Canuck Posted June 13, 2013 Share Posted June 13, 2013 I got my 70 Monte back in 1996. The car had 47,000 miles on it and was completely original. It was a one owner car until 1996. No modifications at all. Original plug wires, points distributor, original decals and tags, etc. The car had the colour keyed hubcaps on the car when I got it yet the build sheet says rally wheels. After I learned more history about the car, I suspected the dealer put the hubcaps on when they sold it. The car was a customer order but the guy who ordered it did not want to wait for it to arrive so he purchased the one from the showroom instead. After finding out this knowledge, I suspect that the car was simply part of inventory waiting for the right buyer to come along. I'm guessing that the buyer wanted the hub caps instead of rallys so the centre caps and rings were removed and hub caps were installed over the rally rims. Seems plausible but I'll never know for sure. Just today I was looking closely at my build sheet which I have not looked at in detail for some time. It says "B85 BELT REVEAL M" but my car has the standard style belt molding. For years I always thought this might just be the code for the standard style belt molding but I decided to look it up today. I was surprised to find out that the code is for the optional wide belt molding. When I removed the belt molding from the Monte for the first time in 2000 it really seemed like it was the first time it was ever removed. It did not appear to have been swapped from another car at some point and given the fact that nothing appeared to be tampered with on the car, it seemed odd that anything like this would have been changed. Do you guys know if something like this could have been swapped at the dealer? Could the dealer have pulled them off the car to sell as an "extra" on another Monte on their lot and make a few extra $$$? No matter what the answer is... it is going to bug me that my car is no longer like the build sheet reads. I'll be looking for a set of these now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
montefrazer Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 Lot of trouble for a dealer to go through when he could just order the wider molding and not take a chance on messing up one or two cars doing a swap. This was most likely one of those "OOPS" moments on the assembly line. Can't be 100% sure about what happened 40+ years ago. Your guess about the color key caps sounds plausible since they were over rally wheels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canuck Posted June 18, 2013 Author Share Posted June 18, 2013 You might be right. The ones on the door are not too hard to swap but the ones on the quarter are a little more work since the back seat has to come out. It does seem unlikely that a dealer would swap those. We'll never know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvssmail Posted June 18, 2013 Share Posted June 18, 2013 Dealers change parts on cars all the time. Its common practice, when I purchased my Jeep a few years back they switched the wheels with another jeep on the lot that I liked better. I even know of a dealer that switched out a whole cloth interior for a leather one to make the sale. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leghome Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 We had an Olds dealer who swapped convertible tops because the lady wanted a red car with a white top. Both tops leaked and they never did get them fixed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jared Richey Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 But like said it would have been easier to just install the parts from the over the counter parts, instead of totally take apart to interiors in to brand new cars. I'm going to say an oops on the assembly line. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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