Looking at my chassis number, I figured out when my car was built base on this thread: http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=129279

It looks like it was built on Thursday June 14th of 1973. Having chassis number 2449628, my car would be the 628th one produced that day! Unless I screwed up, this seems like a big number for a single day, knowing they made about 27,000 of them that year...

So, what was the production rate of our little cars at the Karmann Osnabrueck factory?

Yeah even with 3 shifts that would be 209 per shift, sounds like way too many

2449628

The last two digits are the running number, where the center number begins with 95 and increments as you roll over from 99 to 100.

So your day started with xxx9501 and rolled over to xxx96xx after the first 100 cars making xxx9628 the 128 car that day.

Thank you for the added info.

Every new day starts at 95? The 9 being the factory, but it always start with 5? And how many cars per day were typically produced, and was this 1, 2 or 3 shifts type of operation? Cool stuff

For '70 - '74 cars yes, every day starts fresh with xxx9501 and the 5 would roll over to 6 if that day had more than 99 cars produced.
For late cars, the 5 was dropped in favor of a 3 digit running number.

January 1972 started on a Saturday. If you look at a 1972 calendar, there is just one day in that calendar week. Does a week start on a work week or an actual calendar week?

My chassis # is 0729595. So was my car the 95th one made Tuesday, Feb 8?
(7th week, 2nd day of week, #9595=95th car)

Here is the week calendar for 1972:

Click to view attachment

Based on this, I would say Tuesday February 15th 1972, but I am far from being an expert in this...

I remember reading that the count starts on Mondays.

Does the guide apply to 914 6 as well ?
If not, how can '6' production date be determined ?

This thread of course caused me to look at my Karmann plate on my 1974 car.
.
My plate only has 6 digits 429530 so I can only assume 4th week, 2nd day, the 95 of course, and 30th car built that day.

Am I right or WTF why does my car only have 6 digits? Appreciate a clearer understanding. Great thread! Thanks!

Early /6 cars only had 6 digit chassis numbers.

www.914world.com/bbs2/sources/action_public/pop_helpchassis.html

Looks like the leading digit is missing.

Do you have the build date from the door jamb sticker?

I thought mid March of 70 & have no doorjamb sticker

Yes, if the first digit is missing then likely it is in the first 9 weeks. However, I need VIN's to be certain of this. When we get into the late 74 cars, then there are a few things going on with changes to the Karmann # system. I also like to know the paint code to see if they are painting batches of one color at a time.
Dave Pateman

Yes 4/74

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UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

Thanks to davep who contacted me via PM and suggested there should be a 1 in front of the chassis number.

I just went and looked again (5th time) and took a very close up picture and there is indeed a 1 right on the edge of the box that the number is in and very hard to see.

It actually just looks like the edge of the box.

That said it is 1429530 which makes it the 14th week 2nd day OR April 2, 1974 and the decal in the door jam says 4/74 so it fits.
Mystery solved!
Thanks again @davep

Jim, you are very welcome. Your car is not too much later than my 74 Bumblebee. Your B8 paint code means it is just an ordinary 74 2.0
Dave

The 914/6 Karmann # does not encode a date, and in fact for 1970 does not even include the year digit. The only way to know the production month is to compare to other cars with known production dates. I may have the best database to compare these #'s.

So for my 76-
5049004
Thats the 50 week, Thursday and the forth car built?
I think that they shut down the line on that Friday if I recall correctly.