Customer ordered COPO's?

[Dave Rifkin]

Can someone tell me whether or not the COPO cars (Camaro, Nova, Chevelles) were dealer ordered or did many customers walk into the dealership an spec out their car?

As a young boy I remember my father going into a dealership and picking out everything he wanted on the particular car he was buying. Today you buy off the lot; just wondering how the COPO cars were built.

[William]

From what is known most were likely ordered for dealer stock.

You may occasionally see discussions about "COPO body numbers." When a dealer ordered some Camaros for stock the orders were typically placed at the same time. When Central Office confirmed an order back to the dealer each vehicle order was assigned a confirmation number. When Chevy released an order for production Fisher Body punched the body tag with the confirmation number on it as the 'BDY' number. That's how a unit was tracked back to a specific order. So if a dealer ordered 6-8 COPO Camaros at the same time they typically have sequential BDY numbers; 222001, 222002 etc. If you have a car you suspect to be a COPO and there is a documented COPO with a very close BDY number, that's a strong indicator. Yenkos cars are like that as are those from other dealers.

However it isn't always true even for dealers that had a number of COPOs. If a dealer ordered 10 cars and for some reason 3 were not immediately confirmed, those 3 will not be in sequnce with the other 7. The 50 ZL-1 Camaros ordered by Fred Gibb Chev are not all in sequence; neither are those from Berger Chev.

To address the rest of the question some COPOs were individually ordered, for stock or a specific customer. Of the 19 non-Gibb ZL-1s 2 dealers ordered 2 each; the rest were individual orders. Those will have random BDY numbers, in sequence with whatever else the dealer happened to order that day.

The present body of COPO Camaro knowledge is based on maybe half of the total produced. I believe there is plenty left to learn.

[NovaMob03]

The answer is yes... they could be special ordered.
The orig owner of my car totaled his 428 Cobra Jet Mustang street racing and knew Bob Johnson thru the race circut. Bob convinced him to pre order 'one of the new 427 COPO Camaro's' rather than go back to a Ford.
So, Adrian ordered the RG color, 4 speed and no radio thru Bob, just like he wanted it [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/[/img]

[Born30YrsLate]

My car was dealer special ordered...by the owner's son who did the ordering of the Hi-Po cars...he thought the color combo was cool...

[Atuckman]

fred-
share some pics of that badboy

[PeteLeathersac]

Cool subject and info!
What of the same thing w/ '69 Yenko Camaros?
Also is there any truth to the story of initial '69 Copo program orders being acceptable in lots of 10 minimum?


[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img]
~ Pete

[William]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: PeteLeathersac</div><div class="ubbcode-body">What of the same thing w/ '69 Yenko Camaros? Also is there any truth to the story of initial '69 Copo program orders being acceptable in lots of 10 minimum?
</div></div>

Yenko Camaros have sequential BDY numbers. First group is roughly 202455-202505; second 219730-219850, third 352665-352675, fourth 107780-107790. I don't have all of the numbers so some of those are a swag. Most of Gibbs' ZL-1s are 222001-222043 but at least one of them is way off that group. ZL-1 #3 was the first ZL-1 Camaro ordered: 211785.

There may be some truth to an initial minimum group of 10 cars; COPOs technically were a fleet order. But 15 dealers ordered only 1 ZL-1 Camaro so L-72s may have been the same.

[Born30YrsLate]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Atuckman</div><div class="ubbcode-body">fred-
share some pics of that badboy </div></div>

Hey Adam...nothing too exciting at this point...shell in primer gray...

[Keith Tedford]

The COPO cars could be ordered like any other Chevelle IF you knew the COPO order codes. Most dealers didn't even know. We found out through a friend who worked in the GM Oshawa main office. Really no different than ordering an L78 car. Contrary to popular belief, you didn't need any special connections. I was just a little guy wanting the 427.

[Jeff Murphy]

My iron block car was the only one ordered out of its dealership (there was also a Chevelle). The paperwork I have confirms that the customer spec'd the car not the dealer. The sales manager was a racer so perhaps that's how they were in the know.