Re: COPO disassembly
Supercar_Kid;
Here is a small history on these sheets. There are Fisher Body buildsheets and there are Chevrolet Assembly buildsheets. Technically called Broadcast sheets. The sheets found in the seats or anywhere else in the interior are most always Fisher Body sheets.
When a car was added to the daily order of run these sheets were broadcast to stations all over the plant (either Fisher side or Chevrolet side). They were then pulled off the printer and used to pick or assemble parts. They sometimes stayed with the part as it was installed on the car.
The Fisher Body sheets like the one found above were used to tell the seat assembler what order the cars were coming down the line. He then built the proper trim style seat and left the sheet in the seat as he put in the rack that went to the line. The guy on the line installing seats used the tag to identify what car to put the seat in. Alas, when the rack holding the seats was filled with all of the same trim style the worker usually did not take time to find the exact seat destined for the car. He took whichever one was closest. That is why it is common to find Fisher Body sheets for another car attached to your seats.
On full frame cars (or sub frame cars build in a plant with full frame cars) it is common to find Chevrolet sheets on top of the gas tank. As the full frame car rolled down the line the sheet taped on top of the gas tank served as a ready reference to the line worker. On cars build in a sub frame only plant the Chevrolet sheets were taped to the firewall.
There are two types for Chevrolet sheets. One was for the Body and one was for the Chassis. Later they were combined into one sheet. In the early 70's as Fisher was absorbed into Chevrolet Assembly the Fisher sheets became card tags or were eliminated in favor of the Chevrolet sheet.
Now each assembly plant was run different. Willow Run HARDLY ever left a Chevrolet sheet in a Nova. Matter of fact I have never heard of a Chevrolet sheet found before 1970. Novas build in Van Nuys in 1973 and later have a good chance of them being on top of the gas tank. Chevelles build in one plant used a different style Chevrolet sheet than car built in other plants the same year.
If anyone has a Fisher Body or a Chevrolet body or Chassis sheet for a Nova especially from a 1968 0r a 1969, please let me know.
Greg Roberts
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