vehicle build date question

[bruceman1968]

Yes Jim. The D is for December.
1 thru 0(zero) for January thru October, N for November and D for December. You can see the other dates on your Protecto o Plate are for the end of November. Nov 30th on your engine assembly, Nov 20th on your rear axle and 328 is the Julian date for your Trans which is the 23rd of Nov. (1968 was a leap year)
The R is for Rochester and the Chevrolet bowtie is the makers mark.

[FirstOwner69]

Originally Posted by bruceman1968

Yes Jim. The D is for December.
1 thru 0(zero) for January thru October, N for November and D for December. You can see the other dates on your Protecto o Plate are for the end of November. Nov 30th on your engine assembly, Nov 20th on your rear axle and 328 is the Julian date for your Trans which is the 23rd of Nov. (1968 was a leap year)
The R is for Rochester and the Chevrolet bowtie is the makers mark.

Thanks for the info.

Incidentally, part of the reason I posted my Protect-O-Plate is that my dates are pretty similar to his, and I'm wondering if the OP's is also a Fremont truck since he's in California. As I've said in some other posts, I contacted Chevrolet soon after I purchased my truck in 1969 to ask why my CST was missing some CST options (specifically, deluxe and lighted side markers, headliner and cargo light). The response was that my truck was a mid-December build and those options were added a week or 2 later. Unfortunately, I don't recall the exact date they said my truck was built but think it was Dec.12th or 13th.

Perhaps this will help the OP zero in on his build date, especially if his is a Fremont truck. His dates appear to be a week to 2 weeks after mine.

[plr1112]

This is helping me tremendously! Mine is a Fremont CA truck. also, my vin serial number is 3,860 more than yours. FirstOwner69, did you say your built date was dec. 12 or dec.13? That means if I can find out how many were produced a day at the Fremont Plant in 1969 then I could determine the production date of my truck. Ironically, my truck is also a CST and I also do not have a headliner or cargo light. So that narrows my production date to Dec. 13 to two weeks after that roughly dec. 27. FirstOwner69 is your truck a big block truck? your engine date and truck date are closer apart than mine. My truck is a big block truck which is pretty rare so perhaps that is why there's a bigger gap between my engine date and truck date.

My dates are as follows:
engine- Nov. 20
rear end- Nov. 29
Transmission- Nov. 30

[FirstOwner69]

Mine is a small block (350) 3/4 ton. I added a few words to my post above to clarify that the 12th or 13th was the date I recall them saying my truck was built, not the date when they added options to the CSTs. My guess is that yours was built about a week after mine based on this article estimating 25 trucks built per hour.
http://www.ultra-high-compression.com/fremont-tour.html (originally posted by SSTim)

Are your side markers lighted? Are they the non-deluxe versions?

Here's a link to another '69 Fremont CST that was just posted on the Craigslist finds thread that was built 5144 before mine that also lacks the later CST options. Doesn't help with build date though.
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...postcount=4335
https://portland.craigslist.org/clk/...585642903.html

[plr1112]

It didn’t have originals, but I think they’re non deluxe. And apparently they’re not lighted. I though 1968 had markers that were not lighted? When I first saw there was no wiring for the side markers I thought the harness was not original.

[FirstOwner69]

Early '69s were not lighted.

[plr1112]

thanks.

I'm stumped again with trying to figure out if I had the deluxe side markers. The truck has non deluxe dated 1968 on their, but when I purchased the truck it came with a box of miscellaneous parts and there was two red deluxe marker lights that are dated 1969, but they have the hole for a light bulb, not the non hole reflector. Plus the clear grille lights are 1969, the brake and reverse are 1967. Could you please check and let me know if your light lenses are all 1969 and if your side markers have the hole for a bulb or if they are just reflectors.


Thanks.