[PurelyGTO68]

Originally Posted by Bigd400

Yes thanks, that does help make some sense of it! So all the panels would have been made in 1969 or what ever year the car is made? They would of just stamped so many pieces and what they had left would just be spare parts for that model?

The car has had some body work done in the early 70's and I was just trying to figure out what has been replaced..

I expect body panels were stamped on a regular basis to keep up with demand for any given production year so the week date should precede the date on the cowl tag. The cowl tag has a code that identifies the week that Fisher Body began building the body shell and associated components. So for example....a 1969 model year car body that begins assembly in the first week of Dec 1968 should have body panels stamped anywhere in the 44-46 week range. Similarly a car that begins assembly on the 20th week would expect to have panels stamped several weeks earlier (17-19th weeks). Of course exceptions do exist so it helps to keep that in mind.

It is worth noting the body is built, painted and trimmed at the body plant prior to mobilizing it to final assembly plant where it gets mounted to the engine/chassis and then fitted with the front clip, bumpers and misc pieces. Prior to the GMAD consolidation, the body plant was Fisher Body and a separate revenue center for all GM divisions. By 1970 or so, Fisher Body was phased out and General Motors Assembly Division had taken its place so it's a little fuzzy around that time as to what operations took place where.

It helps to understand how these cars were assembled in order to restore them in a correct fashion. Generally speaking, the basic process of building a car remained the same no matter who built the body (Fisher or GMAD).....the body plant built the shell with the stamped panels necessary for whatever body style they were building. The cowl tag contained the necessary info for most all items the body plant was responsible for. Things like model, body style, color, upholstery color and style, glass, trim moldings etc. The body plant provided a fully painted and trimmed car from the firewall back less the front seats, front carpet and dash components (forward wiring harness, steering column, instrument cluster, HVAC assembly etc).

Engines and transmissions were built at a single factory and shipped to each final assembly plant where they were set in a chassis just prior to the body arriving from the body plant (which was nearby.....like next door to the final assembly plant). Once the rolling chassis was ready, the body was attached and then the front clip was installed along with the dash components, steering column, forward carpet, front seats, bumpers, fuel tank etc.

Some variations exist depending on the model but the general process is about the same. This means the body, doors and deck lid was built, painted and assembled at a different location from where the fenders, hood and endura noses were painted. This likely explains why the stamping codes are different on those parts that were made, painted and bolted on by the Final Assembly Plant compared to the parts made at the Body Plant.

Several sub assemblies were made by vendor suppliers off site and shipped to the Final Assembly Plants such as frames, steering boxes and pumps etc. Its all very fascinating.

Sounds like an interesting car you have there and should make for an interesting project.

[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by PurelyGTO68

I expect body panels were stamped on a regular basis to keep up with demand for any given production year so the week date should precede the date on the cowl tag. The cowl tag has a code that identifies the week that Fisher Body began building the body shell and associated components. So for example....a 1969 model year car body that begins assembly in the first week of Dec 1968 should have body panels stamped anywhere in the 44-46 week range. Similarly a car that begins assembly on the 20th week would expect to have panels stamped several weeks earlier (17-19th weeks). Of course exceptions do exist so it helps to keep that in mind.

It's model and plant specific but I find most of the time the sheet metal date stamps are very close to build dates.
All the sheet metal on my fathers GTO from Baltimore is within a week of it's production date. My 69 Z/28 is a Norwood 12D 68 build and every piece on the car is stamped 50 or 51 which is just a week prior or even a few days before the cars scheduled build date. My Formula is from Van Nuys and also very close.

[PurelyGTO68]

Originally Posted by Formulajones

It's model and plant specific but I find most of the time the sheet metal date stamps are very close to build dates.
All the sheet metal on my fathers GTO from Baltimore is within a week of it's production date. My 69 Z/28 is a Norwood 12D 68 build and every piece on the car is stamped 50 or 51 which is just a week prior or even a few days before the cars scheduled build date. My Formula is from Van Nuys and also very close.

That makes sense. F body cars all came from just 2 or 3 plants if I remember correctly so I would expect the panel stamps to be very close to the build date. Probably the same for the Pontiac plant since they only made Pontiac models.....is that correct?

I think other plants such as Arlington may have produced other GM makes along with Pontiacs so those could have panels made several weeks earlier. It might be a possible reason for the other part number type of stamp that is seen on some panels since those appear to be specific to Pontiac. I see a lot of numbers starting with "2" and that was the division number for Pontiac so maybe there is some room for that theory to work?

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[Formulajones]

Correct, for F-bodies we had Norwood and Van Nuys. However Van Nuys also built full size cars I believe. Norwood was strictly F-body.

Arlington for sure produced Chevy's because that's where my Chevelle was built. I'm fairly certain Baltimore also built A-body Chevy's along with Pontiac.


One reason I'm sure of why sheet metal date code stamps are so close to the build date on F-bodies is because Cincinnati also had a Fisher Body plant close by as well as part of the plant being connected to Fisher. My Grandfather retired from there. Van Nuys was also similar and consolidated a lot of the Fisher and GM assembly processes in one plant.

[Bigd400]

Two more things. The rad hoses are surely old but doesn’t appear to be the same as any others I’ve seen.

PQ was originally pink and stamped?

I am sure there’s more but that’s all I can think of for now.

[Bigd400]

Originally Posted by PurelyGTO68

I expect body panels were stamped on a regular basis to keep up with demand for any given production year so the week date should precede the date on the cowl tag. The cowl tag has a code that identifies the week that Fisher Body began building the body shell and associated components. So for example....a 1969 model year car body that begins assembly in the first week of Dec 1968 should have body panels stamped anywhere in the 44-46 week range. Similarly a car that begins assembly on the 20th week would expect to have panels stamped several weeks earlier (17-19th weeks). Of course exceptions do exist so it helps to keep that in mind.

It is worth noting the body is built, painted and trimmed at the body plant prior to mobilizing it to final assembly plant where it gets mounted to the engine/chassis and then fitted with the front clip, bumpers and misc pieces. Prior to the GMAD consolidation, the body plant was Fisher Body and a separate revenue center for all GM divisions. By 1970 or so, Fisher Body was phased out and General Motors Assembly Division had taken its place so it's a little fuzzy around that time as to what operations took place where.

It helps to understand how these cars were assembled in order to restore them in a correct fashion. Generally speaking, the basic process of building a car remained the same no matter who built the body (Fisher or GMAD).....the body plant built the shell with the stamped panels necessary for whatever body style they were building. The cowl tag contained the necessary info for most all items the body plant was responsible for. Things like model, body style, color, upholstery color and style, glass, trim moldings etc. The body plant provided a fully painted and trimmed car from the firewall back less the front seats, front carpet and dash components (forward wiring harness, steering column, instrument cluster, HVAC assembly etc).

Engines and transmissions were built at a single factory and shipped to each final assembly plant where they were set in a chassis just prior to the body arriving from the body plant (which was nearby.....like next door to the final assembly plant). Once the rolling chassis was ready, the body was attached and then the front clip was installed along with the dash components, steering column, forward carpet, front seats, bumpers, fuel tank etc.

Some variations exist depending on the model but the general process is about the same. This means the body, doors and deck lid was built, painted and assembled at a different location from where the fenders, hood and endura noses were painted. This likely explains why the stamping codes are different on those parts that were made, painted and bolted on by the Final Assembly Plant compared to the parts made at the Body Plant.

Several sub assemblies were made by vendor suppliers off site and shipped to the Final Assembly Plants such as frames, steering boxes and pumps etc. Its all very fascinating.

Sounds like an interesting car you have there and should make for an interesting project.

Thanks for all the info this is really helping put everything together!

Looks like date coding you mention is making sense. I thought I new the history of the car but once it started getting stripped it was apparent I didn't. Appears the passenger side had seen some previous damage. I could tell the rear quarter had been done but looks more was replaced. Once the fender was off the proof was there. Glad they decided to fix it!

[Bigd400]

Everything is pretty much stripped and just need to go through it all. Try and determine what’s original what’s not and what should be changed and what shouldn’t!

Got a few pictures and questions!

The code on the cowl possible the interior code? 254??

Fuel line routing to the carb. Looks like RAIV was only routed on the passenger and RAIII on the drivers side of thermostat? Any reason for that if that’s the case?

Drive shaft believe it’s suppose to have Red and 2 white stripes? Location seems to be way off from all the pictures I’ve seen. Looks like original ujoints possibly?