A Little History From the Fender Tag
Here is the history I have been able to piece together from the build sheet and fender tag.
The car was built on January 16, 1969, at the Hamtramck, Michigan plant. It came from the factory as a real 1969 Dodge Charger R/T with a 440 Magnum V8, rated at 375 horsepower, backed by a heavy-duty A-727 TorqueFlite automatic transmission.
The fender tag is bolted to the car and lists the factory options it was built with. I broke the codes down from bottom to top, left to right.
Fender Tag Breakdown
E86
440 4-barrel engine
D32
Heavy-duty A-727 TorqueFlite transmission
XS29
X = Charger
S = Special price class, R/T
29 = 2-door sports hardtop
L9B
L = 440 4-barrel engine
9 = 1969 model year
B = Hamtramck, Michigan assembly plant
266231
Serial number
A4
Silver upper body paint
A4
Silver lower body paint
C6R
C = Charger price class
6 = Vinyl bucket seats
R = Red interior
R6
Red upper door frame color
116
Scheduled production date: January 16
116501
Vehicle order number
Factory Options
A01 Light Package
This was a package of separate lighting options, some of which were not available individually. It included:
A small green ignition key lamp with a delay switch
Map light
Glovebox lamp
Trunk lamp
Headlamp buzzer
B41
Front disc brakes
B51
Power-assist disc brakes
C16
Console
C55
Bucket seats
G15
Tinted windshield
J25
Three-speed variable windshield wipers
M21
Roof drip rail moldings
M25
Wide sill moldings
M31
Belt moldings
R11
Music Master AM radio
V8R
Red transverse stripe
Tracing the Car’s Past
I also spoke with the owner I bought the car from. He told me he had purchased it from a man in the Bay Area.
The pink slip showed that the Bay Area owner bought the car in 1976. After doing some searching online, I found what appeared to be his current address and sent him a letter asking if he knew anything about the car’s history.
A week or so later, I received an email from his wife. She confirmed that they had owned the Charger. According to her, he bought it from a used car dealer in San Jose, California, sometime around 1974 or 1976. Unfortunately, he did not remember the name of the dealership.
So far, that gives me a partial paper trail: built in Hamtramck in January 1969, later sold through a San Jose used car dealer in the mid-1970s, then owned in the Bay Area before eventually making its way to me.
