i was recently researching the chassis number decoding and there is another older thread about this. Based on that information , my chassis number of 472-9075
states that my chassis was built in the 47th week and 2nd day do the 1975 model year.

BUT weren’t some 75’s built in late 1974? so what is the first month of the model year build is it January 1975 or is it October of 1974?

my car birthday according to my COA is Sept 15, 1975. it was special ordered L99k color with full appearance group. it was offered and money deposited in the summer of 1975 and it was delivered and paid , picked up on October 15, 1975.
so how can the chassis build date be 47th week? that would put it in November 14 or so of 1975 if you go tomorrow January 1 for the calendar year.

Phil

Edit

Germans started next model year build in August after the country came back from 2 week vacation.

Yes, that’s weird.

Edit

interesting, so if you went 47 weeks from that first week of the 1975 model build start in august that would put the chassis build date in first week of July 1975.
that lines up with the order date of the car. how long did it take to build a special order car and then have it shipped to US? order the car in july, they pll a chassis just buit and build it to spec, was it built in 60 days? build in july- august, finished September 15 according to COA and Porsche records, , received by October 15. ....... interesting,

Phil

That Karman plate date should be the 47th week, 2nd day of 1974. Its indexed to the calendar date, not model year date.

jeff, @JeffBowlsby

that makes more sense. the chassis from Karman being tagged on Tuesday November 19th( second day of the 47th month of 1974, the 1974 cars were done and 75's being built. that means the chassis sat for the better part of 9 months before being built out for the customer? you can tell by the VIN tag last 4 numbers it was in the 5000's built in 1975 (5710) a fairly late built '75 model, right?

Its only the 5710th 1975 VIN, so an early build 1975 model. Built in late calendar year 1974. The chassis did not sit around for 9 months. The model year is not the same as the calendar year.

@wonkipop and I recently hijacked the thread about door hinge/pin paint with a similar discussion. —The discussion was loosely related

In the case of the white car in that thread we concluded that production had gone late in 70, so 70 model year cars still were being produced half way through August of 70. That one was 33rd week which is only a little stretch.

To be 47th week of the year I do think it would be November of 74 your car was built. And it does seem odd that the chassis sat until September of 75 without paint — with the custom color code they couldn't have painted it until it was ordered. ..weird

looks like there were 11,368 built in 1975 model year
1975 4752900001 – 4752911368 (source - wikipedia)

so about half way into the model year production, wonder why it was delivered so late, could it have been shipped much ealier and actually sat on a lot for 6 months? maybe it wasnt special ordered other than they guy says hey i want this color and they had built it already with those specs?
so is the COA incorrect in having a 09/75 completion date?

Is there a door jamb sticker with the vin and production date? —assuming not

so when i bought the car the original door jam sticker was still affixed, there had been a body respray but they didnt do the door jam area. BUT when i had that stripped off and the car was repainted, with out telling me, the body and paint guy pulled that sticker out. I had it, and i had a new replacement one made by Carbone in Poland, and the date on that original one, and what was put on the new tag was/is 09/75

Well the sticker agreeing with the COA, I think is pretty compelling evidence that September of 75 was the production date.

I was confused originally posting, thinking L99K was a custom color confusing it with L98 or L99 (no suffix).

Could be it sat that long as a copper metallic chassis. That is a long time though.

There was an anomaly in the 1975 model VIN labels, fixed by a recall. But it appears your car was a few cars beyond the recall. Wonder if it was somehow affected? Look for Recall HC.

https://bowlsby.net/914/Classic/Recalls.htm

Jeff thats interesting, according to that, the recall was for cars labeled 09/75, which mine was.... and as you said the chassis number lines up with November 1974, wonder if the label and therefore porsche records had it down in books as a 09/75 build but it wasnt? maybe didnt get the recall notice and not corrected?


Edit--- never mind, couldnt be, if the mistake was in 09/74 cars labeled for 75 my car was according to karmann , chassis completed in November 74, so you are right, probably not the issue here.

Also remember, the VIN sticker in the door jamb was US only and wasn't added until the car was shipped to the US.

Who knows how long that chassis sat somewhere on the lot before it went out the door.

What I can tell you is that your car, and several others with nearby VIN and chassis numbers were built in Nov 1974, and should have a compliance decal with that date. As to a CoA birth date of Sept 1975: no, not a chance, that is just plain wrong. At best that was an invoice date, and if so, the car was sitting in a lot in Germany for a very long time.
I would tend to disagree with Sir Andy. The compliance decal states that the vehicle complies with the regulations in place at the time the car was constructed, so I am certain the decals were affixed to the car on the day it was completed, and the date on the decal should match that date of completion. A few errors aside, I have always found the compliance decal date to be the very best indication of the true date of completion.

He did say in a later post above that the decal also showed 09/75 ...

it would be an unusual car if it did sit for a long time at the factory @SirAndy .

i agree with @davep

i have a 74. k# indicates 25 Jan 74
Vin sticker is dated 01/74. so the vin was on it within 5-6 days of it being started.
that would probably be the norm.

interestingly though it was not sold until early may 74.
so it seemed to take a while to get from the factory through regional warehouses and to the dealers.

@StarBear's is similar. built in Nov 73 and also not sold until may 74.
4-6 months between factory and a sale in a showroom not unusual.

i think @davep has come across rare original vins that were misstamped.
some k #s also went a bit weird early on in the 75 MY run.
there was a bit of chaos probably. they were shifting the 914s across to build with the beetles.

also Dr. Phil has a repro vin sticker. not saying he got it wrong.
but we are speculating on a non original item. so.....you can't be 100%.

there is a bit of weirdness in the 70 to 71 model year.
@nathanxnathan and i spotted it.
they built some (or completed at least) 70s after the summer break.
and they did it after they had already started on some 71s.
the K#s prove it.
but i think thats an exception.

we worked out from the Vin data base here that the last of the 74s are built around 9 July 1974 and the first of the 75s around about 15 August 74. it was an unusually long summer break that year probably due to shifting 914s across to beetle line and shutting down karmann ghia line.