Warren has a few examples of tag stamping anomalies, and I've seen a few too. But considering how many tags we've looked at, the error rate is very, very low.

When a chassis number is accidentally duplicated, they put an R on the end. The next duplication gets an R1, then R2 etc.
I came across a VL in the wreckers one day that was stamped AVLxxxxxxMR12 - so 13 of them(or maybe more) were stamped with the same chassis number.

Almost as good (but not a factory problem) of the tale where the NSW RTA had an issue with a stack of duplicated engine numbers popping up.
The number in question was actually the firing order, not the stamped engine number......

Mick that date stamp 5 H 8 ended with a D or DD as it was in this case. What would the D indicate ?.
Flem

All the Holden utes and vans had an anomaly in the body side panels up until mid/late 1954 when the problem was finally fixed. The crease line up high (just under where the tarp posts would screw on) was shorter at the rearmost point left side to right by about 7 inches...just a glitch in the tooling up at the time I'd suspect, and was rectified when the rear shock absorber positioning and other small sheet metal details were modified at that time.

Next time you see an HG Monaro or non GTS HT Monaro look at the location of the Monaro badges on the 1/4 panels. Luckily you do not see both sides of the car at the same time.

Seen a 1 tonner with seating capacity 6 on the compliance plate. (the list is very long here of body ID, VIN and compliance plate errors)

Know of a VN Lexcen that was sent to the dealer with a Holden horn button and the dealer would not let the owner take delivery until a Toyota one was fitted.

There is a story of an LC/J Torana being made at Acacia Ridge with a 4 door 1/4 on one side and 2 door 1/4 on the other.

V2 Monaros have a crease near the rear 1/4 window.

Warren

When I was working on the line back in the VR era. The SS cars were not meant to get the Brake light on the parcel shelf, as it was in the boot spoiler. But being a lazy young prick, I didnt read the build sheet, I just put one in every sedan. Quite a few got picked up and I had to pull em out. I often wondered if they all got discovered and pulled out, or if some made it through and made it out onto the street. :)

Edited by user Sunday, 23 October 2016 8:15:37 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

You'd hope the guy putting the trim panel in would have selected the correct one (not cut for a brake light) and would have picked up every brake light fitted......

And it's funny now how the young guys are ripping those boot spoilers off SS & XR6 models, to replace them with a lip (or no spoiler) and are now retro-fitting rear window brake lights from "lesser spec" models....

I've seen heaps of ID tag and engine number errors, a few below:

Horizontal part of L missing on the L from the VIN plate station at Pagewood during HQ, so lots of HQ's from Pagewood with an I as the engine designator.

An Elizabeth assembled HZ van with the VIN tag off a consecutive car on it, so the BODY number and VIN tag PSN out by one digit, tags were put on arse about in the assembly plant, imagine the Service and Warranty nightmare with this one for those two vans - even the mechanical build configurations for both was different.

A HT GTS350 with a 308M engine number prefix but still had the assembly plant's SBC number sequence number. Was even on the Owner's books as 308M.


The one that will surprise people is the original Service/Warranty reports on 'fiche. These are full of human entry errors. The actual build information, as in what was in the IBM prior to manufacture is just about always correct, but the stuff done later like engine number, credited selling dealer, sales date etc is full of errors. The engine numbers alone are wrong on a large % of vehicles, as an example I've counted I think 7 of the 150 list 1973 XU1's with a wrong engine number recorded against it, some are mis-typed digits, others are numbers against the wrong car.

Does human error continue into the VN era?

I have pics of a VG ute body plate which has VN8VK80-XXX, instead of VGVK80-XXX. Even the compliance plate has 'HOLDEN VN P/CAR', but the VIN starts with 6H8VKG80---------.

Strangly enough, the plates are stamped with a die, not the typical dot matrix VN.

Depends on the car & model. Commodores from VT-VZ had a different rear glass for the SS (and other models with boot spoiler mounted brake lights, like HSVs). The black mask continued over the 3rd brake light opening in the rear glass when it wasn't needed. So to retro-fit a window mounted 3rd brake light, you need to change the glass. And there are young blokes who have spent big $$ getting the glass changed when they have "de-spoilered" the car - usually at the same time as they fit a lower lip kit from an SS or HBD catalogue, and hook up the invisible caravan that drops the rear down about 5 inches......

VR/VS brake lights sat above the mask level of the glass, but had the shelf curve up & over them. SS & HSVs with spoiler mounted brake lights simply had an uncut parcel shelf placed in there, and the globe holder taped up, allowing a later retro-fit simply by fitting the brake light assembly, and cutting the shelf to suit (or using a pre-cut shelf). The bulb is then plug & play in the previously redundant holder.

BA, BF & FG Falcons are the same - the shelf is left uncut, and a brake light isn't fitted to cars with a brake light in the boot spoiler. But retro-fitting is just the same as a VR or VS.

Holden made it easy from VE onwards - the 3rd brake light moved to the top of the rear window, so no matter if you have a boot spoiler or not, it stays the same - simplifying the part count, and assembly process.



Yes, it would be, but if he read the sheet (to pick the right colour) he should wise up.... isn't that one of the reasons the unions tell us that "highly skilled" auto-assemblers have to be paid so much more than general factory hands?