J Numbers and Dealerships Question

[nascarxx29]

Ok by me Dave send it whatever you got prior owners name to see what can be looked up

[nascarxx29]

[nascarxx29]

[70Sbird]

Brennan,
here is mine:
Scott

[hotrod98]

Mine is J97184. I've traced the car back to El Paso, TX in 1979.

[nascarxx29]

Unrelated to the J # superbirds If your still compiling misc data Arnie . Column auto daytonas and vin sequences in this link
Re: Daytona Question!
« Reply #46 on: September 17, 2007, 09:00:41 AM » Quote 

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Sorry for chiming in late to your question, Barry...  I didn't have the chance to check my records until this morning (I keep them here on the office PC).

So far, I have a record of 16 column-shifted automatic Daytonas -- but I don't have full Fender Tag information on all those 16 cars much less all of the known-to-exist cars.  All of the ones that had been mentioned in this thread were already logged as column-shifted cars, except that Danny's dad's former car is 409045 (I'll bet this week's paycheck that Danny quoted that VIN from memory, which I probably couldn't do for any other cars but my own    )

It is interesting to see some of the patterns emerge, such as what Barry alluded to with 402978 and 402971.  A few other close VINs from that list of 16 cars are 402961, 402983 and 402984.  The more information we can compile, the better the overall picture will become

[jwilson61]

Just found this thread and would like to add a j number, any info any one has would be appreciated  J97419.. vin . RM23V0A179724  FY1 E87 D21  p6XA TX9  V19 V88 C16 26  and a lot of other numbers above these on tag  122   083  676  22134    177562  any one know what I have here.. Thanks

[68pplcharger]

 

[1RareBird]

Just found this thread and would like to add a j number, any info any one has would be appreciated  J97419.. vin . RM23V0A179724  FY1 E87 D21  p6XA TX9  V19 V88 C16 26  and a lot of other numbers above these on tag  122   083  676  22134    177562  any one know what I have here.. Thanks

Well, from your post you have a yellow, 440+6, 4-speed, black interior with buckets and console, dana rear with 3.54 gears.

[rainbow4jd]

Brennan, like always thanks for what you do

I'm speaking from the Ford perspective here which is likely similar to that of Chrysler.   

Dealers used to mail or hand deliver an order spec sheet (a template with the options desired inked in) to their zone manager who would also travel around and collect orders directly (most often from the metro or larger volume dealers).    Initially the dealer name and town was all that was needed, then as the automotive industry exploded after WWII - it became necessary to streamline the ordering process.   In the early 60s (I think, maybe earlier) dealers started to get assigned sales codes.   These generally has a regional prefix.   For example, I think Cincinnati Region is 47 or 44 for Ford.   So a Dealer code would start out as F47XXXXX - with the Xs being numerics.     So the order forms just had the dealer code, with the build form, and the dealer signed it at the bottom - handed it to the zone rep - and that generated an order.   It went into that dealer's bank of orders - a manually sorted file that the zone office would help organize and send to the manufacturing plant.

Eventually, computer ordering came into play - the collected orders would be INPUTTED by a data control person in the zone office from the order template form.   This person was called a SCHEDULER

Initially an order simply was assigned an ORDER BANK NUMBER until it was "scheduled"  - meaning its receipted but Ford hasn't committed to building it yet.   A dealer was encouraged to have MANY more orders in the bank than what they were expecting to get actually built.  Thereafter, once the dealer allocation was determined - i.e. dealer F47XXXX gets 2 Fairlanes - the scheduler would look in the order bank and check dealer priority codes to see if there were retail or stock orders.   The scheduler made all the decisions of what got built and what didn't BASED ON WHAT COMMODITIES THE PLANT WOULD SAY THEY COULD BUILD.    In some cases, what the plant thought they could build and actually build varied - and that generated weird cars - like "Hey, we got this Boss 429 engine left over, can we put it in this 4 door Galaxy station wagon?"

The key thing to know (again from Ford perspective was) AS SOON AS THE VEHICLE WAS SELECTED FOR BUILD - it got a VIN NUMBER.   At that point - it became a living car (even if it wasn't built yet).   THEN... internal codes were assigned that dictated how all the parts came together to build the car.

With Chrysler those may have been build sequence numbers and perhaps J codes.    All they did was "direct" the car through the plant - AT FORD THEY HAD NO SPECIFIC REGIONAL DESIGNATIONS BUT HERE'S HOW UNINTENTIONALLY REGIONALIZATION MAY HAVE OCCURRED.

Remember, the scheduler?    The scheduler is building cars for dealers in THEIR region.   They have a pool of VIN numbers sent to them - for example, on BOSS 429 Mustangs - the Cincinnati Zone might have gotten 15 of these to build for dealers running from Columbus OH, to Bristol Tennessee.    The scheduler is just going down the VIN list in numerical sequence.    IF two closely located dealers happen to both have an allocation for 1 Mustang - they might have each gotten one separated ONLY by a single digit.     Note:  Scheduling was done weekly, so 1 dealer might get allocation in week 1, and the adjacent dealer in week 2 - so many VINS might have been used by then.

Schedulers assigned VINS - based on available commodities - and sent the scheduled units to the plant for build.   There was no intentional regionalization by the plant - but once VINS were sent to schedulers - that scheduler WAS working out of a single geography.

Later on it all became computerized and VIN numbers would be assigned at the plant - not by schedulers.   This pretty much eliminated any regionalization.

AGAIN - THIS IS THE FORD PROCESS - but i suspect that Chrysler and GM was almost the same.   It's not rocket science - its just basic manufacturing.

[Arnie Cunningham]

I don't know if I am the only one who finds the above information interesting, but I do.  Thank you for spelling out the process.
Can you give some thought to how the process would have played out with Superbirds which, more or less, were forced on the dealers.
You may have seen this document.  http://aerowarriors.com/cda/cda_110669.html
It shows regional and sub-regional distribution (intended anyway) of 1850 Superbirds.  My suspicion is that the remaining 75 cars were those
allocated for Canada.

Any input is appreciated,
Brennan

[Redbird]

I grew up in Minneapolis/St. Paul. There were no winged cars there in the mid 1973-1978 (and up to the mid 1980's). Well actually there was one yellow 6-bbl car just off University Ave. in St. Paul. In about 1977 I found another yellow 4-bbl car owned by Ed Waldraff (sic). Ed had a letter in his glove compartment from the Gov.-Wendell Anderson telling him the car had to be fixed, no front bumper. The Plymouth dealership had cut through the nose and fit a Barracuda bumper on it. The car, with a picture, was in the DSAC in the late 1970's early 1980's newsletter after I found it.

How this relates to the list in the previous post is: the list shows 66 cars allocated to the Minneapolis Region. There is a similar list in an old WW or DSAC newsletter or something showing almost none of the Minneapolis cars being sold. I am of the belief that the Minneapolis cars (Minnesota) were sold in the Dakotas, Iowa, West Wisconsin.

To separate this story from urban legend. The DSAC picture of the car from back in the day and the sales numbers on the sales list. It will come to me where the other list was published.

[Redmanf1]

Mine has a J number and it was a local MI car.

[nascarxx29]

this it redman   http://detroit.craigslist.org/mcb/cto/4988573276.html

[Redmanf1]

nascarxx29,  yes that is it.


Nelson