Vehicle Order Number (AKA: J-number) Help

[Y07Roadrunner]

Hoping the Wing-car community can help with a question: Of the 1935 or so Superbirds assembled, how do you determine what number your car was in the production sequence? I read in Geoff Stunkard's Plymouth Superbird book that Chrysler "reserved" the Vehicle Order Numbers from J97000-J99000 for these cars. Therefore if you subtract the J-number of a specific car (in my case J98089) from 97000 you get the approximate sequence number for your car (in my case 1089 of the 1935). So is this correct and, more importantly, accurate?

I've searched for this info everywhere I can think of. How do I get an idea of where my car falls in the sequence of all Superbird production??

TIA !!!

 

[dadsbee]

http://brcook.com/id17.html

 

[Y07Roadrunner]

http://brcook.com/id17.html

Thank you!

 

[SbirdSteve]

Hoping the Wing-car community can help with a question: Of the 1935 or so Superbirds assembled, how do you determine what number your car was in the production sequence? I read in Geoff Stunkard's Plymouth Superbird book that Chrysler "reserved" the Vehicle Order Numbers from J97000-J99000 for these cars. Therefore if you subtract the J-number of a specific car (in my case J98089) from 97000 you get the approximate sequence number for your car (in my case 1089 of the 1935). So is this correct and, more importantly, accurate?

I've searched for this info everywhere I can think of. How do I get an idea of where my car falls in the sequence of all Superbird production??

TIA !!!

You have at least 4 ways to say which number your car is. You can "sort" the cars in order of:
1) VON
2) VIN
3) Arrival for nose/wing modifications
4) Completion of modifications.

The VON or J number is probably the best way even though the Petty Blue cars make that a little inaccurate. Your car would be the "1090th non Petty Blue Superbird based on VON", not 1089. J97000 is car #1, so 98089 - 97000 + 1.

The VIN list (link earlier in this thread) is based on what I refer to as the "NASCAR 1920" list. I put all VINs from that list into a Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet, then sorted by VIN to know my cars ranking. Obviously you have the VIN sequence as an alternative to the VON. But the 1920 list also has the received and shipped date from the factory that did the modifications. Cars with higher VINs could have been modified before cars with lower VINs (such as the first car in the list).

We know that the "1920" VIN list is missing some cars, so going by VIN is not accurate. Plus, a VIN could be assigned, but the car production delayed because of scheduling. If the 8-track stereos are running late, don't start building the car. A common delay is paint damage that results in the car pulled off the assembly line to be repaired (call it a penalty box).

Yeah... no easy way for numbering a Superbird.