Clarify Early vs. Late Production dates

[RickAzz]

Hi everyone. I have a 62 convertible. Working on rebuilding top lines,cylinders,hoses, etc.

I’ve been asked a couple times by parts suppliers weather or not my car is an early or late production car? Not really sure how to tell.

VIN decodes as July 24th, 1962.

VIN begins with 2Y85

I saw another thread on this site that said 2Y85 was early but July 24th seems late to me????

Any insights?

Thx, Rick

[RickAzz]

Anybody out there?

[Terry64HT]

Rick, production of 1962 models began in the early fall of 1961, so yours being July of 1962 would be very late. The VIN code you gave stands for 1962 model year (2), Wixom Assembly plan (Y) and convertible body type (85).
Hope this is what you are looking for.
Terry
64HT

[RickAzz]

Thank you Terry!

Needed to make sure. Just purchased this car last year so I’ve been busy straightening it out. 3 of the 4 convertible top cylinders are leaking. I ran into this early vs late issue when I started looking around for parts. I guess the “late production” deck lid cylinders had a diameter of 1-3/4” but the ones on the car were the larger 2-1/8” style (supposedly used on the “early production” cars). They don’t look original so I guess it kinda makes sense that someone replaced them before with the wrong ones. I wanna replace all the lines too and again, it matters early vs late.

Now that you’ve confirmed this for me, I know FOR SURE which ones I need.

Thanks again!

[Terry64HT]

Another indication of the timing of the manufacture is the last 6 digits of the VIN. The first car off the line would probably have been 100001, so your number will give an idea as to how many were produced before it (ignore the leading 1). I think just under 80,000 cars were produced for that model year. My 1964 was produced in mid-November and is number 23866. There were about 92,000 produced and mine would have been about 3 1/2 to 4 months into the 11 month production year.
Terry
64HT