Answers to why you may have the wrong broadsheet in your car AND why some 1970 cars broadsheet sheets were printed on 1969 model year paper.
By Roger L. Wilson
This is a follow-up article concerning 1970 cars with broadcast sheets printed on 1969 paper. While at the WW/NBOA National Meet in Topeka this last July 2001, I was able to talk with Richard Bolzenius of Missouri who has worked the last 25 years in a Chrysler assembly plant. During those years one of his jobs was putting upholstery on rear seat frames.
My first question to Richard concerned the incorrect 1969 broadcast sheet paper found in some 1970 cars. Richard said there were a number of computer printers that printed out broadcast sheets for different stations along the assembly line. As in all assembly lines, time is very important, so the person who loaded new paper into the printer probably didn't take time to read the box or look at a blank sheet to make sure it was the correct model year paper. Also keep in mind the '69 and '70 broadcast sheet paper looked very similar in style and color. Richard also related that this paper came in big boxes. It would have been very easy for a box of last year's paper to accidentally get left behind and then was surrounded by new boxes of 1970 pepr so that as the boxes were used, the 1969 paper would eventually be opened and fed into the printers. As an assembly line worker, Richard said he would not look over each sheet for his job to see if it was the correct year paper. Instead, he just focused on the specific location on the sheet for the specific code needed for his job, installing the correct color and style of upholstery on the rear metal seat frame.
Now to the question as to why some cars and broadcast sheets didn't match up to that specific car. To understand this, one needs to know how the assembly line process worked. The procedure went as follows: as the metal seat frame came down the line, Richard would put a piece of foam on the frame, grab the broadcast sheet to look for only the interior upholstery code, then place the sheet on top of the foam pad, grab the correct color and style of upholstery and stall and hog ring it on the frame in 60 seconds. Then this procedure would be repeated many times throughout his shift. Richard said if the broadcast sheet accidentally fell on the floor it was not retrieved (explaining why some don't have broadcast sheets in their cars) and was not replaced onto the seat frame as time and speed was of the essence on the line. Note: one must also consider if they don't find a broadcast sheet in their car that mice or other rodents may have used it for nesting material during the 30 some years of the car's life.
When I asked why some find in their cars the buildsheets to another car, Richard had that answer, too. He said that during the final quality control period, before the car left the factory, it may have been found with a defect or damage in the upholstery, so another seat with the same color and style of upholstery would be pulled off the line to replace the defective or damage piece. Since the original article was published on this issue several people have written me saying they found in their car a blank broadcast sheet with only the interior code written in black crayon. Richard assured me that this definitely indicated it was a repair job where the seat was replaced as part of quality control measures at the plant before the car left for shipment.
What about those broadcast sheets that are found in your car and are for another car with a different build date of several days difference? Richard noted the answer to this problem is simple. It is due to the fact that the quality control person may have found a "bad" seat as the car was headed for a holding area (parking lot), before the cars were loaded for shipment to the dealers. In that case, the car was "tagged" and moved to another location for repair. If this was near the weekend, that repair of a new seat may not occur until sometime the following week. The "repair" could consist of grabbing a correct color and style of seat off the asembly line and installing it in the car that was waiting to be shipped out.
I hope this helps in understanding why one may not have the correct broadcast sheet or none at all in their cars and how this could have happened. It helped me to understand why my 1970 Sports Satellite had a broadcast sheet for a 1970 Roadrunner (it had the same color and style of interior as my car).
I would like to thank member Richard Bolzenius for taking the time to answer my questions about this topic.