skydaddy

I was able to get to my build sheet last night. The thing is a complete mess. The print is gone and the sheet is in pieces (mainly 1 piece but in tatters). What can I do to possible rehab this thing, or is it gone forever? I put it into a zip lock bag until I can figure out what to do.

Retro78

Same issue here. My wife ended up throwing it out to end my efforts to get something off of it.

Empatho

what is a build sheet? what is the point of the build sheet?

68/70Vette

Same with me. I've tried to find if there's someone who will duplicate the sheet. There's someone in the NCRS Driveline who advertises being able to duplicate window stickers, but no one advertises duplicating build sheets.

My build sheet paper is very thin and brittle. The paper fibers are completely saturated with oil, dust, etc. The ink on the print sheet seems to have deteriorated also. It's extremely difficult to read. I can tell that my car's built date is May 18, 1968.

stepinup

you cant read anything off of it?could you read anything before you removed it?When I droped my gas tank some things that I couldnt make out just looking at it came out in the Pics of the build sheet,just a suggestion

NHvette

If there is no print, there really isn't anything to save.


.... The build sheet shows all the options that the car had - plus
other info used by the factory to build the car.

robertmc48

I wonder if a UV light might not bring out some of the details. Some components in the printers ink may fluoresce. I don't know for sure..just an idea.

skydaddy

What I got was a very deteriorated (sp?) piece of paper that looks like it was stuck under a car for 26 years. THe paper is in bad shape and very little ink is visible. I was afraid to start removing the dirt because I did not want to tear it up any further.

I will try the uv light and see what I get. I will also see if I can get some of the dirt off by a camera lens brush - something with very soft bristles. I will let ya'll know what I get.

It was in that poor condition when I found it. I looked at it with a telescoping mirror and a small flash light before I touched it. I got it out without doing any significant additional damage to it.

KapsSA

I "reconstructed" 2 of mine. Had a nice original sheet off my black 79. Photocopied it and then used whiteout on the incorrect info for the Vettes I was making the copys for. Did a lot of cut and paste, typed out all the options in the correct order, typed the codes etc., and then printed out this sheet with all the info in random order. Cut the stuff out from this sheet and pasted the words where they should be on the build sheet. I will say the 2 I redid were still pretty legible but in ragged shape. Any info I couldn't make out was on one or the other of the 2 good copys I have(black 79, Pace). All my Vettes are similiarly equipted. Photocopied the patch job. The copys are pretty accurate in appearance but they are obviously copys. I have a lot of the code info for both 78 and 79 if anyone needs it. Hardest info is interior color stuff, I have the numbers for red, silver, and some for blue.
Also, some of the things I couldn't make out, when I compared it to the sheet that was legible, the info seemed to just pop up. It was like "oh, yeah, that's what that says!".
Mike

1980 454

Im doing my gas tank right what was left of mine looked like someone wiped there @$$ with it so i turfed it i was really hoping it was worth salvage but not a chance couldnt even make out a letter.

stepinup

On mine most the description of the options were not readable as they were gas soaked,but in the option catigory the option part numbers were there like 02L71AA(435/427),02M21AC(4speed,close/ratio)ect.

cjs27410

This one was kind of in pieces

skydaddy

That looks good compared to what I got. My plans are to try to clean it up tonight and bring it to work tomorrow and see if I can see anything under one of our black lights & the a uv light.

2TONE82

Skydaddy,

I don't know what year your car is but on my first '82 I was able to get a copy of my build sheet from the Corvette Museum. I then laid what pieces of the build sheet I was able to recover from the tank over the copy - nice contrast from the white copy to the yellowed original. I then laminated over everything. I gave it to the new owner when I sold that car.

My current '82 doesn't have a build sheet on the gas tank, I've looked all over the car for the original - no luck yet. I do have a copy form BG though.

skydaddy

It is a '79 L82 built in St Louis -

Empatho

454Can-Am

got mine out of the ' 73 on Monday nite...........................
about two dozen little pieces of dirty--blank--dampish--odd shaped pieces of ????????????????????? something !! Rick

Stewart's74

*******

Rockn-Roll

The tank paper is a copy of the build sheet for that vette. A build sheet followed a vette as it made it's way along the assembly line. It included all of the options that went into it as well as other documentation on who did the work, etc. One of the very last parts that went onto a vette is the gas tank followed by the spare tire; thus, the theory was that the tank paper would be a completely accurate document for any vette that left the assembly plant especially if changes were made to the build sheet as the car made it's way along. The dealer got a copy of the build sheet when they received the car for sale, the plant also kept a copy (but we all know that a fire destroyed all of those). And, dealers normally destroy their records every 5 years or so to cut down on storage costs.

Mine was not very readable until I scanned it at high resolution...then I could make out nearly everything. But, after 30 years there will be some deterioration even if the car has low miles and garaged when it's not out.

Oh...and another thing that's on the build sheet is the code for duplicating a key in case you lose yours...cough cough.

hunt4cleanair

The tank sticker or buildsheet was one copy from a multi-part form that was separated on the assembly line during the paint operation (depending on model year). If you see old pictures, you see copies hung from the drivetrain assembly, nose (trim line) and gas tank. Of course other copies were used as well than stuffed between the tach & speedo, dash area and even among rear suspension components. And as rock n roll indicates, one forwarded to the dealer and one kept by the factory which seems to be the copy that are looked for and never found.

An additional copy was used by the shipper and this is the set that much speculation surrounds the "rediscovery" of St Louis build sheets. Much information has been gathered on early build sheets which were actually a copy of the Corvette order and these years included 1967-72. In 73, we see a shift from a Corvette order form on the tank to a copy of the manifest. So 73-82 tank stickers are more alike than 67-72 tank stickers, both of which serve different purposes. The factory called these "manifests" so you can see they have several different names. A manifest is not the same as the Corvette order generated by the GM distribution zone. The manifest is a plant factory document. Much of this comes from an article that will be published in the NCRS Restorer magazine.

After many years of study and collecting late model build sheets (73-82), I've built a few templates that identify the titles used in the boxes and among late-late model build sheets...can reconstruct a build sheet with rather precise accuracy. However, I've learned that the format used throughout these later years was not always consistent and the number of codes were enormous.

I used my original window sticker and than gleaming codes from other 78 models with the same RPOs, identifying dealer and zone codes from the NCRS dealer code database, reconstructed a build sheet for 78 silver anniversary L48 M38 with mahogany leather interior. Actually it's pretty cool!