Barry Washington Alaskan TA will chime in, he might have studied the subject more thoroughly.

So what I am gathering so far…69 or 70, Hamtramck built, tag has full thickness of body paint on the tag and was held on during the process by one screw with the second added later and kept bare? Tag was probably bent upward. Is this right?

To me, on the inspection tag, it would seem to related to when it was added in the process. Early it would be painted, later it probably would not. Thoughts?

My T/A was original paint when I bought it in '78 and my tag was a bit rusty on one side to the extent that one screw wasn't holding it on that side. I think the subject has come up before and either the tag was installed after prime but before paint so there's primer under the tag not paint, or it is painted under the tag. Sadly I didn't know to document anything on the car before I had some bodywork and repaint done in '81!

The tag was held on by a screw in the rearmost hole on the tag, and the other screw to fully hold down the tag was installed later after painting. If it's a 2 fender tag car, the two outermost screws were installed after paint.
Hopefully someone who has studied the inspection tags closer can help with telling what they were for, when installed and if painted or not.

I would like to ask the question "does anyone have a photo of an original Hamtramck fender tag that does NOT have a fold crease in the upper left-hand corner of the tag"?

Mike

My understanding is that the whole purpose of the fender tag is so the body shop would know how to build the "body in white". If that's the case, then the tag should have been attached very early in the build process.(before any primer stage)

My convertible has evidence of a slight bend there, but my 71 Challenger does not. Two tags with VINs close to my convertible also pictured, one seems to have a very slight bend the other does not.
My thoughts are that there is no "one size fits all answer". Unless you have your original tag, you cannot document to what degree it was bent on the line, or even if it was bent at all. It's like not having the original assembly line markings still present on your car, so copying markings you see in pictures of other cars. If it makes you happy, go right ahead, but sadly if you don't have documentation of the car's original state, you can only guess when restoring it.

Here is the original tag and inspection strip from my Challenger.

My Charger tag. You can see from these two why I am asking. The Challenger needs to be finished and the Charger is at least wrong on the screws (though way too fragile to bend it I would guess!)

One owner Hamtramck car, 1969 Barracuda. Body color painted fender tag before current state of restoration with body filler. Same paint finish/thickness as the inner fender and bent near front hole. With aluminum inspection tag under front hole. That there is more paint on the back side of the aluminum tag than the front indicates it was likely bent up over the fender tag for painting. The screws are just generic from any hardware store, but if anybody wants to pay big bucks for my originals, we can deal.

A nicely restored car should have a nicely restored fender tag too, IMO. Apparently many fender tags received damage from battery fumes over the years, same as the nearby inner fender and hood.

I was under the impression that Hammtrack car's fender tags were hung from the driver's side sunvisor mounting screw hole. This is why they were never painted but occasionally had overspray on them from time to time. Has anyone else read/heard this? I'd post my fender tag but I'm off on a business trip for the next few weeks.

I understood that this is how Lynch Road did it.

That's Lynch Road fender tags

A Lynch Road fender tag in a '69 Lynch Road Assembly plant "Taxi" can you spot it?

I believe that kentj340's post is the best or IMO most correct answer. This is how I would do it. But that's me and I only have one Hamtramck car a '69 Dart GTS M-code WITHOUT a fender tag so my opinion is totally worthless at this point I will add that my '69 LA "E" assembly GTX's fender tag is original and a one owner car and the fender tag as it was on the car was exactly as kentj340 describes it down to one painted left mounting screw and no paint on the right screw, bent slightly in the upper left corner and painted on both sides. Seems it was done the same as (maybe same??) Hamtramck assembly............and St. Louis on my former '68 RR. Only Lynch Road seems to have used the "hanging" fender tag method.

Kowal and A12 are right Messed that one up!

No offence but the front screw was attached and painted and the rear screw was not painted. Just opposite what you said in your post. There are several pictures in this post showing the correct placement.

Here's how it is on my restored T/A, I did not get docked any points when it won OE Gold for screws finished wrong? Also, another pair of T/A tags on a car, not sure if the car is restored.

In the David Wise book, he did say that the middle screw of a two tag arrangement was the one that was painted, and the other two were not

Now to really confuse the issue.
Here are pictures of tags on 2 survivor cars. A 70 hemi cuda and a 71 hemi Challenger. On both cars it appears BOTH screws were painted. On a positive note, the Challenger has an inspection tag on it for what it's worth....

My post from July 2019. I did not receive any replies. My 71 318 Barracuda purchased in the fall of 1971 with 13,000 miles on the odometer....still has its original paint. By the way, I have never seen (in person) another "complete" inspection tag on any Mopar.

https://board.moparts.org/ubbthread...rientation-71-barracuda.html#Post2679245

David

I wasn't refuting the double tag scenario.
You stated
"The tag was held on by a screw in the rearmost hole on the tag, and the other screw to fully hold down the tag was installed later after painting".
Single tags were bent up on the front corner and painted and then the rear screw was installed un painted. The double tag scenario makes sense because it would be faster and simpler on the line. For every single tag that has both screws painted there a thousands of tags with the front screw painted the tag bent upward and the rear one not painted from that factory. That's what the original post was asking and now he has the answer.

Yep, this was good. Answered exactly what I was looking for. Painted tag, forward most screw painted, inspection tag painted. The Lynch road pic was interesting. From the Lift Off Hood forum I knew how Lynch Road tags looked, but good to see the pic showing why.,

The David W book talks about all of this but never just says how the trim tag was finished, definitively. Kind of gets lost in all the possible variations. Also, seems to focus more on the LA plant versus Hamtramck, short of what can be deduced from all the pics. He does say that he has seen 6 different types of inspection tags, with the square being most associated with Hamtramck (though obviously not what my Challenger came with). Having said all of this, his books are amazing in terms of what is in there…what type of screw, finish, etc of nearly everything. Did you know there was a special wire to help ground the 70 e-body side trim lights in the trunk with a plastic clip that was sort of a running change? David W has a picture in the book!