...since I have extra time on my hands these days, figured I'd see if I could expand my knowledge about a little known aspect of '71s, especially since it relates to my GS. Anyone know anything about overseas orders? In the process of decoding my POP, the only piece of documentation I have, there was a 6-digit number (405262) on dealer-applied 7th line that took me a while to define. Thanks to a '70 GS POP card and '72 GMAD "build sheet" for my dealer that I found on internet, I was able to corroborate that 6-digit number as "Order#." The sample POP card had "403283" and GMAD sheet had box 111 labelled "Order Number" with "428344." Bingo! Overseas orders used a 6-digit Order#, not the 2-characters plus 4-digits found on stateside Wholesale Order forms. Did overseas dealers use stateside order forms, ignoring pre-printed order#, instead having an overseas number assigned by Zone Office (or some other central authority), or did they use an entirely different form/order procedure? At same time, I learned that unlike stateside shipping, overseas was a "2-part" process. From the '72 GMAD sample, I could see Buick handled routing/accounting for overseas shipping by assigning a secondary Dealer# for ground leg of trip to shipping terminal (my dealer is 79-908, ground leg got 79-288 which was SeaTrain's terminal. Incidentally, Matson's terminal was 79-200. Buick contracted both). Overseas part of trip billed to real zone/dealer code, with total destination charge as sum of both. That seems straightforward on GMAD sample. Assume worked same for Flint. Looked for corresponding Flint "paperwork," all I found were sample IBM cards with 3 columns labelled "Ship Via" (sample '72 card expanded "Routing Code" to 6 columns, 2 for "source," 2 for "path," and 2 for "destination"). Assume pre-'72 single column codes were for same 3 parts, and overseas component is there. After Sloan discovery that my dealer only ordered 2 GS convertibles for entire '72 year, above work became part of an unsuccessful effort to find or reverse-engineer A-body convertible Flint-Honolulu destination charge. Anyone able to add anything more?
