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Did you buy one NEW back in the day? Tell your story!
History / OriginalityGot a question about 1982-1992 Camaro or Firebird history? Have a question about original parts, options, RPO codes, when something was available, or how to document your car? Those questions, answers, and much more!
Re: Did you buy one NEW back in the day? Tell your story!
I love this thread. Ill give you mine.
In March of 1984 I was happy with my 1982 Z28 that I had just walked through the factory in September of 82. My dad was a Maintenance Supervisor at Norwood. He knew all the processes of the build of the F Body and used to be a car guy back in the day, but drifted into his work as the years went on and did not keep up on makes and models. On that March day, my dad called the house and told me there was something I needed to come down to the plant and look at. He told me they had built some pre production 85's and several of them had the letters I R O C - Z on the lower part of the doors. He said he didnt know what that meant, but they looked really good. I was into stock cars at the time and crewed at the local Queen City Speedway every Saturday night. I knew exactly what that was. March was the month we ran pre production parts or models for the following year. I quickly drove to Norwood.
My dad was well liked by all at the plant, including the security guards. They let me come in and hang out multiple occasions prior to me working there. The only real rule was No Cameras, and don't steal anything, or at least don't get caught. On this day, we walked back to the final line, to an adjacent very large stock warehouse that was pretty much empty. Way back in the left rear corner were 4 Camaros. I approched them from an angle. The lighting was dimly lit and as I got closer, I could not believe what I was seeing. The cars were facing me. There was one yellow, one red, one black, and one white. As the yellow one came into view, i saw the silver lettering on the door: IROC-Z! Wow! I had never seen a more meaner looking, but sleek car. I was beyond excited. I opened the door to the yellow IROC and saw that Camel LS Interior. I had seen the blue and orange on the 84, but wow! this color really showed off the interior. i wanted it. I popped the hood and looked at that Tuned Port engine that I had never seen. It was the coolest looking engine. I then slid behind the wheel and started it up. I was done! The 82 has to go! I have to have this exact car. I looked over the rest of them, but the yellow one was it.
100 questions began flowing out to dad. Are these slated for production?, when are they coming?, how much will they be? What do I have to do to get this IROC? Dad being in maintenance had no answers, but he knew who did. I quickly learned they would be available to order in November as a 1985 model. Okay, now I knew they were coming, now it was time to sell the Z and start saving more money. We had raffled off my 1968 Camaro at the factory to raise the money for my 82 Z. Okay, maybe it was an under the table gambling game, but the workers loved a game of chance. The Camaro was grand prize and $200 and $100 were 2nd and 3rd. The 82 Z was worth way more, so the raffle would probably not work. i decided to sell it.
On the way home from the plant, I drove directly to the Ohio BMV and picked up a Personalized Plate Form and wrote in IROC Z and sent it off. I had ZWHIZ on my 82, but I was getting an IROC no matter what, so I ended ordering the plate before I could order my car.
On the first day of ordering in November, I ordered up an 1985 Yellow IROC-Z with silver/black stripes and the Camel LS Interior. I already knew you could not get the 5 speed with the Tuned Port, so I ordered up the H.O. with 3.73 and 4 wheel disc.
Within a few days, dad called to tell me they were stopping production on the yellow due to quality problems with the paint. What????? Now what do I do? I found out that if I still wanted yellow, my build would be sent to Van Nuys for production. Van Nuys was of course already using Water Base paints. That wasn't going to happen. Van Nuys was our competition and enemy. GM of old had always pitted each factory against each other. (There's some great corporate leadership for you) Dad said they had mocked up some cars and ran some new colors, so off to Norwood I went again.
Up to the Paint Department this time, where car bodies had heavy foil wrapped around them, where they could test new colors or to do quality checks on the paint system. This day, there were 3 mockups. Dark Jade metallic, Light Jade Metallic and Bright Blue. Well, of course only one choice here, the No 30 Bright Blue.
Now a great friend to have at Norwood was someone working in Scheduling. Which of course my dad had. They helped my 82 become an 82. A dealer ordered it for us way past the order cutoff, so we found out it was going to be an 83. Nope, they squeezed it in for me in September of 82, which was the last month of production for the 1982. They ran a long model year due to the popularity of the new model. Now onto the IROC's production, thr scheduler told me it would be best to wait til after the Christmas shut down, so they scheduled production to begin January 2, of 1985. Working 2 shifts of production per day, it took 5 1/2 shifts or 3 days to produce. So my IROC was built January 2-4.
On the mooring of January 2. they grabbed a floor pan and laid it on the Body Truck. The worker picked up my Body Broadcast Sheet and took a black Sharpie and wrote, "Special Job" on it and hung it on the truck. (I still have that framed) and so 62-5847 began production. I stayed with my car throughout the process. Everyone taking special care and trying to make sure everything was right.
When it went to paint, my friends dad was the Paint Dept Supervisor. He was trying to make sure everything was going smoothly. The worker in charge of setting the colors up for each job, was talking about which job was mine and the Camaro and Z28 in front of mine, which were supposed to be Bright Blue did not get painted Bright Blue. He forgot to change the codes. Here came mine, and right before it got to the Turbo Bells, they purged and began spraying bright blue. Workers began rushing into the paint booth in their protective gear and began using wands spraying paint thinner. They sprayed off the 2 cars in front of mine. They received their bright blue in the second color booth. Wow! that was close. My friends dad began inspecting my cars paint. Everything looked good, and no thinner got splashed on it. A little later, a paint inspector circled a small spot on my deck lid with his wax crayon. I asked what he was circling. He said I had an eyebrow in my paint. He said they will sand that out later. After he moved to the next job, I erased the crayon mark. I didn't want anyone sanding on my new paint job, it was not that big a deal, and my buddys dad's eyebrow hair told a story about how my car almost wasn't painted bright blue. So yes, til this day the hair is still in the deck lid.
I stayed with my car every minute except for when the line went down for lunch. On the 4th of January the line stopped with my car right before the Air Cleaner/Duct assembly station. I went to lunch, and when I came back, I was sickened. My left fender had a scratch about 10 inches long on it???? No worker was anywhere around. Above my car was a sign that read, " Wear your Apron: Jewelry, Belt Buckles and Inspection Punches can scratch, ding, or dent" Guess the worker never heeded that advise. What had happened is they had back lined to get extra time for lunch. A common practice on the assembly line. Each job took about 40 seconds to go through your work station. So each job you can go back, you get that much extra down time. So thanks to that, now my paint job has experienced its first scratch before its even finished being built. This is the only time I refretted not getting a Tuned Port.
After my IROC wheels were secured to the car, the cars lower down for Engine Start. The worker looked at me and asked if I wanted to be the first one to bring her to life? I of course jumped right in. I pressed the gas and turned the key. She began to crank but just would not start. He said, "son, this aint no fuel injected car, you need to pump the hell out of that gas pedal." So, pump away I did, and she fired to life for the first time. What a feeling.
She came off the final line with a perfect score MINUS the scratch. It was freezing outside that evening, they sent her over to the Final Assembly or Blue Building as we called it. They papered up the whole car except for the fender. They sanded it down, painted it and sent it through the dryer and out into the cold. We went back to the plant on Sunday January the 6th to see her. It was snowing a little, but they had put her under the conveyer building, so she was not getting snowed upon. She looked magnificent.
Ive have always tried to pamper and protect it and luckily the paint hasn't been polished off yet. I would have never dreamed back then about keeping her that long, or selling her down the road and getting her back with just a couple more miles on her, after realizing what a big mistake I had made. Norwood employees built me another wonderful car, even with the scratch incident. There are way more stories like all the extra undercoating and sealent. The "free" analog console clocked they hooked up underneath the console, the "extra items" they put in my spare tire and so many little things workers did to make sure my car was everything I wanted. They appreciated I was buyong theor product. I am much apppreciative, and was thrillled when I was able to work ther shortly after. Now another fix from a mistake I made. I wanted my IROC Z plate back that she wore her whole life. Unfortunately it had been taken after I sold the car. I have been checking on the availability of my IROC Z plate, and it has not been available for several years, but as of the other day, it was back on the list. Yep! you guessed it, it is also, once again mine.
Hope you all enjoyed my IROC story. Sorry it was a bit lengthy.
Last edited by z28cop; 08-11-2017 at 07:58 PM.
Reason: addional info
Re: Did you buy one NEW back in the day? Tell your story!
That is one hell of a 85 Iroc. I been looking for a L69 Iroc since 2013. Couldn't find one with all the options I wanted. With the Irocs hitting the numbers they are now I just recently caved in, and bought a Sliver 85. TPI/LS interior, everything else minus power seat, Rear defrost, Clock, and T-tops. I Really wish it had T-tops. Might add them but that is ALOT of work
Re: Did you buy one NEW back in the day? Tell your story!
Originally Posted by t/aws61985
That is one hell of a 85 Iroc. I been looking for a L69 Iroc since 2013. Couldn't find one with all the options I wanted. With the Irocs hitting the numbers they are now I just recently caved in, and bought a Sliver 85. TPI/LS interior, everything else minus power seat, Rear defrost, Clock, and T-tops. I Really wish it had T-tops. Might add them but that is ALOT of work
Love that silver! It will be worth it when you get it finsihed.
Re: Did you buy one NEW back in the day? Tell your story!
Originally Posted by z28cop
I love this thread. Ill give you mine.
In March of 1984 I was happy with my 1982 Z28 that I had just walked through the factory in September of 82. My dad was a Maintenance Supervisor at Norwood. He knew all the processes of the build of the F Body and used to be a car guy back in the day, but drifted into his work as the years went on and did not keep up on makes and models. On that March day, my dad called the house and told me there was something I needed to come down to the plant and look at. He told me they had built some pre production 85's and several of them had the letters I R O C - Z on the lower part of the doors. He said he didnt know what that meant, but they looked really good. I was into stock cars at the time and crewed at the local Queen City Speedway every Saturday night. I knew exactly what that was. March was the month we ran pre production parts or models for the following year. I quickly drove to Norwood.
My dad was well liked by all at the plant, including the security guards. They let me come in and hang out multiple occasions prior to me working there. The only real rule was No Cameras, and don't steal anything, or at least don't get caught. On this day, we walked back to the final line, to an adjacent very large stock warehouse that was pretty much empty. Way back in the left rear corner were 4 Camaros. I approched them from an angle. The lighting was dimly lit and as I got closer, I could not believe what I was seeing. The cars were facing me. There was one yellow, one red, one black, and one white. As the yellow one came into view, i saw the silver lettering on the door: IROC-Z! Wow! I had never seen a more meaner looking, but sleek car. I was beyond excited. I opened the door to the yellow IROC and saw that Camel LS Interior. I had seen the blue and orange on the 84, but wow! this color really showed off the interior. i wanted it. I popped the hood and looked at that Tuned Port engine that I had never seen. It was the coolest looking engine. I then slid behind the wheel and started it up. I was done! The 82 has to go! I have to have this exact car. I looked over the rest of them, but the yellow one was it.
100 questions began flowing out to dad. Are these slated for production?, when are they coming?, how much will they be? What do I have to do to get this IROC? Dad being in maintenance had no answers, but he knew who did. I quickly learned they would be available to order in November as a 1985 model. Okay, now I knew they were coming, now it was time to sell the Z and start saving more money. We had raffled off my 1968 Camaro at the factory to raise the money for my 82 Z. Okay, maybe it was an under the table gambling game, but the workers loved a game of chance. The Camaro was grand prize and $200 and $100 were 2nd and 3rd. The 82 Z was worth way more, so the raffle would probably not work. i decided to sell it.
On the way home from the plant, I drove directly to the Ohio BMV and picked up a Personalized Plate Form and wrote in IROC Z and sent it off. I had ZWHIZ on my 82, but I was getting an IROC no matter what, so I ended ordering the plate before I could order my car.
On the first day of ordering in November, I ordered up an 1985 Yellow IROC-Z with silver/black stripes and the Camel LS Interior. I already knew you could not get the 5 speed with the Tuned Port, so I ordered up the H.O. with 3.73 and 4 wheel disc.
Within a few days, dad called to tell me they were stopping production on the yellow due to quality problems with the paint. What????? Now what do I do? I found out that if I still wanted yellow, my build would be sent to Van Nuys for production. Van Nuys was of course already using Water Base paints. That wasn't going to happen. Van Nuys was our competition and enemy. GM of old had always pitted each factory against each other. (There's some great corporate leadership for you) Dad said they had mocked up some cars and ran some new colors, so off to Norwood I went again.
Up to the Paint Department this time, where car bodies had heavy foil wrapped around them, where they could test new colors or to do quality checks on the paint system. This day, there were 3 mockups. Dark Jade metallic, Light Jade Metallic and Bright Blue. Well, of course only one choice here, the No 30 Bright Blue.
Now a great friend to have at Norwood was someone working in Scheduling. Which of course my dad had. They helped my 82 become an 82. A dealer ordered it for us way past the order cutoff, so we found out it was going to be an 83. Nope, they squeezed it in for me in September of 82, which was the last month of production for the 1982. They ran a long model year due to the popularity of the new model. Now onto the IROC's production, thr scheduler told me it would be best to wait til after the Christmas shut down, so they scheduled production to begin January 2, of 1985. Working 2 shifts of production per day, it took 5 1/2 shifts or 3 days to produce. So my IROC was built January 2-4.
On the mooring of January 2. they grabbed a floor pan and laid it on the Body Truck. The worker picked up my Body Broadcast Sheet and took a black Sharpie and wrote, "Special Job" on it and hung it on the truck. (I still have that framed) and so 62-5847 began production. I stayed with my car throughout the process. Everyone taking special care and trying to make sure everything was right.
When it went to paint, my friends dad was the Paint Dept Supervisor. He was trying to make sure everything was going smoothly. The worker in charge of setting the colors up for each job, was talking about which job was mine and the Camaro and Z28 in front of mine, which were supposed to be Bright Blue did not get painted Bright Blue. He forgot to change the codes. Here came mine, and right before it got to the Turbo Bells, they purged and began spraying bright blue. Workers began rushing into the paint booth in their protective gear and began using wands spraying paint thinner. They sprayed off the 2 cars in front of mine. They received their bright blue in the second color booth. Wow! that was close. My friends dad began inspecting my cars paint. Everything looked good, and no thinner got splashed on it. A little later, a paint inspector circled a small spot on my deck lid with his wax crayon. I asked what he was circling. He said I had an eyebrow in my paint. He said they will sand that out later. After he moved to the next job, I erased the crayon mark. I didn't want anyone sanding on my new paint job, it was not that big a deal, and my buddys dad's eyebrow hair told a story about how my car almost wasn't painted bright blue. So yes, til this day the hair is still in the deck lid.
I stayed with my car every minute except for when the line went down for lunch. On the 4th of January the line stopped with my car right before the Air Cleaner/Duct assembly station. I went to lunch, and when I came back, I was sickened. My left fender had a scratch about 10 inches long on it???? No worker was anywhere around. Above my car was a sign that read, " Wear your Apron: Jewelry, Belt Buckles and Inspection Punches can scratch, ding, or dent" Guess the worker never heeded that advise. What had happened is they had back lined to get extra time for lunch. A common practice on the assembly line. Each job took about 40 seconds to go through your work station. So each job you can go back, you get that much extra down time. So thanks to that, now my paint job has experienced its first scratch before its even finished being built. This is the only time I refretted not getting a Tuned Port.
After my IROC wheels were secured to the car, the cars lower down for Engine Start. The worker looked at me and asked if I wanted to be the first one to bring her to life? I of course jumped right in. I pressed the gas and turned the key. She began to crank but just would not start. He said, "son, this aint no fuel injected car, you need to pump the hell out of that gas pedal." So, pump away I did, and she fired to life for the first time. What a feeling.
She came off the final line with a perfect score MINUS the scratch. It was freezing outside that evening, they sent her over to the Final Assembly or Blue Building as we called it. They papered up the whole car except for the fender. They sanded it down, painted it and sent it through the dryer and out into the cold. We went back to the plant on Sunday January the 6th to see her. It was snowing a little, but they had put her under the conveyer building, so she was not getting snowed upon. She looked magnificent.
Ive have always tried to pamper and protect it and luckily the paint hasn't been polished off yet. I would have never dreamed back then about keeping her that long, or selling her down the road and getting her back with just a couple more miles on her, after realizing what a big mistake I had made. Norwood employees built me another wonderful car, even with the scratch incident. There are way more stories like all the extra undercoating and sealent. The "free" analog console clocked they hooked up underneath the console, the "extra items" they put in my spare tire and so many little things workers did to make sure my car was everything I wanted. They appreciated I was buyong theor product. I am much apppreciative, and was thrillled when I was able to work ther shortly after. Now another fix from a mistake I made. I wanted my IROC Z plate back that she wore her whole life. Unfortunately it had been taken after I sold the car. I have been checking on the availability of my IROC Z plate, and it has not been available for several years, but as of the other day, it was back on the list. Yep! you guessed it, it is also, once again mine.
Hope you all enjoyed my IROC story. Sorry it was a bit lengthy.
Thanks for the great detailed story! My dad worked at a Fisher body plant and I didn't get that experience. Not sure if you read my story. I am the OP for this thread. I ordered mine Option 1 and got it the way I wanted minus the TPI which my dad would not allow since I was 18. I got a black 85 TA and I miss it.... read my story and let me know what you think
Re: Did you buy one NEW back in the day? Tell your story!
Originally Posted by z28cop
I sure did read it! Gorgeous TA. Still think the thirds look the best.
yours is the best color for an IROC. I am sorry you didn't get yellow though with your heart set on it. I really really enjoyed reading the detail about the process. you were so lucky to experience watching your car be built. You did get the same exact car back right? Feel free to go into detail about the extras they did for your car. I sold mine after 1 year then got a 1957 chevy to reduce the insurance cost my dad had due to my mom wrecking 3 Chevettes in 3 years with her at fault. insurance was 5000 every 6 months I kid you not. the 1957 I bought has 70K miles on it all original with documentation 210 4 door, surf green with white top and splash.
08-09-2017, 12:35 PM
