Fisher Body was a different division of GM. What they did, did not always match up with GM documentation. On Fisher Body sheets 11427 and 11469 were only used to determine 2dr vs 4dr. You will never see a fisher body build sheet or trim tag with 11327 or 11127. This was simply because Fisher Body did not care what engine went into the finished car. Matter of fact they dropped the SS engine RPOs from printing on the sheets starting in the 1970 model year. Which is a shame as that was one way to prove and L48, L34, or L78. You can still prove SS with the 68-70 Fisher Body sheet because the SS required them to install the SS rear panel.
I have posted this before, but here as a review.
There are build sheets and there are build sheets. What I mean is that the build sheet that most people find before 71-72 model year are the Fisher Body build sheets. The GM build sheets were called Broadcast Sheets. The Fisher Body build sheets were probably called broadcast sheets too. Only us enthusiasts call them build sheets.
The small white sheet found under the seat is a Fisher Body sheet.
It was used by the Fisher Body side of the factory. This sheet was printed at the seat sub assembly area. They would pull a sheet off of the printer and build the seat according to the trim code box on the sheet. The trim tag was tucked in to the seat springs to identify the seats after they were taken to the line. They were loaded on racks according to SEQuence number. The Sequence number was a daily run order the cars were in as they set on the line. If the car was still on the line at the end of the day that was OK. The sequence numbers were big enough to allow that. The sequence number was reset each morning.
The Fisher Body line worker would have the cars running down the line. He would look at the sequence number crayoned on the body or the similar build sheet taped to the front of the firewall. He would grab the seat that matched the sequence number. Now, if the rack had all or several of the same trim type seats, the worker would not always grab the exact seat by sequence number. (Right Allen396). More than likely he just looked at the door panels and grabbed the seat the same trim type as the door panels.
The paper style Fisher Body sheet was replaced by the punch card style. The punch card in common in late 1970 Model year. This happened as Fisher Body was absorbed into General Motors Assembly Division in the 70-72 time frame. Build sheets used after the consolidation were a combined version of the Fisher Body and the two GM build sheets. The GM build sheets were called Broadcast Sheets. There were Body Broadcast Sheets and Chassis Broadcast Sheets. There are only a few know copies of the Chassis Broadcast sheet used before the consolidation. Lanny Weatherford has one that he displays with his original car. See the May 1996 Edition of Nova Times. Lowmile has one few copies of the combined GMAD broadcast sheet that I have seen. After 1972 the Broadcast sheet changed to the black and white landscape 8.5 x 11 sheets. I have seen several of these with cars posted on ebay.
Fisher Body sheets were used by the trim guys. So the sheet could be found under or behind any of the trim pieces. I.e. behind the door panels, the carpet, the head liner, the package tray, the dash pad. Even under the tar paper floor sound deadener. The likelihood of finding this tag under the car or in the engine compartment is very slim. The very fact that they were in the interior and protected are why they have survived.
The gas tank was a common place to place the broadcast sheets on FULL FRAME cars. This was a ready place to look to see what the chassis needed before it was mounted on the body. So you will only find them on the gas tank on the Van Nuys build Novas 1972 on.
The RPO codes listed on the sheet are Only the codes that Fisher Body needed to build the body part of the car. They did not list every code the car had. It also listed the codes necessary to get the job done. If you ordered a console and a standard 3 speed. It would only list D55 console. If you did not have the console it would only list M20. It would not list anything that GM installed which did not need Fisher Body to prep the body. It would only list the radio RPO for speaker locations and antenna as example.
Does this help? Good luck, I could not find mine either. Which is not quite as bad as finding the wrong one.
The Nova Research Project is seeking copies of any and all broadcast sheets that you find in addition to the Trim tag and VIN information.
Thanks,
Greg
