Purple metallic ls1 fbody number 1 out of 74
 

I know the person very well who has the number 1 out 74 ls1 purple metallic z28 f body Camaro’s

In '98 (the only year LS1 Camaros had 88U Bright Purple Metallic available) a total of 107 Z28 coupes and 18 Z28 'verts were built w/ 88U (none of these were SSs as BPM was N/A on SSs). Since Z28 were not numbered in any way (other than by the VIN), just curious how this person knows this is #1 (implying the first one built before any others) of whatever number they think they have? If going by the VIN, they would need the VIN# of every other Z28 built w/ 88U to know that the one they have is #1. Not too likely IMO.

Here's a funny addition to that. A few years back, I bought a 99. that was originally painted that color, then was repainted at the factory to Red. I when ran the VIN at work and it showed red. But there was overspray through out the entire cars inner panels where you can see it was purple. So either they changed their minds at the last second to only keep it one year or the body was sitting in the curing area for awhile.

My '98 is also "factory weird" in a similar way. The SPID and GM VIS report of the VIN both clearly indicate that the car was designated 13U Sebring Silver Metallic, which is also what is listed on the original window sticker. There is no question that this is an original factory silver car. BUT, much like you have mentioned above, inner panels clearly show the hint of red paint under the silver. So it was resprayed on the assembly line for whatever reason.

I'm speculating that cars like you two describe didn't pass QA when they came out of the paint shop and were reworked and re-painted before continuing down the assembly line. WRT SAPPER's '99 w/ BPM under the red, this rework / repaint may have coincided w/ the MY transition between '98 and '99 production. I don't think the bodies get the VIN plate installed until either the dash goes in or just before the windshield is installed.

Out of curiosity, where does the VIN of your car fall in the production year? GM Assembly Plants were shut down late in the 1998 production year by a strike. Could a lack of parts availability have allowed some cars to be built and not others? The body was painted early in build process and if the parts weren't available to complete that specific order, could the body have been repainted and reassigned to an order that parts were available for? The replacement of assembly line workers with management employees may also play a part. People doing jobs they are unaccustomed to usually leads to confusion and chaos. Be interesting to know why this happened.

This car was built on 3/23/98.

I would tend to agree with your line of thinking, because if it was a QC problem with the first (red) color then why not just paint it that color again rather than change the color to something else? So perhaps it had to to with fulfilling backorders (in this case a dealer order), or some other confusion on the assembly line.

I've owned this car for 18 years, and I've always wondered about this. I knew the original owner, bought the car directly from him, so I know the whole history and have every piece of paperwork from original delivery to everything accumulated by the original owner, including even the first gas receipt. Nothing is strange nor out of the ordinary regarding the original paperwork or delivery records of the car (again, it was just a dealer inventory order, bought off the lot, not a special customer order).

But the fact remains, anywhere throughout the primary structure where the paint is thin (such as behind interior panels, deep sections of the engine bay, etc.) there is a hint of red paint under the factory-assigned Sebring Sliver. This is not present on the doors, hood, fenders, or bumper covers - just the unibody structure. I actually noticed it while I was inspecting the engine bay the day I bought the car, and thought it was an interesting factory oddity as the car was obviously all original and had been assigned silver by the factory. Since that time I've checked every other 4th gen I've seen for signs of this "factory color change", and mine is the only one I've ever found - though I guess it would be harder to see if the color underneath was white or silver when the car ended up being black or something such as this. SAPPER's mention, above, of once buying a 4th gen like this is the only other time I've heard of such.

I've been told my 1998 Brickyard Camaro SS was barely done in time for the August 1 race and was one of the last 98's built. What I don't know is if they were talking all Camaros or just the SS'. The production date was 6/08/1998 and the sequence of the VIN is in the 2151XXX range. I don't remember seeing a sequence number higher than 2152XXX in 1998.

FWIW, my sequence number is 2137307, which translates to the 3/23/98 date I mentioned above.

Many years ago I was tracking build date information specifically for 1998 F-bodies (though I encountered many more Camaros than Firebirds) in an attempt to pinpoint the date at which GM stopped applying the epoxy primer to the underside of the roof panels (thus resulting in the infamous "bubbling roof" problem which plagues all 1999-2002 F-bodies, and some of the late '98 cars). I've lost some of the records over the years, but I did encounter a couple Camaros built in 06/98 (though the ones I remember were Z28 and V6 cars, not SSs). I do not have sequence number data for these at this point but, incidentally, I did discover that the cutoff for the proper roof prep occurred sometime during the month of May (with earlier cars not being affected by the problem). Wish I could give you more info on exact build dates or VINs for the June cars I saw.

No problem, just trivia type information really. I did find after I last posted that the Camaro White Book lists the last VIN in 1998 was 2G1FP32G7W2154013 and Robert Casey's book, All 1998-2002 Chevrolet Camaro Colors, Codes and Quantities, shows there were 3893 Camaros built in June and 0 in July.

Haha, thanks for pointing this out! I have this book too, I bought it almost immediately after it was released and I've looked at it many times, but somehow I never noticed the production totals by month listed in the back. More trivia type stuff, but still very interesting and now I know it's there! :)

There was a shortage of T56 transmissions in the spring of '98, which may help explain why some bodies were "repurposed" for another order for an A4 car to keep the line moving. My T/A was also built very close to the end of the '98 MY production (ASC# 3030 of a total of 3086 WS6s, converted the 2nd to last day of ASC's '98 conversions), likely due to the T56 trans delays.