Messages

1

General Discussion / Re: July carb on a July 68z

« on: March 29, 2025, 11:26:46 PM »

I believe you saw the "2000 plus total Camaros in July" on this site. As the text states, Chevrolet info on that was incorrect. The VIN range for July '68 at Norwood was roughly N461500 - N484735, over 23,000 cars. Plenty of them were Z/28s.

The fundamental problem was dealers ordering more Z/28s than the plants could build. Generally speaking, it was the capacity to build engines. Can't just "make more parts" overnight. The problem continued into the '69 model year when Chevy stopped accepting Z/28 orders as of November, 1968. When this happens, Central Office assigns dealers an allocation to order against. From what I heard, they were slow to confirm Z/28 orders. Dealers didn't know if or when their orders would be built.

2

General Discussion / Re: July carb on a July 68z

« on: March 29, 2025, 02:50:07 PM »

Probably not.

Early Norwood 1969 Z/28s built through the end of October 1968 had 864, 872, 875 carbs.

3

Decoding/Numbers / Caveat Emptor...another repro body tag?

« on: March 28, 2025, 02:41:50 PM »

https://www.ebay.com/itm/226667219157

124379N579916

From the ad: 1969 Chevrolet Camaro REAL X22 SS

The error makes this one easy.

4

Decoding/Numbers / Re: Decoding 1969 Camaro Z28

« on: March 28, 2025, 02:12:13 PM »

The rear axle code is missing a character. Should be eight; ex: BU0220G2.

Reviewing data, that’s the only known axle date that fits. February 2nd was a Sunday; not likely and don’t have an example. The Detroit gear and axle plant was 2,300 miles from VN, 12 days seems possible.

Don’t have P9B18C in my data. Have P9B21C in a VN Z/28 built just after yours.

The missing VIN will be a concern as re-stampers have a process to eliminate them.

Here’s some restored Muncie main cases; three had the same VIN.

5

1969 - Orphans / Re: VIN 19N655151, pretty sure I have your DZ block.

« on: March 17, 2025, 11:52:52 AM »

IMHO, both stampings have been mis-interpreted.

The pad stamping is clearly December; either the 4th, 14th or 24th. December 4 is common; the others are not. 19N655151 would have been final assembled on or about June 11, 1969. It would not have an engine built 190 days prior. 

The VIN stamping is missing the 5 at position #4. There looks to be a faint 7 in position #8. The VIN is most likely 19N565575. A Z28 built slightly later has a December 4 DZ engine. It's a 386 block, cast late July.

6

Decoding/Numbers / Caveat Emptor...another repro body tag?

« on: February 15, 2025, 05:06:55 PM »

https://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/listing/1969-chevrolet-camaro-pompano-beach-fl-2851804

124679N609169

Has Y55 on the body tag, in addition to the other two errors.

7

Decoding/Numbers / Re: 1969 03d clarification needed

« on: February 14, 2025, 12:57:09 AM »

Chevrolet had all sorts of production reporting, one of them being "End of Month VIN":

http://www.camaros.org/geninfo.shtml#HowMany

That of course, also [technically] provides the first VIN of the next month. Starting with this info about eight years ago, I was able to reverse-engineer a daily production calendar for Van Nuys and Norwood. John Z stated the production rate at Norwood was 912/day, another valuable bit of information.

Van Nuys is interesting because of the schedule code seen on virtually all their tags. Using that and the date, the VIN can be predicted +/- a few hundred units.

The only real SWAG in it is August 1968. There was no EOM reporting, so I estimated 900 units at Norwood over 7 production days. VN looks to be just over 200 over 4 days. There are 08A VN tags, but they don't appear to have been built until later in the month. Crazy stuff going on there; they didn't reset scheduling codes for September. 09A units start with J. Very few August 1968 '69 Camaros from both plants survive; rarely see one.   

Using NCRS data, the calendars have been in continuous improvement since. They have evolved to a point where I rarely make changes.

8

Decoding/Numbers / Re: Caveat Emptor...tag swap

« on: February 12, 2025, 05:09:12 PM »

Speaks well of them. Take it off the market until it is sorted out.

9

Decoding/Numbers / Caveat Emptor...tag swap

« on: February 12, 2025, 03:37:07 PM »

https://www.ebay.com/itm/28632159480

Reported VIN: 124379N574119

N574119 was final assembled on or about January 9, 1969. Car has a 10B body tag, 2nd week October 1968.

One or both tags are not original to the car; hidden VINs may not match.

10

General Discussion / Re: VIN 19N704171 for Engine 302 Z/28 PLEASE HELP

« on: February 10, 2025, 02:34:24 PM »

WorkinProgress was Warren Malkin, Jr. He passed away shortly after his last post, October 2021.

11

Originality / Re: Console Paint Recommendations

« on: January 15, 2025, 02:12:39 PM »

Consoles were molded in black plastic. Only the lid and ash tray cover were painted.

Green, blue and red consoles were painted to match.

12

General Discussion / Re: Site Migration

« on: January 15, 2025, 12:57:20 AM »

Thanks much Doug!

13

Decoding/Numbers / Re: Caveat Emptor...another repro body tag?

« on: January 12, 2025, 12:59:40 AM »

Last pic in full-size photos

14

Decoding/Numbers / Caveat Emptor...another repro body tag?

« on: January 11, 2025, 08:28:14 PM »

https://www.ebay.com/itm/116443159808

124379N545079

1969 Chevrolet Camaro SS Iconic

N545079 was final-assembled on or about November 19, 1968. Body tag has two obvious errors.

15

Originality / Re: 1969 Z28 Exhaust & Beginning of Resonators - Revisit Topic

« on: January 10, 2025, 01:19:30 PM »

When 'bright tail pipes' entered production May 19th, only the RH side was 2-pc construction. Warren Malkin found a survivor built with them October '69.