Factory photos!
Norwood, Outside, 1986
CPC Van Nuys, January 1992
3rd Annual USCC Grand Nationals, Norwood Ohio, 6-20-87

I've seen lots of enthusiasm on this board whenever factory photos are posted. There's nothing like seeing our cars brand spankin' new in a big empty parking lot, or being pulled through the assembly line. I hope this post puts some smiles on some faces. It sure did on mine.

Well, it must've been around 2003 when David M snail-mailed me some extraordinary photos he wanted to share. I still have the empty envelope somewhere with the date on it. He didn't have a scanner back then, and I did, so he told me I could scan these and post them online. I scanned them right away, but I never got around to posting them, until now. From what I understand, this is just the tip of the iceberg of what he has in his collection, so if we're lucky we'll get more in the future. I'm willing to scan in everything you have, David. For now, this is a really awesome start for all of us!

You'll notice that all Camaros with ground effects are missing their front ground effects piece. That's the only way they could climb onto the carhaulers without damaging the body. Other Camaros have taillights hanging out, and other weird anomalies. I also remember that the 10 red IROC's on the USCC car hauler were going to be sold new in Canada. Bummer for those of us in the U.S.A.!

I don't have full descriptions of most of the pictures. For example, there is some kind of ceremony/celebration going on at Norwood with a freshly-built red IROC as workers and visitors look on. These events will be pieced together by David M and by others as time goes by.

I used PNG so as to not lose any quality beyond what the scanner may have lost. I sure hope all these pics work. If not, I will re-post them. If an admin or moderator wants the full size pics for permanent hosting, they are slightly bigger than what you see here, and I can send them.

Thank you David M for saving these awesome photos and letting the world see them. There's nothing else like it

 

Norwood, Outside, 1986

 

Norwood, Outside, 1986

 

Nice, more pics to add to my collection! Thanks kizz and David M

My favorite by far! 3 JY hardtop TAs!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Norwood, Outside, 1986

 

Norwood, Outside, 1986

 

Norwood, Outside, 1986

 

Norwood, Outside, 1986

 

3rd Annual USCC Grand Nationals, Norwood Ohio, 6-20-87

 

CPC Van Nuys, January 1992

 

CPC Van Nuys, January 1992

 

CPC Van Nuys, January 1992

 

CPC Van Nuys, January 1992


that is all for now. Thanks to David M

 

Thanks for the pics!

 

Hows this for a challenge...find your own car in these photos. Might be impossible but you never know. Great collection of photos.

 

Very nice!
Thanks to both of you for sharing with us all!

George

 

Your pictures has confirmed something I have tried to pin down for a long time. The signs showing "Chevrolet Pontiac Canada Group" (CPC). I have a 91 TA convertible I acquired from an Atlanta dealer that has 2 underhood decals identifying it as a CPC Test and Development Vehicle". Now at least I know what CPC stands for! Communication to GM Pontiac over 15 years ago provided no clue.

Thanks!

 

I almost thought that one of the JY cars in the one pic was mine but realized that the pic was taken in Jan 92 and my car was buiilt in Aug 91.

 

I just know that this is my car!!! Even though my car came from Van Nuys and this was taken in Ohio! It looks like it so it must be.

 

I agree with your sarcasm, but you gotta admit, they made so *few* JY92TA's, that the chances of one of those 3 being his are actually within reason, if it weren't for the date discrepancy. How many JY92TA's did they make.. a dozen, give or take? That would be a 25% chance. But we'll never know because there're no exterior clues to distinguish one car from the next. The photographer couldn't have gotten VIN's either, since they're obviously outside some fence. If David M knows, I'm sure he'll post.

 

Problem is that at least 2 of those JY cars have Gold wheels, can't see the 3rd wheels, mine has black crosslace, but that would have been an awesome discovery if the date was right!

 

Wow. That's sweet. Thanks for the pics!

 

Could someone explain to my why it has CANADA GROUP on the sign when they were made in California?

I do not understand, honestly, its bizarre to me...

John

 

my idea of heaven

 

If you want to send me the pictures, we can host them so they don't get "lost". I can give you an FTP account on my host, where you can upload them, so that I can grab them and then move them to the ThirdGen server. Probably easier than trying to do it via email.

If I can assist David M with any more pictures and/or material that he has, please let me know.

Thanks.

 

Talk about some sweet pictures. I love the trailer with the red IROCs on it lol. I love owning one of the last F-Bodies that are actually American-made.

 

great photos, thanks for posting!

 

AMAZING!!! I cant believe how beautiful those pics are! I really like the Yellow Roc with the T-Tops... it just stands out. Now i want to go out and buy at least 5 more Rocs so my parking lot can look like that factory. hahaha

 

Don't take my statements as arrogant sarcasm. I'm just joking about the fact that the car looks like mine. I could tell people it is mine in the picture and they wouldn't know. I wouldn't do that, but wouldn't that be cool? LeonardS is the only one that has pictures of his car at the plant and knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that the car in the pictures is his.

 

kizz is uploading the full versions to my server, and I grabbed the original scan of the picture you were referring to.


To me, it looks pretty conclusive that the 3rd JY has the gold wheels.

I see 3 red TA convertibles with gold wheels, which I have one. However, mine was built later in the year. So my story is like yours. Close, but not the right time.

 

Awesome! Thanks for posting these! If there were any pics of Van Nuys 1986 there would be a chance of finding mine, a very small chance.

 

Great pics! Indeed it put a smile on my face!

 

Very cool! Thanks for posting these.

 

Personally I am just blown away at the fact that there are 3 hardtop JY TAs there! I have never seen another one besides mine, but I guess some of them could also have been GTAs, hmmm. Where are these cars now?

I can't get over these pics, thanks to good people like Kizz and DavidM for putting a smile on many peoples' faces.

 

Thanks for these pictures! One thing that amazes me about these cars though - they look very modern and contemporary in those old images. Heck they still look modern and cutting-edge on the streets today!

 

It's so beautiful.

 

Wow... what would be really cool is to get those put together with statements about what is what and where is where on a slideshow on like photobucket or something where we could go and download it... those pictures are really freakin cool and thank you very much for sharing those!

 

Actually those are on Photobucket, if you click on one of the images it takes you to the photobucket site for kizz and you can get the full size versions.

 

wow.... if i don't honestly feel like the biggest retard on this site right now.......
thank you so much for making me feel like a dumba$$ LOL

Thanks

 

The *full* full size versions are in JT's possession now and are generally speaking about 2300 pixels wide. Photobucket limits the dimensions of a free account (like mine) to 1024 pixels wide which is what you see on this thread. I don't know where JT will publish the big ones, but I trust his judgement.

I had *exactly* that same idea. It would be great. No pressure, David! David M is the one who knows the details behind all these pics. I was just lucky enough to be the recipient of the pics way back when he needed someone to scan them into a computer. I think we could build a small website showing all the pics with captions of David's comments under each pic, giving us the lowdown.

In particular, did anyone notice the next-to-last pic? That black Firebird on the bottom row of the car hauler has a very bizarre rear hatch. I haven't seen anything else like it. It's not even glass, but some opaque material with u-bolts or pipes sticking out of it. I would love to know what that is. He may have explained it to me back then, but if so, I don't remember it.

BTW the files are dated 8-17-2002 so that is right around when I received them and scanned them in.

 

It could be a area of the plant for the Canadian market. Cars for Canada and USA, have different options and safety laws...1989 and newer cars and trucks in Canada have Day Time Driving Lights, Block heaters, and more for the cold climate...

 

Sorry, Awesome pictures by the way, Thanks for posting for everyone to see..

 

simply amazing.

 

thanks for sharing, I really love seeing these old pics puts a huge smile on my face.

 

pretty coll one of them white ones could be mine 87 irocz

 

I wonder if that car was being shipped to ASC for conversion into a convertible. The metal roof panel doesn't look like it was painted or finished very well and it appears there is something on the roof to cover the T-Top openings. Why ship them a car with the rear glass hatch and T-top hatches when its all going to be cut off anyway?

 

Looks like there are roof panels there. I agree about the hatch. Probably a good guess as to whats going on there. Anyone notice yet another JY car behind it?

 

If you look closely, it sticks out way too far from the body to be a T-Top panel and doesn't have quite the right shape either. There is also another lifting hook on the roof of the car.

I just noticed that the Firebird ahead of the white T/A on the top of the transport trailer also looks like it has the same goofy rear hatch cover. Maybe all those cars were getting shipped to ASC to be turned into convertables!

 

This is great! What's more awesome is the tons of red 87 IROC-Z's! (I wonder if those were all 350's)

 

I bet ya that last pic on the trailer are all cars goint to ASC for vert conversions, that means that JY TA on the lower level is one of the JY TA verts!