My 914, built 1974

inside my brake dust cover it says 07.5.74
because some 914's are destined for Europe and some for USA
in Europe it would mean 7 May 1974
in USA it would mean July 5 1974

Which one is it ?
Click to view attachment

BTW VIN# 4742918977

The door jam sticker is best though that vin date can be deciphered. @wonkipop ? @jeffbowlsby ?

That's the part manufacturing date, not the vehicle assembly date.

Probably May 1974, given there's no need to distinguish "05" from "15" in a month designation. However, there is a need to distinguish the 7, 17, and 27 day of the month.

I have no reason to believe a German company would put an American date format on the back of a brake dust shield.

+ all measurements are in METRIC

i believe mericans are unique in the world in putting month first and day second in date protocol. but could be wrong.

think the germans do it like the rest of us. day first, month second.
sir andy is german, right.....so he'd know and he is saying its rest of world way.

one of the cars in our 1.8 engine survey had vin 18255.
it was a may 74 car. not a july car.

i have a jan 74 car, karman stamped 25th jan.
when i recommissioned it found the front struts still had date stamps like that dust guard you posted. the date stamps on the strut were 11 jan 74.

sorry

shite memory (senile?).

strut is 22 1 1974.
conclusion.
no 22 month.

Click to view attachment

Consider that at ~50 years old now, only the most original examples of our cars would still have accurately date coded original parts.

I'm pretty sure the date stamped on the dust shields is the Car Build Date not the Part Manufacture Date. My dust shield is stamped with the date that matches the build date in my trunk.
I can't imagine they manufactured my dust shields on the same day that they built my car.

Regards

Click to view attachment

The US military uses day/month/year. They also run on zulu(gmt) time

my strut is 3 days before the k # stamp.
so not quite the same time as the body stamp. close but not exactly the same.

also to consider.
true manufacture time for the car would have been over more than 1 day.
i think the k# is the day the body shell commences or is completed.

good to now.
sensible - why confuse allies.

You make a good point. I've always wondered when they stamped the build date into the trunk. It would be before paint is applied I suppose. So maybe as you state above it could be on the day the build commences.