400HO-F-bird has the best sense of what likely happened.
You are being misled by what is posted at Ultimate GTO. A great reference resource, but only as good as the hobbyist input sent to Sean Mattingly.
I suspect that somebody has a '69 up Invoice record that identified a car shipped to Stacks-Holden Australia with the 40-001 Dealer coding and that was how the connection was made.
Likewise, the identification of 40-204 as Mercer Auto Storage may actually be identifying a foreign Dealer while Mercer Auto Storage may be the Zone Storage Lot identified as 40-006 where the car was held prior to Overseas shipment from the Port of NY.
More likely, International Sales to Europe & Australia were handled through a GM entity in a similar manner as cars sold into Canada were handled through GM-Canada.
You will note the general GM-Canada export office is identified as 38-001. I have not researched this but I believe that every car produced in the U.S. and shipped to Canada for sale there, was shipped to GM-Canada. GM-Canada then handled distribution to the individual Canadian Dealers. And 38-001 may identify one of several Zone Storage Lots where the cars were held, either in Canada, or perhaps on the U.S. side before clearing Customs and moving to Canada.
I have identified 4 different Sales Classes.
Look at the Billing History Card, look at the Invoice Identification No.
I'm not familiar with '68 PHS docs, but I believe this is valid. The K identifies the Classification of the Sale.
For domestic Dealers, common classes are Class A which means the Dealer purchasing the car utilized GMAC wholesale financing to purchase it. The car shipped after rolling off the line direct to the Dealer that ordered it. The Dealer had a Line of Credit approved by GMAC and an interest bearing Note was issued to the Dealer obligating him to repay GMAC. PMD was immediately satisfied, paid in full by GMAC. The Dealer may have ordered the car tagged for a specific retail customer, or he may have ordered it for his own stock inventory "floor planning".
Class B refers to "Other Dealer Credit", means the Dealer established a Line of Credit with his local Bank. When the car rolled off the line, it also shipped to the Dealer immediately, but this time PMD made a Draft against the Dealers Bank Line of Credit. Again, PMD got paid immediately. In this case, the Dealer had to repay his Bank.
Class C refers to "Cash". In this case, the Dealer paid cash to acquire the car. I have never seen an Invoice showing a car paid for by Cash, but it was possible for the Dealer to buy the car with cash.
Class J refers to a Zone Stock order. PMD produced lots of cars for Zone Stock Inventory. I'm not sure what a '68 Billing History Card might show if the car was produced for Zone Stock. When cars were built for Zone Stock, they were shipped first to a Zone Storage Lot, where the car would collect dust until a Dealer sought to purchase it. In '69, these Zone Stock purchases can be identified from the Invoice ID No. which used a different format from what is shown on the '68 example. My guess is that '68 Pontiacs purchased by Dealers out of Zone Stock might still reflect a typical Class A or Class B sale. The Class J may have only been a temporary designation to identify the car as shipped to Zone Stock, until it was subsequently sold to a Retail Dealer.
The Billing History in question shows Class K. I have never seen such a Class, but surmise that it identifies the sale as "Export". Consequently, no FDH (factory to dealer holdback I believe) and no Holdback Amount. But Class K almost undoubtedly proving that the car was originally sold as an export sale.
So IMO, this car first shipped from Lordstown where it was built to a Zone Storage Lot identified by 40-001, quite likely a Lot near the Port of NY. Then it was ultimately delivered and charged to a Dealer in Europe Identified by 40-220. That leaves you to discover where exactly was the Dealer that the Car was Charged To under 40-220.
Since the car was not apparently converted to RHD, you can guess that the Dealer was located in a European country that was LHD in '68.
I'm not sure what Government records exist that show the car didn't get to Sweden until '76. But it is more likely the car came from a neighboring country or at least somewhere in Europe as opposed to any great distance away with the possible exception of somebody choosing to bring it with them while being relocated to Sweden. Chances are that would have been foolish since a '67 'bird Coupe in '76 was probably worth about $800 US or less. Would not have been worth the shipping cost.
Bottom line, Zone 40 was most likely an Export or "overseas" zone designation so won't define where outside the Continental U.S. that the car was sent to. Could have been Australia, Europe, even Hawaii shipments came thru Zone 40.
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