[William]

I have been logging production data for decades. There are several sources.

Chevrolet ‘End of Month’ VIN reporting.

At the end of 2nd shift on the last day, a worker recorded the VIN of the last car off at the Final Line station. The info is on the CRG site. This served as the basis for my production calendar, a perpetual work in process. The info is slightly compromised by the fact that cars were not built in VIN order. While they were usually not far apart, it was possible for a body to remain in the bank for an entire shift. Remember, the last six digits of the VIN were assigned as completed bodies were received from Fisher. They were then moved to staging lanes in the body bank, based on option content.

Body and Chassis Broadcast copies [aka BBC and CBC].

Useful for Van Nuys only as Norwood did not fill the PROD. DATE box in the upper LH corner. Additionally, that portion of the sheet is often weathered away as the fuel tank copy was exposed to the elements. The Prod. Date is a day or two prior to final assembly.

Factory to Dealer invoices

Never found in a car, usually found in old dealership records. There are various dates listed; the most useful is Date Shipped. It appears to generally be 1-2 days after final assembly. Early in the ’69 model year, it was often longer.

NCRS Shipping Data Report

By far, the best source. Somewhere in here, a car with both an invoice and NCRS turned up. The NCRS date was one day prior to Date Shipped on the invoice.

Using all this information, I developed the calendar. As new information becomes available, adjustments are made as needed. Over the years, adjustments are becoming fewer and fewer. It is usually one day, bearing in mind cars were not built in VIN order.

While compiling the production calendar, I struggled in developing an April calendar that made sense. There are several Camaros final-assembled mid-April with 03E release dates so I suspected something was up. I asked John Hinckley about it. John worked for Chevrolet in Production Engineering and had occasional assignments at Norwood. It was his recollection production was delayed when Firebird tooling was transferred from Lordstown. So, I structured the calendar for no Camaro production April 4 – April 13. The rest of the April data now fit well. Over many years, I have not seen information that contradicts the existence of a production gap. I have seen NCRS data that supports it.

N626223 NCRS GM official production date 04/03/1969
N626575 NCRS GM official production date 04/14/1969

That is a gap of 353 units spanning 6 production days, at a time when Norwood was building 800+ Camaros per production day. N626223 may not have been the last Camaro built April 3rd; N626575 may not have been the first Camaro built April 14th. To get to the End of Month VIN N637106, Norwood had to produce 837 Camaros every production day through the end of the month.

Is it possible Norwood built some Camaros during that period? Sure.