89-91 Blazer & Jimmy V/R VIN sequence?

[Irish1941]

This is a complete shot in the dark.
Are the VINs in order as they came off the line?
Last five of mine are 28650. Last yr for Jimmy they made 3025 or so for all world markets.
Now I have a thing I do when it comes to guesstimating a date on a truck.
Pull out ashtray and look on bottom. There is a month and yr stamped in it. If truck is original, almost safe to say it was built within a month or two of the date.
Problem is my new to me '91 Jimmy has a date of 05/91 on the ashtray. That means truck was built after June of 1991.
GMT400 for 1992 would have been headed to the dealer lots by then for fall sales.
Don't its rare or anything. Just curious where it falls in the line.
Wonder what model & when the last Jimmy rolled off the line.
Think I have too much time on my hands...

[Keith Seymore]

Not always.

Some plants have an accumulator, or body bank, between the cab shop and paint, and then another between paint and trim. This allows for shuffling the vehicles before descending to the final line in order to balance the workload (ie, can't have too many A/C jobs in a row, can't have too many manual trans vehicles in a row, can't have too many cab running light vehicles in a row, etc) or to keep the final line running in the event of a breakdown upstream.

Plants such as Baltimore and Fremont did not have any accumulators and built straight through. Those vehicles would be in VIN order, except that they built multiple nameplates (Buicks had one prefix and sequence, Olds had another, and Chevy had another).

Plants like the home plant in Pontiac Michigan and in Flint, where your vehicle was built, have the body banks and so vehicles can be shuffled. Additionally, Flint built both Chevrolet and GMC nameplates, which had separate VIN sequence numbers (Chevy started with 100001, GMC started with 500001).

So - no. There will be a global trend of VIN sequence numbers within those various families but you would not be able to tell with certainty if a specific vehicle came off the line immediately before another.

K

[Keith Seymore]

Also - depending on how badly you want to know -

You can send your VIN (and $50) to the GM Heritage Center and they will return to you the build invoice for your specific truck, including RPO content, pricing, build date, and selling dealership.

http://www.gmmediaarchive.com/?page=1

The document will look like this:

K

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Irish1941

Problem is my new to me '91 Jimmy has a date of 05/91 on the ashtray. That means truck was built after June of 1991.
GMT400 for 1992 would have been headed to the dealer lots by then for fall sales.

That's not really an issue from a build standpoint, since the carryover product was being built in Flint and the new GMT400 was being built in Pontiac (on Opdyke Rd).

That's why there was a gradual rollout to the new product: full size truck has too much volume, too many assembly plants and too many model variants to do all at once.

K

[Irish1941]

Again, Keith thanks. That quite the load of info.
Learned a lot today.
I have gotten the heritage packages before. Not sure if this truck warrants that.
I do know it was first reg'd in September of 91.
Did fed government contract trucks & cars go thru a dealer or were they right from factory?

[Zook75]

In 91 they did a total production run of 7332 for both the Blazer and the Jimmy. Your saying 3025 was Jimmy's? I would of guessed Blazers would of had a much smaller % of the total built.

I just picked up a 91 Jimmy in mint original condition, don't even have it to look under the ash tray yet.

[Irish1941]

No, I'm saying GM built 7332 Blazer AND 3026 Jimmy for all markets.
Not combined production.
GMC was always a smaller number than Chevy
1991 Jimmy is a very rare truck these days.
Near as I can guesstimate it was SLE 80% and SLX 20% production. Find a '91 Jimmy with a 6.2 and you got a unicorn.
Go on your local craigslist and do a search for Blazer vs Jimmy. Here in LA, about 1 Jimmy to every 30 Blazers.

[Zook75]

Originally Posted by Irish1941

No, I'm saying GM built 7332 Blazer AND 3026 Jimmy for all markets.
Not combined production.
GMC was always a smaller number than Chevy
1991 Jimmy is a very rare truck these days.
Near as I can guesstimate it was SLE 80% and SLX 20% production. Find a '91 Jimmy with a 6.2 and you got a unicorn.
Go on your local craigslist and do a search for Blazer vs Jimmy. Here in LA, about 1 Jimmy to every 30 Blazers.

Ok thanks for that info. I guess I got the 80% SLE. what was the difference between that one and the SLX?
I'm still waiting on mine to be delivered but from the pics I've gotten it looks to be in pretty nice shape.
Also was the rally wheels standard or was the aluminum ones with the holes in them standard?

[Irish1941]

Wow..nice one!
Always liked the color combo. Looks to be very original.
SLX was just the plain version. No side or bumper moldings.
Rubber mats instead of carpet, non reclining vinyl seats. No center console or headliner. Vinyl sunvisors. No rear bedside upholstery panels.
Crank windows on door but power tailgate was standard. AC was optional in SLX but standard in SLE.
SLX also had single headlamps vs the quad lamp you have.
Few other things but you get the idea. The SLX was what gov agencies ended up with.
Drivetrain wise they were exactly the same.
350TBI/4L60/241 t-case.
I got a '91 SLX for just the fact I wanted no options to deal with and something that can get dirty & not worry about it.

Standard wheel was 15x6 with full hubcaps
RPO N90 was 15x7 aluminum and RPO N67 were the 15x8 rally & were both optional on SLE.

Oh I remember that truck being for sale. It was in WI or something like that.
Had a roll bar and dual exhaust on it if I recall correctly.

[Zook75]

Originally Posted by Irish1941

Wow..nice one!
Always liked the color combo. Looks to be very original.

Oh I remember that truck being for sale. It was in WI or something like that.
Had a roll bar and dual exhaust on it if I recall correctly.

Yes it was on E bay until I made a deal on it. Low miles and very well kept. Its now in Mississippi on the back of a broke down Dodge. Grrrr.

I would have rather it had the Alum dish wheels but I'll leave it the way it is. only plan on adding 33" tires and calling it a day.

The roll bar was added aftermarket and may have to come out, not sure why they would put it up front like that. I had a 79 that had the bar in the back.
I'm looking for a daily driver and hope its not so nice and I won't want to drive it. lol.

[Ski-me]

Nice, clean rig. Can't wait to see some more pics. Also interested how the roll bar was done and the amount of interference there may or may not be.

Any rust underside?

[Zook75]

Originally Posted by Ski-me

Nice, clean rig. Can't wait to see some more pics. Also interested how the roll bar was done and the amount of interference there may or may not be.

Any rust underside?

I just got the Jimmy this past Sunday. after going threw it top to bottom its very clean. From the paperwork I've gotten with it, it has only had 8,800 miles put on it in the last 14 years, and only 1,100 since the transmission was rebuilt. very solid.
The roll bar is not in the way but I can't for the life of me figure out why they had it installed, and the ONLY rust on the entire truck is at the mounting points of the roll bar up front. So at some point when the top comes off the bar will come out.