So there's really no way w/o a biuls sheet or POBF to tell when a car was built? I would've thought the invoice date and build date would've been the same - I.e. the day it rolled off the line as a completed car GMAC woukd start the interest clock rolling. It has to be pretty close.
I would say your range is within the 5th week of August, 1969. That would narrow it down to 5 days, the 25,26,27,28 or 29th. September 1st was Labor Day in 1969 so it may have been a smaller group of workers building cars that week due to the upcoming holiday weekend Your invoice date was 9/18/69 so it sat at the factory for a few weeks or at least was not billed for a few weeks after being built.
I thought it would be lower also, unless the vin numbers are issued i.e.[started] at the fisher body plant and vins# are handed out as different body groups are being built. Any thoughts on this? Larry
No, the VIN falls into place with other special cars, in fact the VIN is lower than mine, which makes sense since it was built a week before mine (08 E vs 09A). VIN's were assigned by Buick, not Fisher. Until the shell was shipped to Buick final assembly, the shell itself had no VIN attached, only the Fisher Body tag. One must also remember that the first car off the line's last 6 digits were 100001, not 000001.
Brad, With the build so early in production, why are your vins still 10K above 100001? Same with the body numbers being close to the 30K number. Does that mean the over 10K "Skylark" vins were assigned ahead of your cars? Did Fisher use the same sequence of body numbers for all body styles (Skylark 2dr, Skylark 4 dr, Sportwagon, GS455, GS350) and that is why the body ID numbers are that high? I would have expected the VINS and ID numbers to be very, very low but I guess the factory had to start building cars to get them to the show rooms in September and Skylarks had the greatest amount of sales so somewhere out there was a Skylark with VIN 100002. Larry, sent me a copy of his Sloan paper work to make a window sticker so that is how I know his info.
I see on Marco's site that there were some Stage 1 cars built the 2nd week of August so I guess Buick did not pull the first cars off the line for their special projects like I originally thought. The first one on his site has a body ID 1500 lower than yours.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought the VINs started at 100001 not just the A-body cars, but all cars built at an assembly plant. That way there are never two cars with the last 6 digits of VIN that are the same. So at approx 60 cars/hour, it doesn't take long to build 10,000 cars.
You are 99% correct, Gary. Some of the Buick's built in Flint had the last six digits begin with a different digit...an example is my '72 Electra. The last six of it is 475603. Riviera's had the last six begin with 9. You are extremely correct in your statement it doesn't take long to produce 10-20,000 cars @ 60 per hour and usually two shifts per day. They were cranking up production in order to have a bunch of cars out there on introduction day.
I don't believe so. Tom's family was from the Warren Area, and had family involvement (Ownership/Management/?) of a Company named "Halsey-Taylor". Clyde Cole, was the Buick-Cadillac Dealer in Warren, & Tom used to drive & race a Cadillac Coupe. I have also heard of possible Family ties with that dealership, but can't say for sure. Tom started to race Buicks with the 1st "Tinker Toy" that was a 66 GS. (rumors are that there May have been more that 1 66, but I haven't verified that) A/The "Tinker Toy" was donated to a church & has disappeared. (The last I saw it, was on a Car Hauler, off Rt. 422, in the Southington area back in the late 60s early 70s) When Clyde Cole, sold the Buick Franchise to Rudy Sims, Tom got the Buicks from there & also Sponsorship (72 & 3 Rudy Sims Race Cars) the Cadillac part of the Dealership, combined with I believe, Gary Tinkham(?sp) who moved his Pontiac dealership from Youngstown, & formed "Cole Valley Pontiac-Cadillac". The Cadillac franchise is still going out on the 5 Bypass, in Warren, as is Rudy Sims.
Can someone help me decipher my body tag, etc? I know 10A is the 1st week of October and 51 - 53 are for the blue color. The POP shows 10-4-69. So my guess is it sat on the lot for quite a while before it was purchased. Could it have been produced in October 1969 as a special order? Any help would be appreciated!