64 Corvette paperwork #5

[M W.]

Hi all again,

Just a quick question regarding some paperwork I have for my car. I understand most of what is on this paper but what is the 288? Could it have been a dealer assigned number or work order number? Thanks for the help.

Cheers,
Craig

[Harry S.]

Re: 64 Corvette paperwork #5

If it's not the Job Sequence Number you will probably never find out. I have the number 53 written on my copy for my 63 in the COPO area and have no clue as to what it means.

[Joe R.]

Re: 64 Corvette paperwork #5

Craig,

Do you happen to know the number in green that is on both doors behind the door panels. It's also just in front of the gas tank (seen when it's removed), below the heater box on the floor panel, behind the dash and sometimes under a coupe's headliner.

Would be interested to know if it's the same number. That number was assigned from 001 to 999 and started over again.

Thanks,

JR

[M W.]

Re: 64 Corvette paperwork #5

Well guys I checked my archives of pictures and found one showing my right door with the panel removed and it definitely has the same number 288 written in chalk or crayon. I guess there is some similarity.

Thanks all,
Craig

[James G.]

Re: 64 Corvette paperwork #5

The 288 is the sequence number of production. As stated above, they started with 001 and ran through 999 then went back to 001. In 1967, they used only 500 numbers or ran 001 thru 499.

This number can be checked against the vehicle vin number also. Example say your vin is 40867S121288. The last three digits "288" match exactly. If your vin is say 40867S121788 than the "500" RULE applies as in 1967.

When mistakes were made, (such as white interior put into a car that was ordered with black ), the two affected cars would be pulled off line and corrected in a work shop adjacent to the assembly. So vin sequence would be disturbed, but corrected later. The result is (in your car example) the vin would be 40867S121286, as two cars in the 999 (or 500 sequence) would change by 2 cars numbers which would be corrected when they start all over with a new batch of sequence.

Tank stickers in 1967 had the same sequencing, but as I stated only 500 numbers. This is how we would prove a tank sticker was original "TO THE CAR" and not a copy from another car. Very few people knew this, until Al Grenning and Roy Sinor brought out the TRIM TAG book. Al talkes about it, but it is not in print to my knowledge.

Just for fun, what is your vin number?

[Harry S.]

Re: 64 Corvette paperwork #5

Sorry James, I think that theory has already been proven to be invalid.

[Joe R.]

Re: 64 Corvette paperwork #5

Sorry James, I think that theory has already been proven to be invalid.

Harry,

Invalid, what part of Jim's theory.

288 was on the build sheet and on the door. Looks pretty solid to me.

JR

[Harry S.]

Re: 64 Corvette paperwork #5

JR, the theory of this happening to every car, changing VIN numbers to match the job sequence number.

[Joe R.]

Re: 64 Corvette paperwork #5

JR, the theory of this happening to every car, changing VIN numbers to match the job sequence number.

Harry,

Yeah, I re-read but I don't think he meant that the SN was changed on the Vettes to match the sequence number. Makes no sense at all to go to that trouble. They just put them in the repair area, changed the wrong stuff to the right stuff. Maybe???? And off they went to some happy camper!

JR

[James G.]

Re: 64 Corvette paperwork #5

Sorry James, I think that theory has already been proven to be invalid.

I WILL WAIT FOR THE PROFESSOR, JOHN HINKLEY to prove me incorrect

[M W.]

Re: 64 Corvette paperwork #5

Just for fun, what is your vin number?

James my vin number is 40867S121160

[Michael H.]

Re: 64 Corvette paperwork #5

JR, the theory of this happening to every car, changing VIN numbers to match the job sequence number.

Harry is correct.

If a VIN happened to match the "job number", it was purely by accident. These two numbers were not connected, other than possibly job #1 and VIN 1.

VIN's were not assigned until the body was completely painted and locked in sequence but the "job number" was assigned before the first piece of Corvette was set on the assembly line.

[James G.]

Re: 64 Corvette paperwork #5

Mike, I agree they were not tied together. I would still like to hear from John Hinkley, who was there.

[Mike E.]

Re: 64 Corvette paperwork #5

By 71-72 the numbers on the build sheet were tied with the VIN number---I have a number of examples of exactly as Gessner described. In 62 they were definitely not!

[John H.]

Re: 64 Corvette paperwork #5

VIN's were not assigned until the body was completely painted and locked in sequence but the "job number" was assigned before the first piece of Corvette was set on the assembly line.

That's correct. The "Body Shop Job Number" for each unit was assigned by the Production Control Department when the unit was scheduled for production and its 500-unit grouping was released for build. The Body Shop "run sheet" for that schedule grouping had all 500 units on it, with the body-affected options listed for each job number line item, and that number (288, for instance) was scrawled on every major off-line subassembly (birdcage, underbody, cowl & dash, doors, front clip, rear clip, coupe roof, convertible deck lid, etc.) when they were built-up off-line so all those subassemblies marked "288" would come together on the main line, pre-configured to the specs on the dealer order that affected the body build.

That line sequence could be lost at the end of the Body Shop if the unit required a major off-line repair and was later re-inserted, and sequence was frequently lost in the Paint Shop due to repairs, re-runs for bond seam "pops", etc.

The body wasn't "locked in sequence" on the assembly line until it was loaded on the Hard Trim Line, after the end of the Paint Shop; the first station on the Hard Trim Line (during the midyear era) was where the VIN number was assigned and the plate affixed, and the trim tag (on St. Louis bodies) was also created and affixed in that same station. From that point until the end of the Final Line, the units stayed in VIN number sequence, but not necessarily in Body Shop Job Number sequence.