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I am in the process of restoring a 65 coupe and when I took the instrument cluster out I found a number written on the crossmember behind it. The number was written in white and is 8799. The car body # is A-3181 and the car was completed approx. May 17/65. Ser # is in the High 17000. Can anyone tell me what this # is. JOB # maybe? Thanks
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Re: Number Behind Dash (sorry, long)
Sheldon -
Chances are it's the Broadcast Sequence Number, which only shows up in printed form on the actual Production Copy of the Broadcast Sheet (build sheet); this is the numerical sequence in which the body was fed into the beginning of the Trim Line from either the Paint Shop or the A.O. Smith body bank (bodies didn't necessarily leave the paint shop in the same sequence they entered due to being pulled off-line for repairs, finesse, etc. during the paint process). The "sequence number" was electronically transmitted as part of the Broadcast Sheet(by teletype machine) from the point where the body was introduced into the Trim Line and the mechanical parts started down the Frame and Chassis Lines (this let the various lines and subassembly areas know exactly what to build for that particular car long before it actually arrived). From painted body loading on the Trim Line, cars stayed in numerical sequence all the way to the end of the Final Assembly Line (not always the case in the Body Shop and the Paint Shop, which is why both those areas assigned their own "job numbers", which don't correspond with any other numbers either). All this is done by computers today, but in the 50's, 60's, and 70's, it was done with teletype machines.
John -
Re: Number Behind Dash (sorry, long)
John,
I think I understand your information but could you help or clarify a situation that I didn't get enough information for or from.
A few months ago there were 3 of us 68 owners that started comparing the hand written numbers on the build sheets to the last digits of our VINs as well as the hand written numbers on the bodies. In our cases, just from the 3 of us 68 owners posting in at the time here at the NDB, none of the numbers matched any of the others. In other words we all individually had three different numbers to compare, body, VIN, and hand written build sheet. Can you clarify any information as to what can or can not be expected to match or not match when comparing numbers like that. Could it be more of a case that 1968 had when there were alot of running changes? Thanks. TBarr #24014Comment
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Re: Number Behind Dash (sorry, long)
Tom -
It's highly unlikely that that the three of you will be able to correlate any of the hand-written numbers to your VIN's, as neither the body shop job number nor the paint shop job number had any connection to the VIN. The VIN wasn't assigned to the car until it was OK'd out of the paint shop and actually placed on the Trim Line, at which time it also got a machine-printed "sequence number" along with the VIN. These two numbers won't correlate with each other either (sequence numbers just kept rotating back to zero every thousand cars, while VINs just kept climbing), although cars physically stayed in "sequence number" and VIN order from the beginning of the Trim Line all the way to the end of the Final Assembly Line. Sounds confusing, but that's the way it was - the handwritten numbers don't tell you much, except that's where that body was in the Body Shop or Paint Shop build sequence on a random day.
JohnComment
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Re: Number Behind Dash
John,
That wasn't so long. Thanks for hangin in there over the brief delay we all had. I had hoped as much for the sort of explanation you have from your first hand knowledge. I had seen information and postings elsewhere stating how these hand written numbers should match this-or-that as well as the thinking of what they (supposedly) were. Many may not have noticed this out of the way posting and piece of information, but I'm definitely printing it off for my correct future reference. Thanks again for your excellent explanation. TBarr #24014Comment
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