Has anyone heard of a 68 1/2 production run?

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gts-dart

gts-dart

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I have a 68 gts dart according the VIN #. Every trim piece on this car is from a 69 though. No round 68 side marker lights, has 69 power bulge hood, grill, parking lights, tail lights, and even chrome trim. Been all through the car and cant find a broadcast sheet and of course the fender tag is gone too. Im planning on a modern "restification", but dont want to get started yet if its a rare find. Chances are its a creation from someone that liked the 69 more than the 68, but i hate to gamble on that one rare find. Ma mopar was famous for doing some odd things. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
 
If it is a 69 you will find a partial vin under the trunk seal on the drivers side. Not sure on 68, and it may vary by build plants. Maybe someone put the dash out of the 68 into the body of the 69? More info needed!!
 
The VIN should also be stamped on the top drivers side of the upper radiator support. Check to make sure all of the body location VINs match the VIN on the dashboard.
 
ocdart said:
The VIN should also be stamped on the top drivers side of the upper radiator support. Check to make sure all of the body location VINs match the VIN on the dashboard.
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You should give a read to the thread of "A funny thing happened at work". I forget where on this site I saw it but it might explain your question........
It's wriiten by a guy from the line back in the day.
Good Luck!
 
It's in the body interior trim section further down the page. check it, good read!
 
If the build sheet and fender tag are missing - odds are that somebody had that car apart. More than likely, they put the 69 stuff on.
 
64dart170 said:
It's in the body interior trim section further down the page. check it, good read!
Click to expand...

I did read that. Cool story from back in the day... But. I don't think that is what is going on here.

Unlikely 69 parts would even be on a 68 production line. His car would need to have a extremely late sequential number for it to even be likely, even then I don't see it being done.
My money would be on 1 of 2 things.

Stolen car (at one time over the last 40 years) fender tag was removed and the dash/vin was swapped from a titled, junked car.

or

Someone really liked the trim on a 69 better than a 68 so he changed things over.
 
64dart170 said:
You should give a read to the thread of "A funny thing happened at work". I forget where on this site I saw it but it might explain your question........
It's wriiten by a guy from the line back in the day.
Good Luck!
Click to expand...


I quoted the wrong post... My reply was to this.
 
are the body VINs located in the same place on the 68 and 69? Im not able to locate either stamp. i do know it is an original B5 blue color, but has been painted a dark green and is currently a midnight blue.
 
there are two stamp #s i did find. on trunk rail in center. OD 48 2
on core support, but more toward center. OD 50 1
Im thinking those would be sheetmetal part #'s though. guess im gonna need to scrape some paint.
 
Sounds like a 68 dashboard and VIN plate were swapped in. Your only course of action is to check the body stamping locations (radiator support and trunk weatherstripping rail) to see if those match the dash VIN. What does the rest of the interior look like?? Is it a '68 or a '69 interior? They are quite different. Possibly a 68 interior (including dash and VIN plate) got swapped into a 69 shell. That's a lot easier than swapping out two quarters, two fenders, plus the grill mounting is different, onto a 68 which makes for too much work. Were two salvaged Darts put together somewhere in the car's past?
 
res1vw21 said:
easy way to tell is '68 has a lower dash pad '69 does not
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mine does have the lower dash pad. still looking for the core support and trunk rail stamps. may be removing some paint this weekend. does anyone have a pic of the exact stamp locations. it sounds like it shouldn't be too hard to find, but i'm just not seeing them. thanks for everyone's help.
 
Ok. so i removed enough paint from the core support to find the vin stamp. It is different from the dash, but it still says its a 68. is the core stamp # in sequence? i seem to recall something about the first few letters being reversed, true or not?
 
You have a mess on your hands is what I think. I hope you didn't pay GTS prices for it.

Something is not as it should be. It's not an odd ball factory build. You need to think about what you want to do here. If you dig to deep you may find something you don't want to find.

If the car was stolen with a vin swap, what will you do. You could keep your mouth shut and enjoy the car, but any money you put into it could be at risk.

As it is now... It's titled as a 68, but it's clearly a 69. It's not a 68 GTS. It's hard to say what it is.

This is one of those really bad situations.


You have several options....

Some legal and some probably not.
 
No Buildsheet or fender tag so don't worry about it do what ever you want to the car. Jim
 
1968FormulaS340 said:
You have a mess on your hands is what I think. I hope you didn't pay GTS prices for it.

Something is not as it should be. It's not an odd ball factory build. You need to think about what you want to do here. If you dig to deep you may find something you don't want to find.

If the car was stolen with a vin swap, what will you do. You could keep your mouth shut and enjoy the car, but any money you put into it could be at risk.

As it is now... It's titled as a 68, but it's clearly a 69. It's not a 68 GTS. It's hard to say what it is.

This is one of those really bad situations.


You have several options....

Some legal and some probably not.
Click to expand...
the dash and core vin both say its a 68. i do have a title from the dash vin. have owned the car for four years now, but havent done much with it for just this reason. and no...i didnt pay GTS price. anybody know of a vin database for stolens?
 
Just because the body resembles a 69, I would not assume the car is bogus. With the 68 interior, I would not be giving up hope so fast. Lots of things happen to these bodies over the course of 40 years. In 68 the number stamped on the rad support is the produciton #, not the vin, so you cant go by that. If the fender tag had been present the produciton numbers on the tag would match the rad support.

Vin numbers would match the trans and engine if they happen to be the originals. Did you mention if you looked for that? Do you know where to look? If you find them to match I would just say that someone used a 69 dart to fix up the body.

Oh, Also, if the Dart is like the Barracuda, the door lock buttons on 68 doors are over the door handle but in 69 they are more forward on the door. Take a look at that too. I'm curious to know what you find out.
 
Im sorry that you didn't like what I hat to say but.... The only thing about your car that says 68 is a shady vin.

Ask yourself... why would someone put everything from a 69 on a 68? 1/4s, fenders, grill, hood, side trim?

It would be easy to tell if the 1/4s were replaced. Post a bunch of pics.

Trust me... I wouldn't be happy and I would have questions too if it were my car.


Stolen with a vin swap is simply the most reasonable explanation.


Other options..... Dash fire.... Um... Thats all i can think of.

Either way..... A 68 GTS vin tag does not turn a 69 Dart into a 68 GTS.
 
dont get me wrong. I dont have a problem with what your saying. Im just trying to figure out what i have before i decide what direction to go on restoration. i am fairly certain it is a 68 because of the body stamps. i am also certain its not a GTS. Pretty sure it has original 1/4s due to the amount of rust and a terrible bondo repair. The poor thing is on its third color. rear marker holes filled in, no rear marker lights at all, harness in trunk. I will get more pics posted. thanks for your input
 
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