factory vin mistake

[jonzcustomshop]

I ran into something real interesting with my 65 suburban.
The door vin tag is 5Z127476, and when I was working on the front I noticed that the front frame vin is 5Z127475!! after pulling the frame the under seat vin is also 5Z127475, but the 5 has 3 little sideways 1's stamped through it, and above it is a 6!
must have been a production error, interesting that they only corrected the one set of #'s though.

[Palf70Step]

Never saw that before.

[Keith Seymore]

Someone was having a bad day.

I ran the portion of the chassis line in Flint where the VIN was stamped. It is a Federal requirement that the VIN is correct, and we put a lot of effort into making sure that was the case. A few years ago I would have sworn that none got out but I have seen so many in the hobby now that obviously that is not the case.

The VIN stamper is a large hydraulic "press" hanging from a tool rail and with the weight offset by a "balancer" (imagine a Harley-Davidson hanging from the ceiling that you are supposed to maneuver into position and press a button). It is supposed to index to the next digit automatically -but - if you mis hit or get out of sequence for some reason then you have to make a repair. Chevy and GMC have different VIN sequence numbers, requiring different stampers hanging there, so if the operator stamps a Chevy VIN on a GMC, for example, then not only is that particular truck wrong but you are out of sequence on every truck after that.

The assembly line repair person and/or the "quality man" (the foreman's right hand man) follow the vehicles down the line with an "X" stamp and a 5 lb hammer and correct the VIN sequence number as required.

Usually it's not just one truck. It normally takes several trucks before somebody notices, so you'll have five or six trucks that have to be fixed - all without the line stopping - so it's quite a scramble for a few minutes while you figure out what went wrong and what has to happen to make it right. You pray nothing else goes to crap while you've got your two best guys otherwise unavailable.

My guess is they fixed what they could and the rest got away.

K

[LostMy65]

Interesting find.
.
Very interesting assembly line information Keith.

[jonzcustomshop]

wow! thanks for that info kieth. I love hearing stories about the assembly line and learning how this stuff was built.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by jonzcustomshop

wow! thanks for that info kieth. I love hearing stories about the assembly line and learning how this stuff was built.

Here are some favorites, in case you have not already seen these:

Recent discussion: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=682275

My intro thread: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=342926

Old Wive's tales from other GM workers: http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=556607

Growing up in a GM family: http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=560524

[Classic v6 GMC's]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Here are some favorites, in case you have not already seen these:

Recent discussion: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=682275

My intro thread: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=342926

Old Wive's tales from other GM workers: http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=556607

Growing up in a GM family: http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=560524

I read your pontiac story some months back and it was great. Also very neat story about your 87 chevy pickup.

[Classic v6 GMC's]

Very interesting. I wonder what other mistakes the factory could make.

[TJ's Chevy]

WOW! Sounds like what Normally goes on today! LOL

[Brad54]

Originally Posted by Classic v6 GMC's

Very interesting. I wonder what other mistakes the factory could make.

My dad was in management at the Jeep plant in Toledo, and they had a two-door Cherokee come down on one side of the line, and as a 4-door on the other side.
Nobody figured it out until they went to put the seats in.

My uncle once bought a Blazer that had Chevy emblems on the passenger side and tail gate, and GMC emblems on the grill and driver's side.

-Brad

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Brad54

My dad was in management at the Jeep plant in Toledo, and they had a two-door Cherokee come down on one side of the line, and as a 4-door on the other side.
Nobody figured it out until they went to put the seats in.

I guess the worst one I had was a floor shifted manual trans truck where they didn't cut the hole in the cab floor.

The repair man cut the hole with a hammer and chisel riding the truck down the final line, while the cab was teetering on top of the shift tower.

We also used to keep a library of tire/wheel assemblies at the install location in case you received a vehicle with the wrong axle. You could install the corresponding wrong tire/wheel so that the vehicle could continue out back, where the axle assembly would be replaced in heavy repair.

Originally Posted by Brad54

My uncle once bought a Blazer that had Chevy emblems on the passenger side and tail gate, and GMC emblems on the grill and driver's side.

-Brad

It was a fairly regular occurrence, and easy to understand why when you see the build process.

For me, roughly every ninth vehicle on the line was a GMC. The fenders, hoods and rad support/grille were all built up and trimmed out in a separate, remote area of the plant - per the build manifest - and conveyed in sequence to the main line. Nobody saw both sides of the build at that point so it wasn't obvious that anything had been screwed up until all those pieces came together on the final line (at which point it became painfully obvious).

Line rate in Flint was 60 jobs per hour, or one complete truck every minute. That's why it was so easy to mess up: you'd get in the "zone" after your 300th truck that day and if you weren't specifically paying attention you'd likely put a Chevy emblem on a GMC, just from being on autopilot.

K

[Classic v6 GMC's]

Originally Posted by Brad54

My dad was in management at the Jeep plant in Toledo, and they had a two-door Cherokee come down on one side of the line, and as a 4-door on the other side.
Nobody figured it out until they went to put the seats in.

-Brad

Now that is a big mistake!! lol

[Palf70Step]

Originally Posted by Brad54

My dad was in management at the Jeep plant in Toledo, and they had a two-door Cherokee come down on one side of the line, and as a 4-door on the other side.
Nobody figured it out until they went to put the seats in.

-Brad

Sounds like a Johnny Cash remix.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Classic v6 GMC's

I wonder what other mistakes the factory could make.

The possibilities are endless...











Anything that could go wrong will go wrong.

K

[61_FL_Apache]

Originally Posted by jonzcustomshop

I ran into something real interesting with my 65 suburban.
The door vin tag is 5Z127476, and when I was working on the front I noticed that the front frame vin is 5Z127475!! after pulling the frame the under seat vin is also 5Z127475, but the 5 has 3 little sideways 1's stamped through it, and above it is a 6!
must have been a production error, interesting that they only corrected the one set of #'s though.

Cant you use some white out on it?