GM mixing parts on the line ?
 

Since both the Firebird and the Camaro were built on the same production line would it seem plausible to find parts on our cars from Camaro's?

I have three window cranks with Firebird part numbers and one with a 69 Camaro part number. They look ever so slightly different that you have to really look closely. It has the same patina as the others and I have been the only one to replace the interior.

Yep.

I seen it when I worked at an Olds dealer. Still happens but not as much. :)

My lemans has nova seatbelts..took me awhile to figuire that out LOL

It wasn't just GM.

My brother bought a new 1979 Dodge St. Regis/Newport (depending on which side of the car you were standing on).

Passenger side said Newport. Driver's side and dash said St. Regis...

Mixing up a window crank is one thing. Putting the wrong model name on a car is a whole different story...;)

Wish I had a dollar for every truck I've seen that was a Chevy on one side and a GMC on the other....

K

Well alrighty then.

Mine says Firebird all the way around lol. Since it was a mistake from the factory I will leave it that way. I am really going to check those part numbers now lol.

lol

Yes, that does indeed happen. I'll bet Keith can relay some stories about this! I think the new book "Echoes Of Norwood" talks about this as well.

I know a guy that was the original owner of a 74 SD455 Formula (and kept it for 30 years), and when he picked the car up in 1974, it had a Formula 350 badge on the passenger side, Formula 455 on the drivers side. He left it that way.

As these cars were coming down the assembly line, if they ran out of certain bolts, washers, or other hardware, the line manager used something else, as long as it was from a similar line of cars.

Nothing was going to stop the assembly line, short of a strike.

I do laugh sometimes when I hear a couple guys arguing about the design of a cage nut, or the gloss level of a suspension part. These were mass produced cars, and GM was in a business to make money and meet deadlines.

I know for a fact the Norwood assembly line worker mixed up my car with a trash can in the factory....I found an original GM issued paper coffee cup under my original carpet
along with some 72-1975 change stuck to the seam sealer, no build sheet in the entire car but I got an original Norwood coffee cup.

It is white and has a GM logo on one side and a 70s smiley face on the other that says "on time worker" on the other.

Anyone else find GM "trash" in their cars?

Dealers swapped parts like crazy, I'm the third owner of mine and was told it was built with Rally II rims and no hood bird, but the first buyer had the dealer swap to Honeycomb rims and add a hood decal, anything can happen to a car over its life.

The car spent 37 years with those wheels and hood decal...should I remove them when its's restored just to match the the PHS paper that shows how it arrived at the dealer on the transport truck? I know I'm leaving the way it was "bought" not "built"

Me too! Makes me crazy, especially when they argue about the finish on a bolt.

The attachment of the front fender "nose bolts" to the rad support was especially difficult, because it is blind and awkward access. As a result we would cross thread the bolts often or (worse) break the weld nuts loose. Major repair.

We found out that there were two suppliers for a bolt that same size: One from Lang Fasteners and one from Ferndale Fasteners. The Langs would crossthread like crazy but the Ferndales wouldn't (for some unknown reason). The Langs (part number 3846202, btw!) were black but the Ferndales were silver.

What we ended up doing was stealing a box of the silver bolts from Line 2 and run them all night with no issues, and then lock them up in our locker, (set out a box of black bolts on the job) and then go home.

We did that for several years. First shift could never figure out why we didn't crossthread and why they had a mess on their hands every day.

K

Gloss on the suspension - LOL!

Half hearted spraying of the chassis black in the general direction of the frame; those parts ended up half painted and half bare metal....

Nobody would restore a car to look like that.

K

Agreed.

Rhetorical question usually comes to mind: And where is the "flash rust" on all of these "better than built new" restorations?

Guilty as charged. I am personally responsible for slapping more than GMC Safari emblem on a Chevy Astro at the Baltimore plant, probably summer of 94 or thereabouts. 52 vans an hour, some get the emblem some don't, you get behind, stuff happens. Yes, there were quality control checks down the line, but I don't know how much stuff they caught.

Also test drove a GMC Jimmy with a Chevy emblem on the steering wheel, or vice versa, can't remember.

Four door on one side two door on the other?
Sorry that was just cars Johnny Cash built.

Back to your original post point - I wouldn't sweat the door handles, etc. as most historic books and many magazines show the photos of first and second gens on the production lines with Firebirds and Camaros nose to tail...so parts were used as available as previously noted on this thread...

hee hee..my 79 chevy suburban came with a gmc horn pad..the guy i bought it from said it had been that way for 25 yrs...lol

Unless you have owned the car since new and know the window cranks were never replaced, you can't say it left the factory that way with any certainty.

My father bought the car new and I have been the only one to replace the interior as I stated in the OP.

Yes incorrect parts happened from time to time. When it was noted at delivery, he would contact the Zone Ofc. and the Service Rep. would be notified and we would inspect and fill out a form to obtain the correct part, then the replaced part would be shipped back if it requested. This was determined during inspection. Over the years so many cases or examples.

Sometimes built with wrong equipment or wrong color interior, which would not be changed. Had a Catalina that had Green exterior color and blue interior color. Dealer did not want the car so the Zone bought it back and put it into Co. Car Service, one of the Reps. drove it and then sold it to another dealer as a Brass Hat car.