[NAPA68]

To those who have original Wittek hose clamps on your cars, how much earlier are the clamps dated for you car?

[Aus78Formula]

I can imagine a giant tub of these on the production line. Just as they got half used up someone would tip another box in to top it up, with possibly fresh newer dates. A few days later they are a bit slack and no one tops up the box until nearly out, using some of the clamps that have been kicking about for a while at the bottom, then topped up with new again. Same thing happens where stocked, the top and most recently added are first picked.
Basically, as long as the dates make sense and are possible, can be seen as correct. I don't have the answer BTW lol.

[NAPA68]

I'll kick this to the top. I am still interested. Considering the strike, I'm curious to see if there is a larger gap in dates.

Thanks,
Tim

[Formulabruce]

I had a bone stock very early '71 and I noticed the clamps on the radiator were months older ( March '70) than the other end of both hoses. ( June 1970 ) . This leads me to believe that the hoses were put on in sub assembly, which makes sense. As AUS said there were probably boxes, or tubs, on pallets on each side as the car rolled along final assembly)