Copo Corvette

[Rick S.]

Re: Copo Corvette

Quote: "This is all very interesting to me. I worked for GM from 8/78 thru retirement in 11/01. During that time I only heard stories of how great the employee discount was "back in the day", primarily how one could usually make out selling a car after 6 months, etc., but with the caveat "not any more!" We usually got something like 10 t0 12 % off base and upwards of 15 to 18% on options. That's why it was cool to load the cars with options, but that actually made it harder to sell. We usually put them on one year balloon notes too, and then sold them at the end of the year while waiting for our next order. It was fun. I had a new one almost every year plus I bought "product evaluation" executive cars from the company stock as well. My sons always had a new or near new car for their use at college every year. We tried them all."

My neighbor in Birmingham use to buy cars from GM employees, during the mentioned time period, who were on ballon notes, brought them back home, detailed them, then took them to the Flint Auto Auction. The guy made a ton of money but lost it all on a cocaine habit. I had a real hard time understanding how someone could buy a car at "retail" prices and take it to a dealer auction and sell it at "wholesale" prices and make a fortune!
Rick

[Kenneth B.]

Re: Copo Corvette

Ken,

Did Al work at Chevrolet or Chevrolet Engineering?

I don't have to talk to Al, I know how the COPO system worked and Chevrolet did not process a COPO just for the hell of it.............their had to be something special for it to be designated a COPO from the get go.

Are you referring to a COPO window sticker?

Respectfully
Art

ART

I guess that you worked at the Corvette plant in the 60"s & 70"S from your posts. I have a question. Why are there very few line tickets found in the Corvettes. Most Comaros,Chevelles,etc had the line tickets stuck somewhere in the cars.
KEN

[Art A.]

Re: Brass hat question

I was told by an early owner that my 67' (highly optioned) was a "brass hat" car orderd by a GM executive, probably the Chevrolet Zone Manager in the Kearney, MO area. The selling dealer was Dagley Chevrolet in that city. It was sold to its first non-GM employee owner 9-months after it's build date. Is there anyway to find out the name of the Zone Manager in the Kansas City, MO area during the mid 60's?

I'm not a where of any GM records that still exist that would identify the KC Zone manager from the 60's. There are lot of people on this forum that would be better qualified to answer this type of question than I...........maybe they will chime in.

[Duke W.]

Re: Copo Corvette

Okay, now that we know the "internal builds" - engineering, public relations, etc. cars and the various executive and employee purchase cars were not COPOs - back to the original question.

To Mark Fliegler: What makes you think the car you came across is a COPO?

To everyone else: Did St. Louis ever build a Corvette on a COPO, and what would the printed information in the COPO box of the production order look like?

Duke

[Art A.]

Re: Copo Corvette

Ken, No I didn't work at the Corvette Assembly Plants, I worked at Chevrolet Engineering in Warren Mi for 24 years it before it was turned into Mid-Lux Engineering January 1, 1985 until I retired in 1999. I did go to Bowling Green offend to do research for Product Litigation cases for GM Legal Staff. The Corvette and Camaro/Firebird were my main responsibilities.

In the early 80s I was approached by someone from the Corvette Platform who wanted to know if I thought there would be any hart burn if the Corvette Plant STOPPED putting the build sheet,or as it was known within GM the Broadcast Sheet, on the fuel tank. My answer was absolutely, the Corvette restoration world would go stark raving mad. So they kept putting them somewhere in the vehicle, even under the carpet.

Most of the other vehicle lines had much faster assembly lines and more stations so there were more broadcast sheets printed for all those stations and the assembly line workers were basically lazy and stuffed them anywhere they could when they were done with them. It was also a partly a condition of the type of assembly that the Corvette utilized..............rolling chassis versus a unibody.
The Corvette Build Sheets were glued (not a sticker) to the fuel tank on the rolling chassis and most stations would view it from there.

ART

I guess that you worked at the Corvette plant in the 60"s & 70"S from your posts. I have a question. Why are there very few line tickets found in the Corvettes. Most Comaros,Chevelles,etc had the line tickets stuck somewhere in the cars.
KEN

[Kenneth B.]

Re: Copo Corvette

Ken, No I didn't work at the Corvette Assembly Plants, I worked at Chevrolet Engineering in Warren Mi for 24 years it before it was turned into Mid-Lux Engineering January 1, 1985 until I retired in 1999. I did go to Bowling Green offend to do research for Product Litigation cases for GM Legal Staff. The Corvette and Camaro/Firebird were my main responsibilities.

In the early 80s I was approached by someone from the Corvette Platform who wanted to know if I thought there would be any hart burn if the Corvette Plant STOPPED putting the build sheet,or as it was known within GM the Broadcast Sheet, on the fuel tank. My answer was absolutely, the Corvette restoration world would go stark raving mad. So they kept putting them somewhere in the vehicle, even under the carpet.

Most of the other vehicle lines had much faster assembly lines and more stations so there were more broadcast sheets printed for all those stations and the assembly line workers were basically lazy and stuffed them anywhere they could when they were done with them. It was also a partly a condition of the type of assembly that the Corvette utilized..............rolling chassis versus a unibody.
The Corvette Build Sheets were glued (not a sticker) to the fuel tank on the rolling chassis and most stations would view it from there.

ART THANKS

I could not remember the name of the broadcast sheets. Back in the 60,S at the Corvette plant tank sheets were not used till 1967. Before they would have to go by the broadcast sheets to build the Corvette right? Were the broadcast sheets not used during the time the option sheets that were glued to the tank & I assume on the chassis ? Why did Corvette go back to the broadcast sheet from the ones the used in the 60's & 70's?
KEN

[Art A.]

Re: Copo Corvette

Ken, I was never at the St Louis plant so I don't know exactly what they used prior to 1967. I would assume, and you know what that means, that they used the same documents, but just didn't leave it attached to the tank.

I don't have an answer to your last question, mostly because I don't understand it.

ART THANKS

I could not remember the name of the broadcast sheets. Back in the 60,S at the Corvette plant tank sheets were not used till 1967. Before they would have to go by the broadcast sheets to build the Corvette right? Were the broadcast sheets not used during the time the option sheets that were glued to the tank & I assume on the chassis ? Why did Corvette go back to the broadcast sheet from the ones the used in the 60's & 70's?
KEN

[John H.]

Re: Copo Corvette

ART THANKS

I could not remember the name of the broadcast sheets. Back in the 60,S at the Corvette plant tank sheets were not used till 1967. Before they would have to go by the broadcast sheets to build the Corvette right? Were the broadcast sheets not used during the time the option sheets that were glued to the tank & I assume on the chassis ? Why did Corvette go back to the broadcast sheet from the ones the used in the 60's & 70's?
KEN

Corvette used the same Body and Chassis Broadcast sheets used in every other Chevrolet assembly plant of the era, but St. Louis-Corvette was very thorough in "de-papering" the car prior to shipment; the Broadcast copy was strictly an internal manufacturing document, and had no meaning outside the plant, so they trashed them all.

Each plant handled Broadcast copies (which later became "build manifests" after the plants converted to the GMAD production systems) differently. For instance, Camaros built at Van Nuys almost always had a Chassis Broadcast stuck to the top of the gas tank, but broadcasts have virtually NEVER been found in a Camaro built during the same era at Norwood.

[Jim B.]

Re: Copo Corvette

Okay, now that we know the "internal builds" - engineering, public relations, etc. cars and the various executive and employee purchase cars were not COPOs - back to the original question.

To Mark Fliegler: What makes you think the car you came across is a COPO?

To everyone else: Did St. Louis ever build a Corvette on a COPO, and what would the printed information in the COPO box of the production order look like?

Duke

Duke

All I can say is that the Scuncio Chevrolet's dealer's Racing Team leader and High performance salesman told me that they did in fact use their COPO process to order special options sets on Corvettes, as well as camaro's, Chevelle's and Vega's. They also told me that this was a very limited order vehicle and was mainly used to order cars for race teams. Suggest you check out Detroithorsepower.com for COPO info and
http://www.detroithorsepower.com/for...334&board=27.0 for Scuncio Chevrolet

I have not been able to get a copy of my car's production order but there is hope in that the dealer's records (dealer is nowout of business) have been given to a person who is making them available to original owners. He has many files and is going thru them now.
My sales documentation does not list options on my car but instead lists a "group code B1092" in the "options" block.
As with the other posters, I do not think the documentation was as rigorously filled out in all the right blocks. Mine was clearly hand typed on an old typewriter (remember those)

[Art A.]

Re: Copo Corvette

To everyone else: Did St. Louis ever build a Corvette on a COPO, and what would the printed information in the COPO box of the production order look like?

Duke

Duke, I guess this is the question you would like me to address. If I knew for a fact that Chevy built a COPO Corvette I would have responded, but I don't like to speculate and therefore didn't respond. My guess would be yes they did......can I quote any?, no.
Second part: Its been so long since I saw the printed information I really can't recall................I think some CRS is creeping in!
Sorry

[Clem Z.]

Re: Copo Corvette

To everyone else: Did St. Louis ever build a Corvette on a COPO, and what would the printed information in the COPO box of the production order look like?

Duke

Duke, I guess this is the question you would like me to address. If I knew for a fact that Chevy built a COPO Corvette I would have responded, but I don't like to speculate and therefore didn't respond. My guess would be yes they did......can I quote any?, no.
Second part: Its been so long since I saw the printed information I really can't recall................I think some CRS is creeping in!
Sorry

they did special paint because my 62 was painted chevy anniversary gold. i do not know if that would be considered a COPO

[Art A.]

Re: Copo Corvette

No, Clem, I don't think special paint would normally have fallen under the COPO system. Usually a COPO request required some engineering research to determine if the request was even physically possible to build and could be certified for state and federal regulations. Of course in 62 there weren't very many regulations, but there were some and they had to be checked.

they did special paint because my 62 was painted chevy anniversary gold. i do not know if that would be considered a COPO

[Ralph S.]

Re: Copo Corvette

Here is an old thread