1968 American floor info and a big question

[Matt Haas <mhaas@xxxxxxx>]

A few weeks ago, I started in on the process of tracking down a rear clip 
for my American sedan and I noticed that the parts book lists two front 
floor pans for 1968 Americans. Which pan you have/need/want depends upon if 
the door tag lists that it meets federal safety standard 204. There's also 
a Canadian standard with the same number and requirements. I don't know if 
the body tag is different for cars meant to be sold in Canada but in any 
case, it should list this same standard. This standard says that in a 
collision, the steering column can't move back more than 5 inches and that 
cars manufactured starting on Jan 1, 1968 had to meet this standard. To 
meet this standard, AMC changed (this was to American only) the floor pan, 
extended the braces that connect the front frame sills to the floor, and 
also changed a few front end body parts. If you'd like to read more on 
this, you can take a look at these two links:

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/rules/import/FMVSS/#SN204
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/get-cfr.cgi?TITLE=49&PART=571&SECTION=204&YEAR=2001&TYPE=TEXT

When I was at AJ Jacob's (South Texas AMC) last week, I brought this up and 
we started looking at the cars he had there. The most noticeable difference 
is that the frame sills were connected on the later 68 he had there but the 
earlier one (which is like mine) does not have them connected.

According to the safety standard, the cars had to meet it starting on Jan 
1, 1968 but I'd like to know if that's when AMC actually started making 
Americans with these changes or if they actually started making cars with 
this change earlier. If you have a 1968 American with no VIN on the dash, 
the body tag states it meets standard 204 and/or has the frame sills 
connected, I'd be very interested in the VIN and numbers off of the body 
tag to try and track down when exactly this change happened.

Thanks,

Matt

mhaas@xxxxxxx
Cincinnati, OH
http://www.mattsoldcars.com
1966 Rambler Rebel
1967 Rambler American wagon
1968 Rambler American sedan
===============================================================
According to a February survey of Internet holdouts released by
UCLA's Center for Communication Policy, people cite
not having a computer as the No. 1 reason they won't go online.