Caveat Emptor...another tag mismatch

[william]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1969-Camaro-Bad-Boy-SEE-VIDEO/232970391732?hash=item363e1e10b4:g:2nUAAOSwT0pbyAsD:rk:6:pf:0&vxp=mtr

124379N631633

Car was final-assembled on or about April 22, 1969. Has an 10A body tag, 1st week October 1969. One or both tags are not original to the car.

From the ad: Because life is too short to drive a boring car!

True. If the VIN tag has been swapped, owning this car will get exciting.

[77thor]

This is a first... He didn't attempt to clone a Z28 or SS   ;-)

[69Z28-RS]

Has CRG ever seen a documented original car with a 6 month delay between planned and actual produc tion?   What is the largest delay we've seen/documented??

[jdv69z]

Not an expert in any sense, but the TT doesn't look like it's been off?

[Kelley W King]

X44D80, little odd but possible. Hidden VIN would tell the story.

[william]

Has CRG ever seen a documented original car with a 6 month delay between planned and actual produc tion?   What is the largest delay we've seen/documented??

There is no way to know when a car was initially scheduled to ship without having the scheduled price sheet. I have seen a few; looks much like a window sticker. One indication is the order confirmation number aka 'body number'. For '69 both plants were on the same system, run out of Central Office. Numbering started August '68 at 100001 and had nothing to do with scheduling. But it is an indicator of how long the order was in the system. The 50 Fred Gibb Chev ZL1s were ordered early December 1968 and for the most part had body numbers 222001-up. The first two cars were expedited through the system and final-assembled Dec 30, 1968. Other Camaros built that day have body numbers in the 213xxx-218xx range. But the last of Gibbs' ZL1s were built in March; other cars at that time were in the range 251xxx-291xxx. Not an exact science.

As for the ebay car, the trim tag may not have been off. The car may have been junked and no longer had a title or VIN tag. Rather than jumping through the hoops for a recon title with state assigned VIN [value hit], it is easier to buy one of the thoroughly rusted mutts off ebay that is offered with title and tags intact.

It's a jungle out there.

[jdv69z]

Even in the case of the December ordered/March built ZL1's though, the trim tag still correlates with the VIN right? Trim Tag for a March built ZL1 is not 12B, but 03A, or something like that, right? Both trim tags and VIN's are related to when actual production occurred, whereas the order number is not and could float in limbo indefinitely.

[william]

The trim tag was issued by Fisher Body when Chevrolet scheduled the unit for production. Even though the Gibb ZL1s were ordered on the same day, they couldn't be immediately scheduled due to material availability. In the end, 2 had 12E tags, 36 had 02D tags, 4 had 03B tags, 8 had 03D tags. The first two built were 222002 and 222003, also the only ones with sequential VINs. 222001 was the 14th built. All of the 02D tags were built March 4-12. VINs were assigned in sequence as bodies were received from Fisher. Cars were not built in VIN order.

None of the Gibb cars was the first ZL1 ordered. #3 was the first ordered, bearing body number 211785. Gibb had friends in high places.

Dealer orders were not allowed to linger. By the end of July, 200,281 69s had been built but over 277,000 orders had been logged. Orders were typically cancelled because of capacity/allocation but errors and equipment changes were also factors.