Camaro body sub-assemblies were built by Fisher Body in a facility adjacent to Norwood final assembly. Bodies were assembled less front sheet metal, painted, with seating and interior soft trim installed. When complete, bodies were received by Norwood assembly in an area known as the
Body Bank. VIN assignment, consisting of the last six digits of the legal VIN, was completed in order in the body bank as completed bodies flowed in from Fisher. This number was stamped into the body in two areas. The VIN tag was not produced at this time. The dealer order for the unit was then reviewed for build content and the body moved to one of the
six marshaling lanes in the Body Bank, some lanes designated for specific, higher labor content units. When the next spot on the assembly line opened [every 63 seconds] another body was released to the line from the bank based on scheduling rules to maintain line balance. For example high labor content builds; A/C, RS, etc., would not be released consecutively. If the last unit released was an RS with a console, the next one might be a standard car without a console. Thus, bodies became shuffled in the bank. 512346 for example, might be released prior to 512340. It was possible for a higher labor unit to remain in the bank for nearly a full shift; as many as 400 Camaros with later VINs would be built prior to it. The release generated Body & Chassis Broadcast copies [BBC & CBC] to sub-assembly stations throughout the plant. Broadcast copies had a 3-digit sequence number; for the most part that is the order in which cars were final-assembled. However I have seen a broadcast copy with a notation stating an out of sequence series.
Every work day at the end of second shift, production stopped. If 512346 was one of the last cars to be completed Tuesday, 512340 would be one of the first cars completed Wednesday. Probably a common occurrence.
Check out John Z's excellent review of the 1st Gen assembly process.
http://www.camaros.org/assemblyprocess.shtml
