The first day of production at the Lordstown Ohio Plant, for the Model Year 1978, was Monday, Aug 22,1977.
Trim tags would be stamed 08D and the 2 digit code date code ('' 'XX'-xxxx") would read 01 thru 05, before the tags switched to 08E for the last week that August.
The Last day was Friday Aug 18th, 1978. The last day would have a '42' for the day. It was the 242nd day of production. The Date Code would read 08C on the trim tag.
The date codes switched to the 1979 model year on Monday, Aug 21st 1978. This tag would read "01" and 08D on this day.
The plant ran for 16 hrs a day, (2, 8 hour shifts) Mon-Fri. Sometimes Saturdays.
I'm working on '79 into 1980.
At 267,531 Total 2nd gen H body's produced for 1978 that would equate to over 1,100 H bodies built a day! Thats well over 1 a minute. And '78 was slower than 79 and 80..