Messages

916

General Discussion / Re: Factory AC upgrade from R-12 to R-134a?

« on: August 12, 2007, 12:22:02 PM »

If your going to use R134 you need to replace the dryer with one thats designed for R134, you need to remove your compressor and drain ALL of the oil in it as the PAG oil used in R134 equipment is not compatible with the mineral oil used in the older systems.  Refill the compressor with PAG oil, (not really sure how much it takes)  You should also flush the rest of the system to get any remnants of the oil and refrigerant out (but I didn't do that an mine works fine).  After that you need to draw a vacuum in the system to get any moisture out and hold that vacuum for at least an hour although longer is better.  After that you just need to add 54 oz (give or take) of R134 to the system and you should be good to go.  Run the car at about 2000 rpm with the controls on max A/C and fan on high.  You want the low pressure side to be around 34 psi and the high up around 250 psi (but this varies due to air temperature)  Once you get up to 48 oz, go slow and watch the sight glass on the top of the dryer for air bubbles.  Once the air bubble stop your full.

917

Decoding/Numbers / Re: Week definition on cowl tag

« on: August 06, 2007, 04:21:36 PM »

A week is a generally a week in the body code, you just can't say that the A week started on the 1st of the month, or the E (or D) week ended on the 30th of the month. 

Generally the A week of the month is the first FULL calendar week of a month.  For example if the month ended on a Tuesday, then that whole "assembly" week was part of the previous month even though there was only one calendar day in that month.  There are exceptions to that statement, and differences from one assembly plant to another so its not really worth worrying about.  Using the VIN numbers (at least for 69 and later cars) is a much better way of determining when in a month a particular car was built.

918

General Discussion / Re: Tailpan blackout on 69' tuxedo black SS396?

« on: August 02, 2007, 12:41:43 AM »

Not really buffed, but color sanded and flowed out in an oven.

From the CRG assembly process article:

"Color System: The bodies were sequenced to "batch-paint" by color as much as possible, to minimize the waste of thinner required to clear paint guns between colors. The interior was masked off, the body exterior was tacked-off, and it then entered the first color booth, where it got three coats of acrylic lacquer, sprayed automatically with vertical and horizontal reciprocating spray guns, with a 3-minute "flash" between coats, followed by a 10-minute bake at 200F to "skin" the surface prior to sanding. In the next stage, any surface defects were power- and hand-wet-sanded with mineral spirits, then wiped off prior to entering the final "reflow" oven. This bake lasted 30 minutes at 275F, where the lacquer surface softened and "re-flowed" to a uniform gloss. The last process for a non-stripe car was the blackout booth, where the firewall was blacked-out, the trunk was sprayed with spatter paint, and sound-deadening undercoat material was sprayed in the rear wheelhouses. The rear "cocktail shakers" on convertibles were suspended in the trunk for spatter painting, but weren't bolted in place until later in the Trim Shop, after the taillights and marker lights were installed.

If the car required Z-28, Z-10, or Z-11 stripes or a black rear end panel or rockers, they were masked and sprayed in the in-line repair booth/oven system after the reflow oven, including the cowl vent panel; spoilers were painted and striped separate from the body and were installed before the body went back downstairs to the Trim Shop."

919

General Discussion / Re: Tailpan blackout on 69' tuxedo black SS396?

« on: August 01, 2007, 04:20:38 PM »

Considering the tail panel, rocker blackout, and the rear half of the Z28  stripes were painted in the inline paint booth in the Fisher trim shop (at least in Norwood - there may be differences between NOR and LOS cars becasue of the plant configurations), after the car was painted whatever body color it is, that sounds possible.  The body had already been polished out before it arrived at the trim shop, would it have been polished again in the trim shop?  Just from an assembly line perspective I find it hard to imagine that the trim shop used Black gloss paint on the stripes (for cars with black rally stripes)  but then would switch guns (or paint formulas) to spray rocker and tailpanel blackout just to get a slightly less glossy finish on those items when finished.  It would seem you would want to have a minimum of colors and finishes available just to save time.

920

Decoding/Numbers / Re: Need advise on cowl tag info

« on: July 26, 2007, 12:52:24 AM »

11A = Built the First week of November.
67-12437 = Standard Interior Coupe.
LOS = Built in Van Nuys California.
760 = Standard Black Bucket Seats.
Z = (A50) Strato Bucket Seats.
R-R = Car Color is Bolero Red
A562 = internal plant scheduling code.
Options:
1W = (A02) Tinted W/S only
2L = (M20) 4-speed floor shifter
2G = (D55) Console front compartment
2S = (U73) Antenna Manual right rear
3D = (U29) Courtesy Lamp
4F = (D33) Mirror Remote Control
5Y = (A39) Belts All Deluxe

921

Decoding/Numbers / Re: VIN sequence is off by two weeks

« on: July 25, 2007, 04:27:43 PM »

Since the VIN is about 1000 (up to 2000) cars past the last April of 69 VIN (N637101) This 04L car was started in April, probably on the 30th, and finished on May 2nd or 3rd.

922

Decoding/Numbers / Re: VIN sequence is off by two weeks

« on: July 23, 2007, 11:07:56 PM »

Since theres an 06E week in June, one can surmise that 06A is May 29th thru June 2nd, 06B is June 5th thru June 9th.  OR this may be one of those odd months where the build week DID change when the calendar changed, ie 05E is May 29th thru the 31st and 06A is June 1st and 2nd.  Or maybe your car was pushed up in production a week after the tag had been issued, for some odd reason. The build weeks were not set in stone, sometimes they were shorter than a week sometimes they were longer than a week.

923

Decoding/Numbers / Re: VIN sequence is off by two weeks

« on: July 23, 2007, 04:23:02 PM »

For the most part production was 2 shifts a day, Monday thru Friday.  There may have been some Saturdays worked to clear backlogs, or when there were heavy orders, but they are pretty rare.  Don't think the plants ever worked a Sunday, as thats double time and a half OT.

Its more likely the dealership itself was not open on Sunday so they could not receive the car, or maybe thats just the way the delivery worked out.

924

Decoding/Numbers / Re: VIN sequence is off by two weeks

« on: July 23, 2007, 10:43:47 AM »

1) If a build month ends on a Wednesday ( let's say April 30th, 1969 for this example ), that would be a 04E build date.  The following month starts on the next day,  Thursday in this example.  Would Thursday & Friday count as 05A?  What if there was only one day ( Friday ) left in the week that starts the new month?  Does Friday count as 05A?

Steve

Typically, build weeks started on a Monday and remained the same all the way thru Friday(or Saturday if they were working).  So if the month ended on a Monday and it was an E week, the build dates stayed the same for that whole week.  The A week would start the following Monday which would be the 6th calenadar day of the month.

925

Decoding/Numbers / Re: Decode Help

« on: July 20, 2007, 11:02:43 AM »

Looks fine.

926

Decoding/Numbers / Re: 69 RS/SS 396/L78 Camaro

« on: July 17, 2007, 01:34:28 AM »

Theres at least a couple of thousand of them out there.  I've got an 04L pacecar but its a 350/TH350 car. No one has figured out the significance (if any) of the L date code.  The tags should have been 04D.  Old speculation is that the D stamp was broken so they used L, but why wouldn't they have used E instead?

927

General Discussion / Re: Not Camaro but maybe the ultimate Barn find.

« on: July 14, 2007, 12:05:27 AM »

From Todd Cotter Contributing Editor to Road and Track magazine.

Manuel Menezes Morais shot the photos, but he was sworn to secrecy about the cars' location and the owner's name. However, he was able to obtain permission from the elusive owner to give me the following information:

The owner of the cars was a car dealer in the 1970s and 1980s, and decided to save the more interesting cars that came through his doors. When the barn was full, he padlocked and "soldered" the doors shut. (Perhaps welding was too permanent.)

Web sites varied on the number of cars: 58, 100, and 180 were speculated. According to Morais, there are 180 cars in the barn.

And, aw shucks, none of the cars is for sale.

Clara was able to determine that the cars are located somewhere in the area of Sintra, near Lisbon.

I asked Morais if he could ask the owner if he had a favorite car. "He has lots of good cars in very good condition," he says, "but he loves the Lancia Aurelia B24. He has two."

928

General Discussion / Re: bad for our hobby?

« on: July 03, 2007, 04:07:44 PM »

That bill was pushed thru by a member of this site (and Camaros.net, and Yenkos.net as well).  Now we need to get similar bills submitted in each of the other 49 states.

929

General Discussion / Re: Production Dating a vehicle by VIN

« on: June 27, 2007, 10:57:06 AM »

637106 is the last VIN in April as reported by GM.  That would have been the last car out the door at the end of the second shift, on April 30th, 1969.  They made roughly 13,200 Camaros during the month of May, this is arrived at by subtracting the end of April numbers from the end of May numbers.  A car with a VIN of 638606 would have already been in production as of April 30th since it took about 2 days to go from a firewall with a trim tag, to a completed rear body half.  Probably started its assembly on the Fisher side of the plant on the April 29th, and came over to GMs side of the plant on May 1st and rolled out the back door of GM on Monday May 5th, maybe very late in the day on May 2nd.

930

Restoration / Re: Paint for Hockey Stick Stripe and Rear of S.S.

« on: June 13, 2007, 10:13:49 AM »

So can we finally make a definative call and say that the rockers and tail panel paint was semi gloss black?