Wow I really need to get more sleep and have my eyes checked too. Sorry for the confusion. I deleted my posts. Great score on all of the recent parts purchases. The car will look cool and be a strong runner too.
- I have edited this post because I got peoples' names mixed up. It was Wayne Roberts and I that had the conversation. My apologies to all for the confusion. - Wayne Roberts and I had a discussion on this topic a few months back. Perhaps he will come on and shed a bit of light on the topic. Until that happens, this is what I remember from the conversation: Wayne believes the GSX car bodies were built in batches and shoved into a storage area as they were finished. They were then pulled from the storage area for final assembly in the reverse order from what they were pushed in (the last one in being the first one out). To further complicate what was happening, a new batch of bodies would be started before the last batch was completely used up, resulting in the first bodies pushed into the storage area remaining there until the later additions were depleted. This resulted in some early body numbers being used in later production cars. Wayne designated the car numbers based on when final production was completed. Hopefully I remembered that correctly. If not, any board members with knowledge of the original factory production processes are encouraged to add their insight.
I believe I saw an ad for the wheels on Craigslist in the town you live. I figured it was you or Dave selling them. Guess not. Nice score!
I am not sure how Wayne Roberts numbers the cars. He has the microfilm that GM used, basically to pay the taxes to the government. Maybe the numbers he uses are the order that they appear on the microfilm or invoice dates? You would have to ask him. Yes the cars were built in “color” batches, as a matter of fact all the cars were. It takes time & money to clean out all paint guns/lines etc, therefore they would make a minimum number of each color car before changing the paint colors out. This procedure created a two fold effect, 1. For cars that were built in limited colors (like the Yellow GSX's), the factory would “wait” until they had enough of those cars to warrant a color batch. For these low production cars it often meant some cars were “held up” in production for a while until the number needed was met. This often meant that some earlier cars were built in the same batch as later cars, regardless of the vin/body numbers that were assigned to them. 2. Cars that were produced in a specific “not standard color” like some of the SCO colored cars had to pay a premium charge, due to the time needed to clean out the guns/ paint lines and the amount of lacquer thinner needed to do this. I have some factory info stating the amount of lacquer thinner needed, but have no idea where it is right now. The bottom line is don’t get all hung up on the “number” associated with your car. That number will only give you a range of when the car was built, not an exact number. If you used the vin number it would give you a different result, as would using the body number, or invoice date. All would give you a different result, due to the way the vin/body numbers flip-flopped throughout the production year. The simple fact is we DO NOT have the Factory information as to which car was exactly built before another. Anything else is just conjecture. Now hopefully this will answer that question, until the question pops up again. Duane
To add to the statement above for the GSX's, Once the color batches were made and the cars were waiting to be striped, they were put into a holding area were they "backed up" until they started getting in the way. At that time they would be scheduled to be striped. To do this the Paint shop (at the Factory in Flint) needed to be configured differently, therefore the cars were scheduled to be painted after the First Shift. The Paint shop was then re-configured, the cars were moved in, striped, assembled, then moved out, and then the paint shop was re-configured back into the regular assembly line configuration, and all before the first shift started up in the morning. I have talked to some of the people doing this, including the guy that ran the Paint shop during 2nd shift, as well as the guy that striped the majority of the cars, and they both told me there were times when they were finishing up barely 15 minutes before the first shift started. All this had the added effect of again screwing up the "order" in which the cars rolled out of the Factory, as I am sure they pulled the cars that were most in the way out first. The other thing to remember is this, I know we all love these cars and consider them as special, but to the Buick factory workers they were nothing short of being a "pain in the ass" and some used stronger language then that. They were so small in number that they did not warrant having a special 'Paint line" set up to stripe them, as I would assume they did for say the SS Chevelle's or 442's that were more numerous. The simple fact was Buick was not set up to paint these cars quickly, and that led to problems with striping them. The added effect with all of this is it further screwed up the order of when each car left the factory, which should be the exact number assigned to the car. Duane
Thanks for all that insight. I have another question. If a car were an SCO for a color that was available in the plant but not on that line (like Titian Red or Azure Blue), would they pull that GS and wait until several Rivieras that color piled up and batch it in with them or would they do as described in the above posts (paint one car then clean the machinery)? Patrick
Patrick, I think I answered your question 2 posts up, after I edited my post. I also do not know if they built the a-bodies at the same Plant as the Riveras, but do know they added costs to the special paint cars due to either special handling or time/materials to clean out the painting systems. Maybe they grabbed paint off the other lines, I just don't know. Duane
That's awesome! I'm pretty sure I saw his add on Facebook Marketplace the other day. Congratulations on getting all of that. IIRC, it was very attractively priced too.
Anyone going to the Nationals this year that would have a 70 rear bumper for sale ? I need a good core that can be rechromed
Vintage cool from a awesome member here Thank you Mike Even if I don't put them on the car it will be a cool piece to put out when I show the car. Love the old school vintage parts like this. Its a great conversation piece from back in the day.
Listen, can you stop playing with your ponchos and get some stuff done on the X??? where are the pics and updates?? Don't make me come down there Ryan!
I hear ya Jason, The birds both are taking a lot of my time and energy lately. Just know if you come down here I will put you to work . As soon as I can find time I will upload some new pics of things for the GSX. Its going to be a long road ahead with doing and dealing with multiple cars.
Could be a two fer...Get Jason down here to help me install front and rear windows and ball joints. I'll swing up and we'll both help work on yours.You still need to swing down by me and see my ride in person. Don't think she'll make it to the Autofair in time.
O'Reilley's rents the ball joint press. Not that difficult of a job to do. Might want to replace the rubber bushing while you are at it. .
Yes, you see correctly. These are some sweet 3" Duel exhaust with some of Dennis (WheelZ) stainless 3" tips.... and YES they will be put to use on the GSX after of course Rusty Davenport finishes the N/25 conversion on the very nice 1970 rear bumper core provided by another awesome member here on the board. Thank you Jerry & Brian.
Thank you to Hector from right here on the board and in NC for the fantastic valve covers. They are going to look Sooooooo Good.
