Stop in for a cup of coffee

Rainy Day Auto said

I think most years in the late 60s early 70s the date for the new model year started on August 1.

The duster shell I have says July/ 19 / 1974 on the fender tag ....so a few more weeks and it would have been titled a 75 ......I think.

if they started making them on august 1 then it would make sense that orders would start being filled by late august into September by the time they were shipped and dealer processed.

maybe

Click to expand...

Usually they ramp down production in early June and start changing over for the new model year.

They stagger the launches so the engineers can support more than one each year. Sometimes engineers have to support more than one launch, depending on what they work on. The new models launch between end of June and late July.

For brand new models, they usually hold the vehicles for a month until some preliminary testing on the first production models can be done to make sure that there are no "hidden surprises" that come out during testing. This way they can fix the problems and avoid a recall or TSB (Technical Service Bulletin) to fix them.

Sometimes they can make changes early that are for the next model year if it is still compatible, that's called "pulling ahead" the changes. That could be why your 74 has a 75 floor pan. By pulling the change ahead, it's one less thing that they have to pay attention to at model year launch, as it has already been launched or in production.

Hopefully that clears up some confusion... :???: