What's the significance of this?

[Rich_NYS]

What's the significance of the date (6/10/81) that is written on the inside of the door?

41259

[Patrick C]

What's the significance of the date (6/10/81) that is written on the inside of the door?

41259

It means the door was completed on October 6, 1981. Remember the rest of the world dates things DAY/MONTH/YEAR

[Rich_NYS]

It means the door was completed on October 6, 1981. Remember the rest of the world dates things DAY/MONTH/YEAR


Ahhhhh....OK, thanks! Can't believe I didn't catch that date format; I was in the military and lived in Europe.....been too long!

[Patrick C]

And now you have a date to celebrate that likely correlates to the birth of your car! :) Unless the door got replaced at some point in time.

[content22207_2]

Doors were assembled on their own assembly line. After windows, hardware, and wiring were in place (no trim), they were matched with underbodies against the outside wall of the assembly building and made to open/close as well as possible. That is why the VIN is often written under the headliners -- underbodies and doors became matched units at the beginning of the body assembly sequence. As underbody/door units were made functional enough, they were transferred to chasses on Tellus carriers and completed the remainder of the assembly process. Pictured on Pages 244-265 of the Celebrating the Impossible book (note that there are some pilot pictures mixed in).

You may find a variety of dates scattered throughout your car. Even though #5939 is an October VIN, latest date on it is December (13/12/81 IIRC). It appears my car was parked "by the fence" for a couple of months, then brought back inside to be completed. It likely left the factory with its integrated door pulls (by December Dunmurry had cobbled together the integrated pulls).

Bill Robertson
#5939

[MML]

Doors were assembled on their own assembly line. After windows, hardware, and wiring were in place (no trim), they were matched with underbodies against the outside wall of the assembly building and made to open/close as well as possible. That is why the VIN is often written under the headliners -- underbodies and doors became matched units at the beginning of the body assembly sequence. As underbody/door units were made functional enough, they were transferred to chasses on Tellus carriers and completed the remainder of the assembly process. Pictured on Pages 244-265 of the Celebrating the Impossible book (note that there are some pilot pictures mixed in).

You may find a variety of dates scattered throughout your car. Even though #5939 is an October VIN, latest date on it is December (13/12/81 IIRC). It appears my car was parked "by the fence" for a couple of months, then brought back inside to be completed. It likely left the factory with its integrated door pulls (by December Dunmurry had cobbled together the integrated pulls).

Bill Robertson
#5939

Are you coming over for Eurofest, Bill? There's going to be a factory tour, it's really fascinating stuff seeing where it all happened.

[Farrar]

You may find a variety of dates scattered throughout your car.

True for mine as well. People have said that #2613's frame and engine numbers are unusually far apart, and although the VIN plate says August 1981, one of the original sensors I pulled out of the car was dated November 1981. It also got some parts installed at the QAC, so I consider "August 1981" to be kind of like my car's date of conception, so it was born a few months later. :P