1968 Hurst/Olds Lansing Build Document from a W-46 Air Coonditioned car.
I have never seen a Lansing assembly plant build sheet, until this came to the surface. Most what are found in 1968 cars is the small Fisher Body sheets. I found two in my '68 Hurst/Olds W-45 car. One with green inked information was found under the rear seat lower cushion It was deteriorated and faded. A second one was found under the carpet. It was printed in black ink. Same information on both.

 

Two Fisher Body tags found in the 1968 Hurst/Olds Demmer 322.

Second one found under the original carpet. It had information printed in black ink.
These are the Fisher Body build and option tags found in the '68 Hurst/Olds, Demmer 322.

 

 

this & the last few posts probably deserve their own thread, but here goes …….

any idea what the top line 4-2-10-1 represents?
stumbled across this the other day, from Demmer #154
this example 4-3?- ?8-7

 

I've put my fisher tag up before. My thoughts at least on the "305" was it was a build date code since the 305th day of '67 was Nov 1 1967, my cars cowl tag date is 11A but seeing yours with a 2 in the same spot it can't be a date code, it would be Jan 2??? way to early for a Hurst Olds

 

Good morning,
Being a Lansing car, the first line I believe is this:
4= Fisher Body, Lansing plant
305=305th body assembled that day
November, 3, 1967. Most likely, your car was built the following day at Lansing Final assembly.
7=hour of shift or hour of production that day.
The next line is your Fisher Body number, as in the trim tag or cowl tag.
Next line is 3687, two door Holiday Coupe (3677 is a Sports Coupe) 940= Black, bucket seat interior.
Next line is Fisher Body related options; options they needed to install.
AO1= tinted glass, A39= deluxe seat belts, A51= bucket seats, W29= 4-4-2 related trim, U80= rear seat speaker.
Regards,
Karl

 

Considering that the thread in which this info was first posted was in a forum for the full size cars, I've moved the posts to the H/O forum. Cool info. Carry on.

 

Hello Dan,
I am not sure you have the top line right, but I will look closer later. Perhaps I can enhance your photo and have an answer on the sequence number?
Any way, 4 = Fisher Body, Lansing. In "Setting The Pace" they identified the FB Plant as Plant #4 back then.
Your next number looks like three digits, possibly 300, 306, 308, 388 or something close. That would be the sequence number for that day.
the third number looks like 28, being the 28th day of the month. Since your car is an 05D (4th week of May) car, that would fit in right. Since May 1 is on a Wednesday, the first full week of May was Sunday, May 5th, so your car body was built on Tuesday, May 28th in the fourth week (05D) The 7 is the hour of the shift, or hour of production for that day.
The next line is your Fisher Body Trim Tag number, 400666.
Lansing did not distinguish the 4400 series (4-4-2) in 1968 so the body style is 3687, a Holiday coupe hardtop. The 940 is Black Bucket Seat interior.
The last line is Fisher Body installed options, A51, Bucket seats, W29 4-4-2 related trim pieces (4-4-2 emblem on trunk lid, chrome door handle backing plates, lower dash pin stripes, etc.
I hope this helps.
Regards,
Karl

 

Thanks Joe. I did not mean to butt in with A Body stuff.
Regards,
Karl

 

Not a problem. I figured it would be seen by more folks who could benefit from it if it were in the H/O forum.

 

since this thread showed up I've wanted to pull the orignal carper out of Demmer car #323 a non-A/C 29K mile car

both halves of the carpet had a FRASER PRODUCTS tag -
***** front half dated May 15 1968 PART 7752274 F (still attached under LH seat track of LH bucket seat))
***** rear half dated May 27 1968 PART 7752334 R (loose & found under carpet under LH bucket seat)

2 of the Fisher Body tags were also found, 1 black ink & 1 green ink
***** black ink (stapled to the rear half carpet under the LH sill plate)
***** green ink (hog ringed to the back edge of the rear seat lower cushion)

following Karl's decode above, here's the info for car #323:
4 = Fisher Body Plant - Lansing, MI
426 = 426th unit for 6/10/68
10 = Monday June 10, 1968
9 = 9th hour
413378 = Fisher Body number
3687 = Cutlass V8 Holiday Coupe
940 = "BLACK" bucket seat interior
A51 = bucket seats
W29 = 442

of interest, Karl's tag pic above is for Demmer #322, this is Demmer #323 (~8 hours & 424 cars apart)
only issue ???? cowl tag for 413378 shows 06A

a scrap of headliner material was found under the carpet, but no other Lansing trash

 

Good morning, I questioned a person who worked at Lansing Fisher Body (starting work there in 1970) about this; car having a 06A cowl tag, but having a June 10 actual Build day on the paper tags. He said they would have been left over not finished body's that were finished the next Monday. They may have been held over for a missing part (possibly seats?) or slight imperfections or damage. Since the 10th was a Monday it makes sense to me.

 

We all fall over ourselves when we see stuff like this with wide eyes and amazement. Bigfoot sightings are more frequent than Lansing build sheets. It is very cool to say the least.

But I've always wondered, these guys on the line every day building these cars back in 1968-- I'm sure there was a few "car guys" that knew what they were doing, but probably some old farts there too, just counting the weeks to retirement after joining GM soon after coming home from WWII perhaps. Did they view it as any kind of historical? Or just another car that a salesman has to sell? The present usually has a completely different feel and outlook to it than looking back at history. Would you have bought a 68 H/O back then? Right now knowing what you know, you say- of course. But would you in '68, or would you be more worried about "the man" taking your stuff and squashing your "rights" to love, drugs, and being "free"? Or even worse, trying not to get drafted into the military and fighting a war that you didn't agree with? Just things to ponder.

The only GM car I knew flat out was going to be a desirable car down the road back when it was new, was the 87 Buick GNX. No other car figured into that equation when the car could be obtained when it was new. Granted, I was yearning to buy a new 79 442 or H/O as well back in the fall of 1978. If I only had a good enough paying job back then. I was waffling on my choice of two still on the lot 84 H/Os in late summer of 84 (one vinyl interior with T-tops, one cloth with no top option) and ended up ordering an 85 442 instead. Didn't care if they would ever be collectible. I only wanted one.

 

thanks! yes, it makes sense - I should've taken a better look at the calendar, Friday would've been 6/7/68 the last day of 06A when the build was probably initiated and resumed on Monday 6/10/68 by the time the above tags were "prepared"
*** when I looked at it 6/10 sounded so far into 06B that it seemed "odd"

there would be cars every week that would fall into this scenario dependent on their position on the assembly line

 

Karl, are you convinced the '68 Lansing "build sheet" in the initial post is authentic? where was it found & what car is it "for"?

I tried to decode some of it with the limited resource material I have & some of it doesn't seem to make sense, almost like it was "invented"

 

I thought that the new month required a new week. Such as 04E for an April 29th or 30th car and an 05A for cars born on May 1. That only makes sense and someone here who does this tagging for a living says it's some sort of federal mandate to do it this way.

A car with a born on date of May 28, 1968 should be an 05E build week. I don't think Olds would do things differently than say, Chevrolet. I've seen build weeks of 05E on body tags for 68 Chevelles, can't see that a 442 would require a different system. Unless someone is assigning the body tag date in 05D and for whatever reason the car got delayed for any reason, then a 28th date with an 05D is possible. To note, 05E would be at least a day short anyway, as I believe in 68 they still observed Memorial Day on May 30th regardless.

 

Hurst68Olds:

Are you familiar with these Lansing Oldsmobile Production Code 'B' Sheets? If you are then the image of the one that Karl posted should look correct to you.

I don't know what year Oldsmobile started using them in their Lansing Plant but these 'are' the mysterious Build Sheets used for Lansing built cars in '68, '69 and '70. They may have been used in other years before or after as well.

 

Yes, both the rear seat one and the carpet one was found by me with another person present in each case. I cannot explain it any more than what I was told by a person who worked at Lansing Fisher Body starting in 1970. Interesting too, on other Lansing Oldsmobile cars I owned, I found that the Fisher Body date matched the date code of that car's rear axle. I suspect the axles were stamped just as they were to be loaded on the assembly line. Two examples of this was a November 16, 1967 FB tag date on a '68 4-4-2. The rear axle cover was stamped M16. On a 1969 4-4-2 I owned it had a C20 stamped in the axle cover and a 3 20 FB tag date. The '68 Hurst/Olds in question has a G5 stamped in it. So, was the body ready but was missing something that prevented to be finished on June 5th? I honestly do not know, but do know what I found and what is on the two FB tags, the FB cowl tag, and the rear axle cover.