Re: Original Corvette Documentation Coming
Larry------
The last St. Louis Corvette was built at the end of August, 1981. The only activity at that plant after that time was shipping out the remaining inventory of cars and removing whatever production equipment could be used elsewhere.
The St. Louis Corvette plant, although a completely seperate building, was part of a much larger complex known as St. Louis Assembly, once the largest assembly complex in the entirety of GM . St. Louis Assembly continued producing other Chevrolet models for a while after Corvette production ended. I don't recall how long this was, but it was not a really long time.
As far as records go at the St. Louis Corvette plant, I recall a story that George Barlos, a long-time employee there, once told. It seems that for quite a bit of his tenure there, George was involved in inspection. He told how he had an "office" in the basement of the plant. Since the plant was very old, his "office" was a rather makeshift sort of place. On his own initiative and for some unspecified period of time, he maintained copies of the build sheets or some other paperwork for each car in his office on what he described as "wire racks". He emphasized that he was not required to do this, he just did it on his own. As far as the plant was concerned, the sheets could just have been thrown away.
At some point in time, there came to be an issue of various records within GM Corporate. Prior to this time, apparently no one cared one way or the other about George's records. However, subsequent to the corporate issue, when it came to the attention of "higher-ups" that George was maintaining this filing system, he was told by plant management that he had to remove and destroy the records. So, that's what he did.
Larry------
The last St. Louis Corvette was built at the end of August, 1981. The only activity at that plant after that time was shipping out the remaining inventory of cars and removing whatever production equipment could be used elsewhere.
The St. Louis Corvette plant, although a completely seperate building, was part of a much larger complex known as St. Louis Assembly, once the largest assembly complex in the entirety of GM . St. Louis Assembly continued producing other Chevrolet models for a while after Corvette production ended. I don't recall how long this was, but it was not a really long time.
As far as records go at the St. Louis Corvette plant, I recall a story that George Barlos, a long-time employee there, once told. It seems that for quite a bit of his tenure there, George was involved in inspection. He told how he had an "office" in the basement of the plant. Since the plant was very old, his "office" was a rather makeshift sort of place. On his own initiative and for some unspecified period of time, he maintained copies of the build sheets or some other paperwork for each car in his office on what he described as "wire racks". He emphasized that he was not required to do this, he just did it on his own. As far as the plant was concerned, the sheets could just have been thrown away.
At some point in time, there came to be an issue of various records within GM Corporate. Prior to this time, apparently no one cared one way or the other about George's records. However, subsequent to the corporate issue, when it came to the attention of "higher-ups" that George was maintaining this filing system, he was told by plant management that he had to remove and destroy the records. So, that's what he did.
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