What has become known as the body number really was the dealer order confirmation. There is no direct relationship between it and the VIN for a number of reasons.
With confirmation #144929 the RJ car was ordered mid-September 1968; final assembled on or about December 5, 1968. That's a span of 12 weeks, well beyond normal order lead time. The order was clearly delayed; some of the factors possibly involved are:
Dealer status/order classification/Camaro allocation - Roanoke IL had a population of about 1,900 back in the day. The dealer likely sold far more trucks than passenger cars, possibly had no Camaro allocation. If they had other Camaro orders in the system, subsequent orders may have been scheduled for a later sales period. Dealer orders were classified as Fleet or Sold. A car ordered for dealer stock would have low priority to begin with. The car wasn't sold immediately, probably not a customer order.
Build capacity - by early November, dealers had ordered far more Z/28s than Chevy had the capacity to build. On November 6, 1968 Chevrolet notified dealers they would not be accepting additional Z/28 orders for some time.
Camaro orders specifying RPO Z28 far exceeds the availability of the Z28 engine. Production of this engine cannot be increased until sometime early next year. The volume of orders presently on hand at the assembly plant is sufficient to cover production into December. In view of the foregoing, the Processing Center has been advised that until the situation has improved, not to accept orders for immediate placement, additional orders from dealers specifying this optional equipment. Please be guided accordingly.
Given all this, I'll bet it took much lobbying by the dealer to keep the order in the schedule. By the end of July 1969, Chevy had built 200,282 Camaros. The highest body/confirmation # I know of is 377197. Chevy cancelled many dealer orders for the 1969 model year.
I have dealer paperwork for N554072/141394. Order dated September 16, 1968, finally built December 4, 1968. That's a 12 week wait for a customer order!
