Just a thought on the subject of trim packages and matching numbers/codes. Is it possible that the original purchaser could have ordered a "plain jane" car and ended up with a "loaded" car from the factory? The reason I say this is I know of a family member who ordered a "plain jane" car from the dealer but had family and friends that worked at the plant "follow" it down the line. By the time it hit the end of the line it had every option possible. Do you think they would have put the right codes on tag or just added the options? This was in the late 60's. Just food for thought as the saying goes.

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67 327/210 stock std red camaro convertible, 78 stock silver anniversary vette, 1976 kz900

Interesting thought, but most of these stories about base cars being magically transformed into loaded ones as they went down the line because someone was "watching" them are "old wive's tales". The production system is/was too highly integrated to allow this to happen, and the nonconformances to the order would have stopped the line in about 20 places as incorrect and incompatible subassemblies tried to match up with a body that wasn't made to accept them. A car might arrive at the dealer with either less or more options than it was ordered with due to material shortages, supplier issues, or the Sales Department "forcing" options for one reason or another, but these changes were made to the car's order before the car was actually built, and all the documentation for the car would reflect the changes. In addition, the dealers were notified before the car was scheduled for production of any changes that had to be made to a specific car order so they had the option of cancelling the order or accepting it with the changes noted. "Stories" are fun, but reality is different.

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JohnZ
'69 Z28 Fathom Green

[This message has been edited by JohnZ (edited 11-11-2000).]

Thanks John.
I agree with you and argue the same thing, but it is good to hear it from someone who was there. http://www.camaros.net/forum/smile.gif

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Kurt S.
www.camaros.org (http://www.camaros.org)

Hey I had a friend that worked at the Norwood plant from may of 1966 to it closed in the early 90's,what he said was that when a plant employee order a car they got to follow it down the assembly line. In 68 he ordered a RS/SS 396 4 speed & followed it down the line & it has everything that you could get on that combo & I have seen the window sticker & it doesn't show all of the options on it!!!! So there has to be something to this rumor!!!!!!!!!!!!

[This message has been edited by johnnyr (edited 11-13-2000).]

I wonder who did their job for the two days it took to "follow the car down the line"? Not everything shows as a line item on the sticker, as many individual items were "packaged" within a given option code. People who tried to "fluff up" an employee car as it came down the line were discharged, as was the employee who ordered it - never met anyone in my 36 years in assembly plants who was willing to throw away their seniority, pension, and career over getting a free option. Some people love to tell tales - don't believe everything you hear.

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JohnZ
'69 Z28 Fathom Green

John Z, today isn't everything basically everything on time delivery, aren't only the parts there that are going to be needed in a particular time frame. How was it then, were there parts there for any option even if there aren't any cars scheduled to get them for a while? Just seems hard to imagine that parts were just laying around that someone could go get and not short change another car. Thanks Wes

Side note, you can buy a new Corvette and for 500 dollars you can watch it being built and drive it home from the plant. The MAN and JIT assembly is a fairly new deal. Back in the 60s most stuff came out of a big warehouse. That's why you see engines dated a couple months ahead of the car build date on some cars.

What many people don't realize is how carefully every subassembly and major part in the car is sequenced, hours ahead of time, such that it reaches the right car on the main line at just the right time, after spending anywhere from 30 minutes to four hours or more on a delivery conveyor. Unless someone could be in about 30 places at once, all over the plant, at each station where the broadcast copy was printed at the beginning of a subassembly operation, there is no way anything but the correct part or subassembly is going to arrive at the main line when the car it's slated for shows up at that particular work station. This is a very carefully tuned system, and has been for nearly 50 years - when something goes wrong and something gets "out of sequence", it's the worst nightmare you can imagine when there's a car going by every 50 seconds and all the sequenced parts showing up at the main line are wrong. The only cure is to shut the line down and find the missing (or extra) parts in the delivery system and put it back "in sequence" again, while losing about $5,000 for every minute the line is down (in 1969 - it's more today). Every assembly plant on the planet operates this way, and has for 50+ years - anyone who tells you they outwitted this system and "got their car built with better stuff on it" simply doesn't know what the Hell they're talking about. Makes a great story over a few beers, but it's pure B.S.!

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JohnZ
'69 Z28 Fathom Green

And that, my friends, "Is the rest of the story" http://www.camaros.net/forum/biggrin.gif

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Steve
67 SS 396,4-sp
67 RS 327,4-sp
72 RS 350/350
69 4X4 suburban 350,4-sp
73 3/4 ton 454/400
http://www.geocities.com/stevocamaro

When I was in high school we toured the GM assembly plant in Tarrytown NY. They had repair tech guys that rode these old girls bikes with large metal baskets welded over the front wheels. The repair guy would get an emergency call and scoot out on his bike to repair the tooling or assembly fixture or whatever needed to keep the assembly line moving.

It's changed a lot since then. Skilled trades now have tricycles instead of bikes. They are safer. http://www.camaros.net/forum/smile.gif And some have scooters.

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Kurt S.
www.camaros.org (http://www.camaros.org)