Gents, I need a little more info regarding the head restraints on the 69's for the CRG Head Restraint report I'm doing.

It appears the bars went from "straight" to "bent" in the early December time frame. I have a set of straights (with dates of 9-13-68) installed on a 12A car. I also have a set of bents on a 12C car. This is as close as I can get without more data points.

I'm trying to narrow it down a little more so I could use some help if you have a car assembled during the 11A to 12E 1968 range. (There's a good possibility of overlap.)

1. What are the dates on your head rests (and do you have a shift number after the date - I.E. 10-5-68-2 would be the second shift on a head rest assembled on October 5th, 1968).

2. Are they the "straight" bar or "bent" bar.

3. What is the build date on your trim tag.

4. What is the interior code on your trim tag.

And by the way, can someone with a set of "bent" bar head rests give me the angle of the bend. It appears to be around 30 degrees but I'm just using my eyeball and it's not that calibrated!

Finally, I need a side view of the "bent" bar head rest like THIS EXAMPLE (http://www.parts123.com/parts123/yb.dll?Parta~ShowPicTxt~Z5Z5Z50000136b~Z5Z5Z5BANPJ ) from Classic Industries (the picture in the center showing the side view). The picture needs to be around 6" tall and 2" to 3" wide (or bigger if you want), and in the same position as the example. I will of course, give you credit for the shot.

Any questions, just EMAIL ME (bertfam@verizon.net)!

Thanks gents.
Ed

C'mon guys. No one has stepped up to the plate here. How 'bout some assistance. I'm not asking for a lot of work here. Just need to know if you 11A through 12E guys have straight or bent head rests, the assembly date and interior code on your trim tag and the dates on the head rest bars.

This is for another CRG report I'm putting together, so I'd really apprecaite the help.

And someone out there HAS to have a better picture of the bent bar head rest I can use (like the example below). Anyone?

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h52/bertfam/hr_69bent.jpg

Ed

Bert,

I have an 11A . Where is the date codes located so I can look when I get home.

Rob, it's just above the hole in the bar. It will be in either a month-day-year format (10-14-68), or a month-day-year-shift format (10-14-68-2).

Here's one you can use as a reference. (The date is circled.)

Ed

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h52/bertfam/date.jpg

Ed, sorry, i did not see this until now. I have bent and straight headrests out of unknown cars if you still need a pic, I can get one this weekend. Would your data points work for headrests without the cars build date? Let's just say they stopped making striaghts on 11-30-68. At least all cars from 11C back should have straight, right?.

Keven, Yes, please take a picture of the bent version for me in the same "pose" as my sample above. Without the build date though, it really isn't much good for a data point, but I'd still like to know the date on the bar.

No, I don't think we can make that assumption. Although I would say you're correct that sometime during early to mid November, 1968 they stopped manufacturing the straight bar head rests, I've seen original cars assembled early to mid December still using the straight bar! Although these are cars with the less desired interior colors like green or blue. So my theory (and it seems to be a good one so far), is that the factory continued installing the straight bar head rests as long as they still had a supply. For instance, black interior cars (the most popular interior color produced for all three years), would have probably stopped in late November, like we've all seen. However, I've seen blue and green interior cars still using the straight bar head rest as late as 12B, so it's possible these went even further.

Since these exact same assemblies were used on the Pontiac Firebird and Corvair Monza, I've looked at these cars as well, and the same theory holds true. As a matter of fact, my 12A Monza Convertible (blue interior) has the straight head rests. (That's my head rest you see in the picture above with a date of 9-13-68.) I've had several Corvair guys send in their data and one guy with a 01A car and a green interior has the straight head rest! Now, this doesn't necessarily mean the Camaro would be the same. It may not be. In 1969 they made 6000 Corvairs (with about 1/3 being the base 500 series that used a different head rest than the Monza), and they made 240K Camaros! Smaller production cars like the Corvair may have used parts way past the same date as the camaro. Especially since the 69 Corvair was the last year and they were pushing them out the door just to finish production. There are a lot of cars documented with many, MANY mis-matched parts!

But that's what I need to find out. Did the less desirable color interior cars continue using the straight bar later then the more desired color interior cars.

Ed

ed, I get it! neat I will get the pic and info this weekend.

Ed,

My Z is an 11A build, w/standard black interior. Both seat look original, but.......

1 seat had an bent head rest with a 4/69 date.
1 seat had a straight head rest with a 10/16/68 date - This date is stamped below the hole.

I hope this helps.

Thanks Rob. Yes, it does. It appears the bent head rest is/was a replacement, since it's dated April, 1969. The straight head rest is exactly what I was expecting. Especially with a black interior.

Ed

It appears the bent head rest is/was a replacement, since it's dated April, 1969.

Ed,
I agree.

Ed, I send the pics to your email. I confirmed the bend is 30 degrees using a pinion angle guage :) Just for fun, my 10B car has 7-8-68 straights, one pair of my loose bent ones is 12-13-68.

Ed, out of 4 black seats (none of which are original to my car) I have 1 strait and 3 curved

9 26 68 strait
7 23 69 curved
9 18 69 curved
10 13 69 curved

also noted that the curved ones have a square hole and the strait bar has a round hole

Scott

http://inlinethumb12.webshots.com/40651/2797840150043907989S500x500Q85.jpg

http://inlinethumb52.webshots.com/39155/2259808620043907989S500x500Q85.jpg

Kevin, got your pictures and have added the head rest to the report (with due credit of course)! And thanks for the measurement.

Scott, Yes, I've seen both styles. Round hole and square hole. Not sure when the square hole went into production, or if it was just from another supplier.

Ed

Ed,

My headrests are dated 3-3-69 & 3-5-69 on my Z11.
No shift code.
Both are "bent" style.
My interior code is 720.
My build date is 03E.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Roger. Yours are right on track.

And finally, only ONE picture still required for the head restraint report!

If you have a 69 with the DELUXE interior (preferably a lighter color, maybe red or blue) and the early STRAIGHT head restraints, I need you!!

Look at the picture I've attached. (This is the picture I'm using for the deluxe "bent" head restraints.) If you could take a picture in the same position as this one and send it to me, I will give you full credit for the shot.

You can email it to me at bertfam@verizon.net and please make sure it's at least 6" x 6" in size. Larger is fine since I can edit as required.

Thanks again fellas!

Ed

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h52/bertfam/69deluxebent.jpg