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In browsing the catalogs for parts etc. for my recently acquired 79 I find that many items require me to know if the car is early or late. What is the sure fire way to tell?
This is kinda a hard call. With 53,807 cars made, you could say the first 26,903 & 1/2 were "EARLY" cars and the 2nd half of the 26,903.5 would be late. But many times cars could have come with an "Early" style A/C compressor for example with say a "late" design radiator core support. It's really kind of a hit and miss deal with no set pattern. I have one '68 that is VIN #14222 out of 28,566 '68s made, which falls almost exactly in the middle of production(1/2 of 28,566 is 14,283 and with anywhere from 147-172 CARS PER DAY, roughly, this '68 was made on the day production was EXACTLY right in the middle of the run, theoretically speaking) and this car features, early mirror, early door panels, but late style seat releases, so sometimes you have to compare to what is actually on YOUR car to the part needed. If many items are incorrect or have been changed, this makes the game all that much harder. :yesnod:
When working on my 78pc steering colum I ran into the problem with the blinker lever pivot, I had one out of a 81 and it was at a ditterent angle( lever pointed forward too much). After some searching I found that the 78 and early 79 cars had the blinker lever come out about a inch and bend 30degrees back. Late 79-82 levers are straight. I hope this helps. And a happy ending is that the local chevy dealer had the correct pivot in stock. :seeya