Are body panels date coded ?

[shaune]

Tried the search, no joy.
Question is I have a Red Express that has some hood damage, can I swap out the hood with say an 86 truck or will there be a date code stamped in somewhere ? Actually I will be swapping the hood anyway but should I keep the damaged hood and fix it later because of any date code ?

 

[Demonic]

The only dates I've ever seen were on NOS panels, ink stamped. You won't see it after paint anyway. Cars got hit in the 70's, fixed, repainted. No one cares about panel dates.

 

[A-Body III]

As it was explained to me by a Mopar authority, those small #'s and sometimes letters stamped into most all body panels are die lot stampings. They were used to identify stampings as to the machine that stamped them and possibly other info. about the stamping.

 

[sireland67]

86 hood on a little red, they will bolt to the hinges, but the hood will not close.
The latch and cowl is different.

 

[shaune]

Ohhh, I was not aware of this detail about the latch or cowl difference ! Hmmm ….

 

[RustyRatRod]

Tried the search, no joy.
Question is I have a Red Express that has some hood damage, can I swap out the hood with say an 86 truck or will there be a date code stamped in somewhere ? Actually I will be swapping the hood anyway but should I keep the damaged hood and fix it later because of any date code ?

86 hoods are totally different.

 

[FM3 Dart]

The hoods on 79-93 trucks look the same, at a glance, but if you look closer, the 79- 82 ish hoods have a consistent sharp body line to the raised area above the grille. This body line was rounded off above the grille sometime in the mid 80's. I'm not sure which year this change was made exactly.