1967 Data survey results (very long read)

["Dick Benjamin" <DickB@xxxxxxxxx>]

I have just posted the raw data collected from the IML and other sources on
specific 1967 Imperial, including VINs and some equipment, and production
dates where available.

If you are interested in this data, see:
http://users.sdccu.net/dickb/67data.XLS

For those who cannot open an Excel worksheet, there is a WORD version of the
same info at:
http://users.sdccu.net/dickb/67datatext.doc

Thanks to Bill Watson, we have the following information about VINs and
production of Imperials;

All Imperials were built at the Jefferson plant in 1967, alongside
Chryslers. The VINs were assigned without regard to car line, in other
words, the VINs, which ran from 100,000 to 300,344 included both Imperial
and Chryslers. There were 17614 Imperials and 182,829 Chryslers built at
Jefferson, for a total of 200,344. (There were another 35,887 Chryslers
built at the Newark DE plant, for a model year total of 236,330).

Car line mix

While our 40 cars represent only a tiny portion of the 17614 Imperials
built, we can see some odd things about the VIN distribution. For instance,
the first 30 days of production represents 17 of our 40 cars, or 43%, while
one would expect the first month to represent only 15% of the cars (assuming
there were 200 days of production in the model year). This seems to hint
that Chrysler initially expected to sell a mix of about 25% Imperials to 75%
Chryslers, then later cut that mix to about 5% Imperials.

Body type mix

Another interesting fact to note is that while only 577 convertibles were
included in the 17614 Imperials built, or 3.3%, our list has 13/40 or 33%
convertibles.  This implies that the survival rate of convertibles is about
10 times that of other body styles.   Conversely, Sedans make up only 2 of
our 40 cars, or 5% while there were 2193 sedans built, for 11%.  The
survival rate seems very low for these cars. LeBarons are also surprisingly
scarce, with only 3 on our list, when there were 2194 of these built.

Initially, it appears that convertibles were scheduled to be about 6% of
production, while after about half way through the year, convertibles were
rarely built, with only two in our list built after the ATC changeover, and
only 5 of our 13  in the last half of the year.

AC type

The changeover from standard AC to ATC was what originally stimulated my
interest in this study - and we have some pretty definite results.  Ignoring
one car, a very early car reported with ATC, it appears the changeover
occurred about ¾ of the way through the year, and once made, no further 67s
were built with standard AC.  This is somewhat odd, because there are a few
known 68's with standard AC, and it was listed as a separate available
option.

Originally, I was thinking that ATC was not used on Convertibles.  There are
technical reasons why they might have decided this, but in fact, once the
changeover was made, they used ATC on convertibles also, in fact we have two
on our list and one additional one was seen at a car show last year (no VIN
available).   The reason we initially thought otherwise is that a very high
proportion of convertibles were built early in the year, thus of course had
standard AC.

Future studies

I would be grateful if anyone with access to a 1967 would send me VIN, AC
type, Body type, and production date so I can look into these ideas a little
more.    To read the production date, note the data plate that is partly
hidden under the left front fender brace rod, under the hood.  On the lowest
line of the data plate, in the next to last group of characters, there is a
date code.  To decode this, note that the first letter (or number)
represents the month, and the second two the day of the month.  The letters
A, B and C stand for October, November and December, and the numbers 1
though 9 represent January through September.   The days of the month are as
written.  Thus my convertible shows 906 for September 6th, 1966, and Larry
Mullican's 2 door shows 128 for January 28th, 1967

Oddities

Larry's car, is interesting, by the way, in that it has 1968 style side
marker lamps, in the front and rear fenders, and these are obviously factory
installations from inspection of the way the holes are made and the wiring
harness incorporates the light wires.  This is the only 67 I have seen with
these lights, and it is not an end of year car (it is just past the middle
of production), so this is hard to understand.  I would appreciate knowing
of any other 67 with these lights, if they are factory installed.

The very early car with ATC is hard to explain.  Either it was used as a
test vehicle to study the ATC system before it was released to production,
or the car has been changed over to ATC after it left the factory - it is at
least 4 months too early to have had a production ATC system, if our data is
correct.

I would also like to hear from 1967 owners who have the 5 speaker Stereo
Multiplex radio, if it is factory installed.  This radio can be seen on the
IML web site under 1968 stereo installation.  It is very similar in
appearance to the normal AM-FM signal seeking radio with foot control, but
it is a much different animal electronically.  The easy way to identify it
is that  the top center of the radio shows a "stereo" indicator light - this
is where the touch tune bars are on the more common AM-FM radio.

As always, your comments and any additional data are welcome at:

dickb@xxxxxxxxx

Dick Benjamin