Messages

2311

Restoration / Re: A Arm washer etc finish 1969 Z/28

« on: January 25, 2012, 07:54:09 PM »

Yes the hardware was in place.

2312

Originality / Re: Dash Panel Mystery

« on: January 24, 2012, 05:16:09 PM »

I worked in a Camaro business from 1983-1997. We did a weekly GMPD order as many parts were still available during that time. GMPD regularly substituted parts. Here's a few I remember:

'68 Z/28 rocker covers - sent chromed '69s
2 piece rotors - sent later 1 piece
'69 Camaro 396 emblem - sent '70 Nova emblem
'68-'69 rear spring anchor - sent '70 Camaro version w/sway bar bracket
12 bolt axle cover - sent '70 version with notch for bracket

Certain parts were never serviced, particularly plastic interior parts in colors other than black. "Paint to match" I guess.

Late model stuff was worse. They would supply a generic fender; you would have to cut brackets off the original and weld them yourself.

Careful buying "NOS"...

2313

Restoration / Re: A Arm washer etc finish 1969 Z/28

« on: January 24, 2012, 03:39:20 PM »

Correct finish for A Arm large outer washers, smaller washers and bolts as well as sub frame washers and bolts............zinc or silver cad?

This was discussed elsewhere recently.

Upper control arms were assembled to the shaft with the bushings and all hardware. At that point they were painted black; dipped or sprayed. The ball joint and bumper were added later.

2314

General Discussion / Re: Black & Gold '69 ZL-1 Camaro show car

« on: January 24, 2012, 02:17:07 AM »

You probably bought it last night.

2315

General Discussion / Re: 327/307

« on: January 23, 2012, 07:56:07 PM »

In the above list, the first 01C build is my car.  It and the next two 01C built cars have BDY numbers lower than the last 01B built car in the list.  From the trend of the 1st seven BDY numbers in the list, you would have expected my car, 220831 to have been an 01A build and the next two 01C cars (225292 and 225431) to have been late 01A or 01B built cars.  But all three were delayed, for some reason, to 01C builds.

I know there are a lot of reasons why a car’s production could have been delayed including something as mundane as not having the correct color floor mats in stock at the time resulting in the building of the car being delayed until the floor mats were in stock (along with everything else required).  

First of all, there were about 7,000 dealers ordering cars at that time. They were not equal in terms of influence with the Zone or the factory. A high volume dealer in a large metro area is in a position to demand and get better delivery lead time than a small dealer in a rural area.

For standard models parts availability is not much of an issue. Like many products cars are planned to a sales forecast. Chevy knew most Camaros [50%] will be ordered with the standard 8 cylinder engine. At both plants the production rate is 912 units per day; the constraint being body production or paint. So Chevy plans for about 450 standard 8 cylinder engines daily for each Camaro plant. All other standard components, same planning. Remember that production of everything is constrained by something.

What can become a problem is optional models/equipment. Chevy probably initially forecast 16,000 Z/28s for '69, twice '68 production, and planned accordingly. That means they needed 320 472 intakes, 4053 carbs, 480 distributors etc per week and tooled up for those numbers. When dealers started ordering 500 Z/28s per week, they could not meet that demand. November '68 Chevy sent a letter to dealers stating they would not accept Z/28 orders until further notice.

The BDY number was not assigned when the car was ordered; it was assigned when the order was confirmed back to the dealer. Norwood and Van Nuys were on the same system. All the confirmation meant was that the car could and would be built. At that point it was not scheduled. The BDY number has nothing to do with the scheduling of production.

At some point planners have to decide whose cars are getting built that week. Since there was very limited room to store them the ship to location had to be a major factor. Paint color may have been a factor; they did not have 18 paint booths. Cars also vary in labor content due to optional equipment; you can't schedule 75% of the days' cars to get vinyl tops. At the point an order was scheduled the dealer was sent a “Scheduled Price Sheet.” Very similar in appearance to a window sticker, it listed a scheduled shipping date.

So a Camaro built after cars ordered later was not necessarily delayed; it was simply scheduled that way.

2316

Originality / Re: Dash Panel Mystery

« on: January 23, 2012, 05:04:27 PM »

So both the 69 Camaro and the 70's Nova used the identical part number.  That is confusing!

Not true. The Nova dash does not have the two square cluster mounting holes next to the ash tray opening.

That was how you had to repair a rusty Camaro dash back then. Use the Nova part ['69-'79] and slice off the top. And correct the speaker grille.

2317

General Discussion / Black & Gold '69 ZL-1 Camaro show car

« on: January 23, 2012, 01:26:27 AM »

Went to Barrett-Jackson; awesome as usual. We were there early Friday morning and chatted up the Chevy Engineers in the 2012 COPO Camaro booth. I brought up the '69 show car and they emphatically stated Chevy still owns it. I was under the impression they had used the engine for the '70 ZL-1 show car but he said it was intact. In storage; no plans for it they are aware of.

That's all they knew.

2318

General Discussion / Re: 1968 RS/SS Dana Camaro

« on: January 19, 2012, 05:43:51 PM »

A few MV blocks have been discovered and they are standard iron 396. There were no factory 427 '68s.

I don't follow '68s but last I heard the code was for a different carb.

2319

General Discussion / Re: 1968 RS/SS Dana Camaro

« on: January 19, 2012, 04:01:03 AM »

william,
 what is the engine code for the 68 396 COPO?
   VT

MV

2320

General Discussion / Re: 1968 RS/SS Dana Camaro

« on: January 19, 2012, 02:17:30 AM »

The few '68 COPO Camaros built had 396 engines.

For 427 dealer-conversion Camaros original paperwork is a must. Nobody can verify or document it as such.

2321

Originality / Re: 69z tires

« on: January 07, 2012, 02:42:46 AM »

While the rate Camaros were produced at could not change, the mix could. High-Performance cars are in far greater demand during the early spring months tapering off into summer.

For example Sep '68 only 3.6% of production were Z/28; Feb '69 it was 13%. So production planners know they need 14,560 E70 x 15 tires for February; about 130 per day at peak. Goodyear knows it can't make them at that rate; Chevy looks for another supplier to cover the peaks. Both suppliers had to warehouse and ship from stock so which was on the line when is impossible to determine. They were probably mixed; cars built within minutes of each other could have different brands.

Don't forget COPO 9737 also consumed E70 x 15 tires.

2322

Originality / Re: 69z tires

« on: January 06, 2012, 06:32:02 PM »

I have never heard of a 68-69 Z/28 using Uniroyal tires. When I see one I will believe it.

I believe Goodyear was the primary supplier; Firestone filled in. SC200 was a strange tire; not sold through their retail stores.

2323

Originality / Re: 1969 SS striping

« on: December 26, 2011, 02:39:56 PM »

No excuses on this one. Not only was the car here in WI it belonged to one of CPXs' customers; I saw it several times. However by that time [early '90s'] it had been restored and painted. No data, no pix.

What I do have is a very bad copy of the shippers' copy. The first line is "SPECIAL PAINT." By the time this car was built [N646xxx VIN] black was an RPO color; it is not listed. The owner had spoken with the original owner and stated it was ordered stripe delete.

What a car! Triple black SS-RS, D80, L78, M22, 4.10s, U17, U79, ZL2. Listed for $4,600, a ton of money back then.

2324

1969 - Orphans / Re: DZ 302 Block For Sale

« on: December 22, 2011, 11:54:52 PM »

Looks real to me. '386 block cast September 19, 1968.

Deck/pad is badly pitted.

http://www.racingjunk.com/Chevrolet/2413100/DZ-302-Block-nd-Crankshaft.html

2325

Decoding/Numbers / Re: Can anyone help me Identify this Gm Piston?

« on: December 17, 2011, 08:49:13 PM »

The change to the '69 style piston was made during the '68 model year as noted in Jerry's book.