A trim level I've not seen before
 

Noticed this on two birds at the Pigeon Forge show. Both are long-term owned, unmolested cars. Both are 68 350 coupes with standard interior. Only difference I can think of is one is a column shift automatic and one is a floor shift auto with a console.

The turquoise one (Cork Cordell's car) has a "chrome" strip running the perimeter of the dash. The red one (mine) does not. See the pics.

Anybody know anything about this trim? It apparently is not part of the standard vs. deluxe interior pkg...

I like the trim....

not 100% , but I think my old 68 coupe I owned in 69 had that...too fuzzy memory though...my car was a 350 automatic, console shift, a/c, blue green...

Bob, Since I responded on the "List" I looked through a few more pictures that I have. There appears to be both.

Would you mind If I start a small "research" thread over on the 1st Gen site for this difference? It's interesting.

One is standard interior, the other is custom.

Both cars have standard interior, and both are believed to be unmolested. If the trim is attached to the dash pad, it is possible that the pad may have been swapped on Cork's car - I can't answer that. I can say with confidence that the one in my car has not been changed.

We also looked at several other cars at the show - about half had this trim, but we could not identify a common equipment thread that could incorporate this treatment.

Normally that is part of the custom trim option in 68.
It could have been transferred with a dash pad or could be a mistake
from the factory,which is the lower in possibilities.
This trim is installed on the pad itself by piercing the pad with stakes
on trim then folding them flat.
I have seen a few custom trim cars minus that so maybe they ran out or
had production errors.
Some of the other trim items that were included was the deluxe steering wheel
pedal trim,dash grab bar and trim on inside of the roof rail.Also included was wheel well trim and dual horns.I have also seen some minus the Firebird emblem on the glove box
which seems to have been a production change in later half of year.

I have often wondered why I didn't get the glovebox bird. Custom option on a 4th week January build.

My 4th week April 67 has the bird on glovebox, my 3rd week December 68 Firebird does not. Both 400 cars, custom trim 259Z.

My 5th week June custom trim didnt but I transferred it from my Sept 67 standard interiored car that had it.
Go figure.

I think all 67s had the glove box emblem but Ill go thru my old ones to see if I can find any minus holes.

My 69 has the bird on the glove box....just to show how it can happen...I added a glove box door in same color as my interior...mainly b/c my glove box door had several dings and I had no key...found a great door with key and bird on EBay....

I know, 69`s are nt suppoed to have them.....

40+_ yr old cars..no question "things could have happened" over a few years/owners...

There are several running changes on the '67/'68 Firebird (as well as all year cars).
Most have been covered here and on the F-List in the past.

As for a Standard Trim car getting Deluxe Trim parts (and vice/versa), I'd say it was possible and did happen. Talk w/anyone who worked in the plants back then and all sorts of things happened (accidentally, on purpose and as a result of part shortages and/or material handling goofs).

My '68 RAI convertible (original/unmolested/stored a long time) came with the Standard Trim but has the Custom Seat belts (metal w/GM inserts). JM from PHS actually tried to tell me that someone must have swapped them in (right... and with matching date codes for my car). Also tried to tell me that PPG was not the OEM for '67/'68 Firebird glass (again, someone must have swapped all of my glass w/correctly date coded glass)

I think we've all seen oddities and variations. The most famous (for '68 'Birds) is the 'Bird Glass (etching) on front side glass. To date, no documentation has surfaced that would explain which cars received it and which didn't.

I'm in assembly plants all the time; Even today there are errors made, parts changed during production, platings changed, suppliers changed and even engineering evaluations done on production vehicles. No doubt, 30-40 yrs ago when there was less technology and traceability systems, there all sorts of variations for one reason or another. Factor in the common practice of adding/deleting/modifying for a friend or your own car as it's going through TCF. Happened all the time before the auto industry went to 'Just In Time' (sequenced) part delivery, bar code scanning and all the electronic traceability that takes place from start to finish.

BTW...

My '68 RAI Convertible (2nd wk of Nov.'67 build) has the following 'variations'
consistent w/the early-build cars...

- 1st type 'tall Hood Tach
- 'Bird' Glass
- Glove Box Door 'Bird' emblem
- Standard Trim w/Cus.Seat Belts (not on invoice)
- Original Dash Pad w/Trim Mldg
- Round Remote S/V Mirror
- Ram Air Hood Scoops (milled open) w/std.(closed) part numbers

My 67 w/std interior-no chrome pad or deluxe strg wheel
My 68 w/std interior had chome pad and deluxe strg wheel.

Maybe it was a package deal.

"Also tried to tell me that PPG was not the OEM for '67/'68 Firebird glass (again, someone must have swapped all of my glass w/correctly date coded glass)"

That's a strange one. My June built 67 has all PPG glass, I'm the second owner and had many conversations with the original owner about what was done with the car. Changing glass was definitely not done... On custom interiors, mine has standard plastic seat belt buckles with GM logo but interior was ordered custom.

I can check my 67 tonight.
It's all original except intake, carb, exhaust, and wheels.
40k miles back in 75.

PPG would have been correct for anything up to very late 68.
As for the seat belts nothing about the custom trim option says
deluxe seat belts are included. I have a standard interiored car with deluxe
belts and shoulder belts and a custom trim car with standard belts and shoulder
harness.

And - some custom interior cars got color coordinated belts in non-black interiors. Others got black.

Looking back over the 67 options list you're correct Cammer... To get custom seat belts you would need to specify option code 431 which is independant of the custom trim options.

My 68, deluxe interior, has no glove box Bird, etched Birds in window glass and no comfortweave in the seats. I recovered the original fronts, back is still original. Have the chrome strip around dash with black insert. Thing that throws me is I do not have deluxe seatbelts.

I don't know about the trim, but I would love to see some more pics of the turquoise interior. Is this the same as teal? Mine is teal and I have not seen another in person yet.

BTW, mine is a March '68 build std interior car with no bird on the glovebox and no dash trim. I have found that it does have quite a few '67 items in the interior.

Maybe 68' cars with "bird glass" received them as well.I removed a set of bird glass from a 68' convertible that had the dash trim.Does Cork Cordell's car have bird glass?
Region Warrior, does your 68' with the dash trim have bird glass?
Play400 and RA1John's cars have bird glass and the dash trim and standard interiors.
Maybe this sheds a little more light on the whole 68' bird glass mystery?

David :)

Understood. My point was that I have Cus.Seat belts whereas they are not identified on the Billing History.

not talking about yours it was a "freebie",might have been out of standard belt or 2 when yours went thru.
Did total price reflect it?

I tried to post last night and site was having probs so I guess it was lost.
Im guessing your car was an early build and had one of these colors,parchment,april gold,turquoise. What was your build date?
BTW Ive had quite a few with the non-knitweave seats,but all were early cars and none had black.

This same discussion came up at T/A Nationals - there were several First Gen cars in our display line. There were a couple of guys older than me - in their 60's, adjacent to where I was and they were talking about this. One guy was the original owner of his '67 or '68 Bird and the other guy was the second owner. Both similar trim levels but one had the trim and the other did not. We walked around and looked at several '67 and '68 Birds to see if there was a rhyme or reason to this chrome trim being on some cars and not others. We found cars with standard interior with the trim and deluxe interior without the trim.


May be just one of those things.

Tom

I ended up with two duplicate posts (now deleted) because I kept trying and nothing happened. What was up with the site last night?

I have a bunch of pictures I shot of a (now deceased) friends one-owner 1968 400 turquoise/tuorquoise convert. They are stored on my website, but not posted. I'll try to get a page put together for you.

here's one shot:
http://www.geocities.com/bobtrimpe/L...0-interior.jpg

Cool, thanks!

Bob I got a .... looking at that pic.

My code K car has black custom trim,had a hardtop parts car that was same colors as pic and had non knitweave also.

68 400 built the 4th week of May in LA with standard interior--no trim. The interior is all original including the carpet and door sill plates. (There is a material pad on the dash pad to keep the sun off of the dash.)

Also, my car has the electric driver's seat. Anyone have this? It is pretty rare as I understand it.

Wow, that turquoise interior is pretty!

The '68 400 coupe with gold interior that I owned a little while back had the dash trim. Deluxe interior car built 01D LOR.

On the separate note, I like the teal/teal combo as well. I still remember someone brought a beautiful teal/teal 400 convertible to the POCI convention in Greensboro in 1986, and I was blown away by how cool it was. This was in the days before the internet when you could see just about every combination you ever wanted to see posted somewhere -- and nice versions of these cars were pretty uncommon. Also before the second explosion in popularity of teal in the early 90s, so it looked very unusual.

Think of the interesting interior colors that were available back then that you just never see now -- teal, bright blue, gold, red (only now starting to show up on certain cars again, but usually as a two-tone with black), etc.

For what it's worth. I parted out two 1968 camaros last year and the custom interior 327 car had the chrome trim shown in the pictures but the standard trim Inline 6 car did not. This trim piece showing up in a bird might be Camaro option that made it's way into a pontiac due to a supplier mistake or something? Just my $.02.

Gary, it is without a doubt the nicest, most complete untouched bird I have ever seen. It had disappeared form sight since Chuck died. I hope it has survived.

I'll get the rest of the pics posted ASAP.

No.
In fact, i've havent seen any around here with it.

1st 68 FB was a 350 H.O.
Std blk intr w/chrome strip on dash pad.
Ctr horn cap was raised blk padded with a bird emblem.
No bird on the glv box.
PPG tinted glass.

67 has std bright blue intr w/o chrome strip.
Blue stg whl has chrome cap w/green inlay, and a chrm/silver arrow head. Has "energy absorbing" printed on it.
Has glv box bird.
Clear PPG glass.

68 i have now is std blk.
Already had aftrmrkt dash pad and B.G. strg whl.
Bird on glv box. But original?
Clear PPG glass.

I have a 73 GM Pontiac parts catalog. Only glass listed is clear and tinted.
No mention of etched.
I wonder if it was done at the dealer, and not by GM.
They had the tech.
Sure would like to find someone who worked in a Pontiac dealer back then.

There was a 68 350 just like this one in Bloomington, In. 2 weekends ago.
My sons H.S. team had a soccer tourny game right next to where the car was parked.
I stayed close by to catch the owner, but missed him/her.

Web page is posted!
 

Here's my picture collection of Chuck's car:

http://www.geocities.com/bobtrimpe/ChuckLeavell.html

Regards,
Bob

I have found that over the years of owning these cars that the glove box bird emblem came on all cars with deluxe interior except cars built in California.

NOTE that this is a truly untouched car with deluxe interior, and it does NOT have the dash trim! Directly contradicts the first posting which showed a STANDARD interior in meridian turquoise WITH the trim. (Another mystery.)

here is another....My 68 Ram Air bird (built in October of 1967) has front seat belt holders on the console from the factory....And they say no 68's got them...BTW, my car is original untouched from the factory

Believe it is Dec 11, 11D on tag. Parchment Deluxe interior with clock on console. Canadian car, still has sticker on firewall.

OK, I am really confused now on my present '68. 2nd week Oct '67 build date
Orginally med blue int and ext.

1st- the steering wheel on the turquise car is the custom wheel, correct? I have that.
2nd- The bird on the Glove box is for Custom, not deluxe interior, correct? I also have that.

No deluxe door panels, dash handle and standard seat upholstery, standard trim on headliner and no dash trim surround piece that started this thread, but brushed metal seat belt buckles.

So I have a custom, not deluxe interior, right?

I posted this Dash trim in Firebird Mysteries awhile back.

I have 2 68's (coupe-Vert) both std interior, both were base OHC-6 originally. Same options, none. The coupe has the dash trim the Vert does not. The Coupe has the Deluxe Steering wheel, the vert does not. The Coupe has Bird glass, the vert does not. Both built in the same plant but several months apart.

Correct term is "custom trim option" "deluxe" is same thing just the wrong description.
"standard" is flat door panels ,no grab bar,heatpressed pleats in seats.
Again seat belts have nothing to do with the standard or custom trim .

Im guessing the build date on the one with bird glass was sometime in nov?

Seems like we discussed your oddities some time ago???