Top left: (06-18) JOB SEQUENCE #: COO46567 SCHED NO DATE: 03-4391 06-18

?

 

Hi tj,
What do those words above the digits read?
Regards,
Alan

 

Job sequence #
coo46567

sched no date
03-4391
06-18

 

Hello Texas Jim,
First off, WOW! What a beautiful Buildsheet/manifest you have there. Where was it located on your car? Too nice to have been glued to the tank.
To answer your question:
No that's not the shipping date. That is the expected date of production. It's the date the body shop was to begin panel production and assembly. When the Scheduling and Production control department determined a schedule with all the jobs assigned for production they also assigned a date. Usually, your Trim Tag date is your build date. This date could be a day or so before or after your expected date of production. For example, my 73 expected date of production was May 5th, but my Trim Tag is April 30th.
Check your Trim Tag to see how many days difference there is. Just curious!
I Hope this makes sense and answers your question.
By the way this type of build sheet "manifest" started being used for the first time in 1973 by the General Motors Assembly Division GMAD. It replaced the Corvette Order Copy (Tank Sticker) format.
ANOTHER FIRST FOR THE 1973 CORVETTE!

Regards,
Jimmy

PS: Might I recommend a great reference guide for these kinds of questions? I recommend Tom Russo's book: ( CORVETTE BUILDSHEET BOOK; A STUDY GUIDE FOR 1973-82 BUILD RECORDS)

 

By trim tag, you are referring to the driver side door post, yes? BO8A 104391
291 33L 33U E
I'd say my ex father in law, who bought the car new, must have gotten that document (build sheet) from the dealer when he bought the car. A retired soldier, Vietnam combat vet and a "documentation stickler," retired in 1983. I have the service documents and a note book he kept for all the work done on the car up to the time I bought it.

 

So is this estimated date the 6th day of August, 1981???

 

TJ,
Yes, that is your cars' Trim Tag info. As far as the expected build date I'm a bit confused now. Your Trim Tag shows your car's build date as the first week in August, 1981.But the build sheet expected production date is 06-18 which I would think is June 18th. Don't think it took over two months for the car to be built. I'm hoping Tom Russo (hunt4cleanair) reads this and can clarify this for both of us.
Regards,
Jim

 

Much thanks, Jim.

 

As Tooch posted, 06-18 is an anticipated date production was to begin. Usually the anticipated date is pretty close. Keep in mind, June 1981 was the first month of production at Bowling Green. The car was assembled the first week of August, so there is about a six week delay. The delay may not be out of the ordinary when we consider everything at Bowling Green was new at the time.

 

Thanks Mike,
I was thinking that was probably the reason for the time frame difference. But I wasn't sure, because it was longer than normal.

 

Wow! Thanks, fellas'! Interesting stuff to say the least. Just have to thank all you guys for all the time and effort you put into helping everyone. PRICELESS!!!

 

Surprised I missed this thread yesterday when I was checking in on the forum but agree with other posters.

So production was simultaneous at both Corvette plants and probably zone determined where each Corvette was to be built during early production. If you think about it, BG probably wanted to test certain systems out prior to full production like the new paint process!

I have a few 1981 build sheet, two of particular interest but do not have the build dates:

VIN # Date Paint

• VIN 0003 06-01 two-tone
• VIN 0456 06-23 two-tone
• VIN 4391 06-18 single

I realized after looking at this data, that I'm not sure where the tags were attached to the body at the BG plant! WE always think in terms of St Louis production and the point in the process where the tag was attached. Anyone?

Also beginning with BG production, the VIN became the body job number. You should see 4391 on the underbody passenger-side body panel. Crawl up near the starter with a flashlight and you should be able to see the number.

 

It's my understanding, Bowling Green trim tags were attached as the body left the paint shop (tags are not painted) and moved toward the assembly line.

 

Didn't know trim tags were(had been) painted... Mine is very clean, no paint. I lived in Ossining, New York as a kid, Tarrytown had a big GM plant, ( in the 1960s when everything up there was fixed. Lol!) Unions were very strong. My dad was in the "boilermakers," a union man from just after he got out of the Navy in 1945 after the war. Many of my friend's dads and later many of my friends worked on the assembly line in Tarrytown.(about 20 miles north of the Bronx on the Hudson River, west side of the city.) Everyone bought American back then, a different world today.

 

I believe the tags started getting painted in 78, in St Louis when GM changed when they were applied during assembly. Then they changed back to non painted in BG because they were put on after painting.
Great story too BTW.
Regards,
Jim

 

In 1975-76, the trim tag/VIN tag station was moved between the two paint booths to create more space for Corvette assembly. Remember that production had increased from some 30k units to nearly 40k units annually.

The result was that the tags received no primer but paint from the second paint booth. Thus, Corvettes from this period through the end of ST Louis production were shipped with paint on the trim tag. No one cared back then. The paint flakes off pretty easily but characteristic of late-model C3 production.

Once production was moved to BG, the station was set at the end of the body assemble as Easy describes above.

 

Oops! Thanks Tom!
I'm slipping!
Jim