Kevin,

I agree with your reasoning, but will add alittle to it. I didn't mean to imply that Baltimore would have received all the remaining L78 engines that were at Tonawanda. I think it is important to keep in mind a few things in regards to the ordering process for new vehicles and the memos that went out. While the L78 was "offically" canceled with the memo dated Oct. 30, 1969 (the Richmond memo)it would have taken a few weeks for the remaining orders to have been processed. The memo is dated Oct.30, but that doesn't reflect the actual date that the dealers would have received it. I think it is safer to assume that the dealers would have received the memo the 1st week of Nov. Therefore the dealers would have been sending in the remaining customer/dealer orders that week, with the orders being processed either at the zone offices or at the factory (I've heard of dealers sending their orders to both locations)roughly the second week of Nov. The factory wouldn't have been able to guess the exact number of engines needed to fill the remaining orders, so a stock of engines would have to have been kept on hand. Since Tonawanda (where the engines are assembled and stocked) is closest to the Balitmore plant and the greatest concertration of dealers and consequently customers is the Northeast I think all the late cars being Baltimore cars makes sense. It would have been much easier for Chevrolet to keep track on production and the switching over if the phase out took place at one plant. Not to mention any "excess" L78 engines (after all customer ordered cars were built) could have been easily shipped to Norwood or back to Tonawanda. I think it is safe to figure that once all customer ordered units were built the factoy then switched to LS6 production. It is common to process "sold" units (ie: customer ordered units) with a higher priorty than stock units, so the idea the late cars all seem to be customer ordered cars makes sense. Since it was taking roughly 2-4 weeks to build a vehicle at Balitmore at this time, the timeline of the last L78's being built the first week of Dec. also works. I think the buildsheets reflect the gradual "flow through," of the phase out, especially the last few days, especially when looking at the "dual" RPO codes (Baltimore being the only plant that had these "dual" RPO codes, and only on L78 production). The "ZL3" "Z15" codes on both 12-4 sheets and the lack of the "Z15" code on your sheet indicate to me the factory had a better idea of the remaing L78 production, and that it was being mointored probably daily. As far as the VIN's being stamped on the engines. As far as I've been able to tell (from both owning cars that I felt were righteous and talking to plant workers) it was uncommon, but NOT unheard of for a VIN NOT to be stamped. I spoke to one guy that worked at Balitmore that said that on one occasion, he witnessed a worker stamp his ex girlfriends phone number!!! So God only knows what else went on..