1965 Production Question

[Rick A.]

Wondering if anyone can shed any light on why only TWO 1965 Corvettes were produced in August 1965? Do we (NCRS) have any information on these two cars? Have they been judged by NCRS? Inquiring minds need to know.

[Stuart F.]

Re: 1965 Production Question

Seem to recall that was the year of the strike, but it is an interesting question about those two cars.

Stu Fox

[Bill I.]

Re: 1965 Production Question

Rick, there's something wrong with the dates. In August 65, the factory would be tooling up for the 66 MY. Bill

[Wayne M.]

Re: 1965 Production Question

Wondering if anyone can shed any light on why only TWO 1965 Corvettes were produced in August 1965? Do we (NCRS) have any information on these two cars? Have they been judged by NCRS? Inquiring minds need to know.

St. Louis thought they'd do something that would play with our minds, decades later.

[Jack H.]

Re: 1965 Production Question

I'll guess it's an idiosyncrasy dealing with model year change over and there having been 'some' residual work in progress that didn't quite make it out the door when the calendar month changed...

[Jack H.]

Re: 1965 Production Question

Another interesting tidbit here is that July 31th fell on a Saturday in 1965. If St. Louis authorized overtime shift(s) to clean out the Corvette production line and ready it for model year change over, it's possible that cars which 'dribbled' over onto 3rd shift were officially counted as August production...

[Loren L.]

Re: 1965 Production Question

Mr Midkiff owns 23564, a 396 CV and has visited 23563.

[Jack H.]

Re: 1965 Production Question

Yeah... And ownership of + visitation to the last two units built means what?

My take was it was a neat original mystery/question. Nobody in their right mind would intentionally schedule a one month production run for TWO cars! So, there probably is a tidbit of Corvette trivia here.

Heck, I don't know and only offered my guesstimates.

[John H.]

Re: 1965 Production Question

It probably relates to a technicality relative to the location of the "pay point", which is that spot a car passes when it's considered to have been "produced", and the plant gets paid for building it.

In every Chevrolet assembly plant except St. Louis-Corvette, the "pay point" was the end of the Final Line, where the car is first started and driven off the line as a completed vehicle.

At Corvette, the car came off the Final Line and was driven off with no interior in it (the driver sat on a temporary seat), so the car wasn't "complete" at that point. After Roll Test, Toe-In, Water Test, and Final Paint Repair, it went down the Final Trim Line, where the interior was installed (carpets, kickpads, door and quarter trim panels, console, seat belts, accelerator pedal, windshield inner garnish moldings, sill plates, parking brake cover, seats, etc.). When the car came off the Final Trim Line, it was officially "produced".

I'd guess that the last two units were still in the Final Process area on July 31st and hadn't gone down the Final Trim Line yet, so they weren't "counted" as part of July production, although they had been driven off the Final Line in July. When those two units went down the Final Trim Line on Monday, they were "counted" as August production, as that's when they passed the "pay point".

[Mike M.]

Re: 1965 Production Question

john: as usual, you enlighten we members with your vast knowledge. thanks and keep up the knowledgable informative dialogs. regards,mike

[Wayne M.]

Re: 1965 Production Question

Wondering if anyone can shed any light on why only TWO 1965 Corvettes were produced in August 1965? Do we (NCRS) have any information on these two cars? Have they been judged by NCRS? Inquiring minds need to know.

Rick -- If you have the RESTORER Vol 20, #1 (Summer 1993), there's a one-page article (pg 22) on the Second-to-Last '65 [#23563] (and by consequence, to the last one).

So the answer to your three questions are YES (now that John H. has provided a plausible explanation above, post #9), YES, and NO.

[Rick A.]

Re: 1965 Production Question

Wayne,

thanks for the response - do NOT have that Restorer - would it possible for you to send a PDF to me?

[Wayne M.]

Re: 1965 Production Question

- do NOT have that Restorer - would it possible for you to send a PDF to me?

Sure, Rick -- I'll have to hook up my scanner (lack of space on my desktop ). I might as well upload to Photobucket, so all that are interested can view.

[Rick A.]

Re: 1965 Production Question

Wayne,

that would be kewl!

[Wayne M.]

Re: 1965 Production Question

Wayne, that would be kewl!

Rick -- here it is. I'm a little rusty at uploading to Photobucket, so I hope image size is just right (not to hot, not too cold ).

Bear in mind that this was 17 years ago; the addresses of Howard and I have both changed. Also, now we know more about # ...563 because I've seen the car twice since then, and have taken many photos. Not driven since a front-end accident in 1975; has a 3.36 posi rear; original drivetrain.

One other point that I've been meaning to tell the new '65 team leader, Mike Murray, [as I understand from Pete Lindahl that they're working on an update to the '65 TIM&JG (will become the 6th ed., I assume)] is that both cars have July-coded trim tags (code L). The current 5th ed. has a "Final monthly serial number and body build code table" that appears 5 times in the current guide, and calls for an August code (M) for the "Body build date" for these two cars.

#... 563 is an A-body car with date code L16, and my #...564 has L30, as do other S-bodies back at least 50 VINs from EOP.