Production Orders wrong?

[shouldbesad]

I just recieved a fax of a production order from the museum. On it the serial number, the paint color, and the interior color have all been XXX'ed over and new info typed beside/above them. The car is gold, but the order has the gold XXX'ed out and 6335 gray typed next to it. The interior showed, what looks like, 963 ___, but XXX'ed out and 913 BKV shown.
Does anyone know if some of these production orders are wrong? Does anyone know what the interior of a 963 ___ and 913BKV should look like?

Thank you,
Diane

[Skip Lackie]

Is it a copy of the original, or was it retyped by the museum? Changes on original production orders are not uncommon, and represent either changes to the order (hopefully before the vehicle was assembled!) or the correction of errors. Some are typed, and some are hand-written.

Are you sure your car wasn't gray originally and repainted gold sometime later?

Suspect BKV means black vinyl.

[Bill Pressler]

I am nearly certain that the production orders from the SNM are photocopies of the original, unlike when N&A retyped the original information onto a multi-part production order blank (and sometimes not the correct blank for the vehicle in question). I have seen one of the N&A production order reproductions for a '65 Commander that has "12/24/65" typed as the production date, when it would have obviously been 12/24/64. I much prefer a copy of the original production order.

[shouldbesad]

It looks like an origional copy and I did get it faxed from the museum. The XXX's and changes are in a different type font and size. The owner tells me it has been repainted the origional color gold. I know the interior was redone and I don't think origional color/material. So, BKV possibly black vinyl. The XXX'ed out interior could be 963 _LV.

[shouldbesad]

I did find an article that lists the running changes made during the 1964 model by serial number. Is there a list for 63 that anyone knows of?

[Skip Lackie]

It looks like an origional copy and I did get it faxed from the museum. The XXX's and changes are in a different type font and size. The owner tells me it has been repainted the origional color gold. I know the interior was redone and I don't think origional color/material. So, BKV possibly black vinyl. The XXX'ed out interior could be 963 _LV.

I know that many of the Fred Fox articles that discussed particular model years included an explanation of the color codes used on production orders, but I don't recall what issue of TW may have included that info for 1963. Maybe someone else can provide that info.

Within a given time period, the original production order entries all seem to have been typed on the same typewriter/teletype, perhaps through some automated system. Later changes would probably have been made manually or by hand, so it's not surprising that the type face changed.

Just speculating: As Bill Pressler has noted, the original production orders were a multi-part carbon paper form, with copies sent to various company departments. Given Studebaker's desperate financial position in 1963, the company would probably have been willing to make changes to an order right up until the time that the parts started moving down the production line, especially if the change had no effect on price (ie, painting the car a different color or substituting black vinyl for a blue vinyl interior). In such cases, I spose it's possible that the changes would not be reflected on all copies of the production order. Another possibility: the color change got recorded too late, and the car got painted gold even though the purchaser had changed the order to gray. The purchaser was offered a discount to take the car as painted, and he/she accepted. These kinds of compromises occurred all the time.

[go-studebaker]

Hi Diane,
913bkv is an Avanti option assuming the car you have is a 63 Avanti. It is a 1963 option that makes a 63 Avanti look like a 64 Avanti for interior trim. It was only available with black vinyl option and would be an all black interior with black dash and full wodgrain including the steering wheel.

Orders were changed and updated all the time.

[studegary]

I am not surprised at changes to the build sheet. If the build sheet does not seem to match the Avanti, the most common reason is that someone got a build sheet based on the body number (in the engine compartment and easily seen) and not the serial number (on the frame and not so easily seen). Also the S/N could have had numbers transposed somewhere in the request process. Check that the serial number on the build sheet matches the serial number on your frame (not a number on a piece of paper, like a registration or title).

[shouldbesad]

The serial # and the body # match from the production order to the car. Don't know yet about the engine # as owner has been unable to find. I'vd explained and sent photos but he's not a car person and this is his fathers car. Will check out myself here shortly. So, I an assuming this is the correct poroduction order. I see that it was "SOLD RUSH" at the bottom of the options, so maybe new owner wanted different color and got changed too late? Guessing here.

By the way, had a great day at the Bellingham Stude Show and Swapmeat. Nice day for it. Lot of great looking cars. Nice to meet some of you.

Diane