[151007]

What do these two lines found below the listed options of a 1964 GTO mean?

SPECIAL ORDER REFER SPECIFICATIONS BUL P231A
MEMO BILLING CAR ORDER 64 354

[Keith Seymore]

Nice.

Those indicate that something unusual was going on.

Per Pontiac historian Fred Simmonds:

"Keith, the "memos" were written by Bill Cumberworth in Car Distribution (G.W. Cumberworth). Bill retired 10 - 12 years ago. Some time ago, I asked him about the memos and he said that there were so many that he can't remember them! There were memos written for any non-stock assembly procedure, from taxis to race cars, and everything in between. I never asked him if there was a special form - my hunch is that it was just what it says: a "memo", which Pontiac had letterhead paper for.

I have never seen one - and wouldn't expect that any would have survived. I thoroughly combed the Car Distribution files in 1987, and never saw one, even though there was plenty of good info in the files.

Fred"

So - we know something was up, but unfortunately will never know what those specific memos said.

K

[John V.]

I have a Fremont built '64 GTO myself.

I have collected and studied a lot of '64 PHS documents, the '64 Fremont PHS record is quite different from the other Plants, in case you are not aware.

I would love to see a copy of yours.

I have seen numerous Pontiac Plant manifests showing a memo build. They will say what the "memo" special was all about. Example, a '64 GTO that was approved to be built with the standard Tempest hood lists the memo.

But I don't recall ever coming across a '64 Fremont PHS record that showed a memo build before.

The list of options might yield a clue.

"SPECIFICATIONS BUL P231A" doesn't ring a bell with me. Might have simply been an ordering instruction bulletin associated with special order requests, explaining how to submit the request perhaps.

There was the sales order addenda, Form 516 S.O. that listed the Special Equipment options like Sales Code 612 (Rally Handling Kit with HD Springs & Shocks plus 20:1 Quick Ratio Manual Steering box) and Sales Code 692 (HD Metallic Brake Linings), options that were identified as Special Equipment options, not found on the regular Tempest Order form.

Form 516 S.O. I believe would have been similar to the '65 All Series Special Equipment Order form. Unfortunately, although I have a document that reference Form 516 S.O., I have never come across a copy of it.

Special Order requests were things that were even more special than the Special Equipment options that were identified by Sales Code.

On a Pontiac Plant manifest, these Special Order items would be coded by Sales Code 592 (a 2 in Box 59) which was just an indicator that the build was to include something special. It appears to have been coded just as a "heads up" that the build had a Memo associated with it.

The Fremont PHS doc doesn't list the numerical Sales Codes and I don't believe Sales Code 592 had a UPC equivalent, so I would be interested in seeing your document to see how it was laid out.

The "64 354" identified the memo that applied. I think these were issued numerically but haven't seen enough of them to be certain. The 64 just indicated the Model Year and I think the 354 may have indicated this was the 354th memo for a special request item. I think most of the ones I've seen just show the memo no., the "64" is omitted.

A common '64 Special Request item that triggered a Memo build was a special paint color. I have seen a few Special Paint request manifests showing the memo no.

If I am correct that they were logged and the Memo No. was sequentially assigned by PMD, by the end of the '64 Model Year, PMD built about 1500 cars with Memos associated with them.

It is believed that some Memo builds were approved at "no cost", others came at a price. Special Paint colors was always a price adder.