F-Body?

[stratman2SSRS]

I'm happy with F Body. Own 5 of them.

[meissen]

We don't say "FBodies & 5th Gens" we say "FBodies" and include 5th gens. Whether it's the true architecture or not, 5th gens get rolled into the FBody namesake.

[fbodfather]

Originally Posted by Rocky1974

GMX??!! Uh-Oh! Don't tell me that I'm going to find out that GM really took the F-Body back to it's original roots, the X-Body!
Actually, Opel is the stepdaughter of some American General from Detroit. Sometimes he claims her and sometimes he doesn't.
I'm afraid if we take this any further, we're going to find out just how much incest there is in the car business.
I think I'm going to retreat back to my original story. It's a F-Body and I know it is because The F-Bod Father said so.

Believe it or not, but the Camaro was not derived from the X-body....rather, the 1968 X-body benefitted greatly because of Camaro.....

This mis-conception, I believe, occurs because very early vehicle testing for the "Panther" was done on Chevy II Bodies - at Milford and the Desert Proving Grounds. The 'drive-train' and underpinings were melded to the first-gen Chevy II Bodies for early testing. There are pictures out there of these test vehicles......

The first generation F-car set itself apart from other cars (and the 1st gen Chevy II) by utilizing 'sub-frames' that were attached to the body using rubber 'biscuits' -- which gave the car a much quieter ride -- as well as a smoother ride. If you watch early 1967 Camaro Commercials, one of the messages to the public was that the Camaro rode and was quieter "...like cars in a 'higer price class'......"

... Ride in a stock 1967 Mustang and then in a 1967 Camaro and you'll hear and feel a decided difference.

Now: All together in Unison: "It's a Zeta II, it's a GMX-521 and GMX-511-- and it's an 'F-Car'....."

[fbodfather]

Originally Posted by meissen

My yearly car show is the Michigan FBody Meet & Greet car show... we have well over 300 FBodies attend. We don't call it the "Michigan FBody & 5th Gen Meet & Greet Car Show"

Correct!

[lbls1]

Guys and ladies; The F-Platform ran from 1967 to 2002. Please take note of this fact. Its nice that GM dedicated the Zeta platform to the "F-Bodies", but for factual information its beneficial to consider the correct name(s) and lifespan of the F-Platform, or its common title of "F-Body"(ies).

[MYDLIFECRISIS]

Now: All together in Unison: "It's a Zeta II, it's a GMX-521 and GMX-511-- and it's an 'F-Car'....."

Love it Scott!

[Sesiom Summers]

Originally Posted by fbodfather

this issue comes up with regularity.

Thru much of the 20th century, the various 'platforms' at GM were identified by Letters -- Impala, Catalina, LeSabre, 88 were "B" Bodies - Electra, DeVille, 98 were "C" Bodies........there were variations - for instance in the 70s - a Chevelle was an "A" Body - yet a Monte Carlo was an "A-Special" body......

Nova, Omega, Ventura, and Apollo were "X" Bodies (in the late 60s and early 70s ...by the way - did any of you ever notice what happens when you take the first letters of those four car lines and combine them.................................??)

(....things that make you go 'hmmmmmmm'........)

Camaro and Firebird were 'F' bodies.

When the U.S. Government passed the latest standardized VIN system (...started in 1980...) the 'body' was included in the VIN. (it had been before - but in numerals versus letters in the 60s and prior years...)

We have since gone to the greek alphabet......making things even more complicated - there are "GMX xxx" for cars and "GMT xxx" for trucks....the current Camaro is a GMX521 and GMX511...........

...........THAT SAID..............go look at your VIN. There's an "F" there.

1st position (of the VIN) represents the country in which the vehicle was built - 1 is U.S. 2 is Canada 3 is Mexico - etc.............

2nd position represents the manufacturer - "G" is for General Motors.

3rd position is 'Division' 1 is Chevy.

4th position is "vehicle line" (that would be "F" on a Camaro..........!!!)

(and 5th is 'series' -- that's what separates an LS from an LT from an SS from a ZL1.....)





It's an "F" body using the old nomenclature.

If someone sez it isn't an Fbody - tell them to come see me.

I object!!!! (always wanted to say that in a conversation XD)

I think that F in the bin code is just for historical reasons, or may chevy is trolling us... but this car CAN'T be called f body!

[rich3fan]

Gonna call mine an SS...

[102SS]

This thread doesn't want to die

If your from the higher class wine and cheese crowd the GMX blah blah blah may be your cup of tea.

But for a redneck like me F Body does just fine(too bad I can't grow a mullet,I am follically challenged )

[silverds]

The 5th Gen Camaro is an F-Body like Elton John and Richard Branson are Knights.

[Rocky1974]

Originally Posted by fbodfather

Believe it or not, but the Camaro was not derived from the X-body....rather, the 1968 X-body benefitted greatly because of Camaro.....

This mis-conception, I believe, occurs because very early vehicle testing for the "Panther" was done on Chevy II Bodies - at Milford and the Desert Proving Grounds. The 'drive-train' and underpinings were melded to the first-gen Chevy II Bodies for early testing. There are pictures out there of these test vehicles......

The first generation F-car set itself apart from other cars (and the 1st gen Chevy II) by utilizing 'sub-frames' that were attached to the body using rubber 'biscuits' -- which gave the car a much quieter ride -- as well as a smoother ride. If you watch early 1967 Camaro Commercials, one of the messages to the public was that the Camaro rode and was quieter "...like cars in a 'higer price class'......"

... Ride in a stock 1967 Mustang and then in a 1967 Camaro and you'll hear and feel a decided difference.

Now: All together in Unison: "It's a Zeta II, it's a GMX-521 and GMX-511-- and it's an 'F-Car'....."

I read somewhere that the development of the 3rd Gen(1968) X-body was already under way when the F-Body was given the green light and in order to save development time and get their Mustang fighter out quicker, they started with that platform and developed the Camaro from it. It may not be true, but that's where my "Camaro from X-body" comments came from. But I agree with you 100% about the early Camaros being in a class above the early Mustangs. The Mustangs were really glorified Falcons. They looked cool, but that was about it. Really at that time almost all of GM's stuff was a cut above everybody else's. GM was the only one putting full perimeter frames under midsize cars. At Chrysler everything was uni-body and Ford only put frames under their full size cars. Back in those days, uni-body's were not what they are now. They were pretty flimsy. If you didn't have a frame, you had a flimsy car. I owned a Mustang in the late 60's after owning a Falcon. My bubble burst the first time I went to change the oil in the Mustang. I had to roll out and make sure I was under the right car. It looked exactly like the Falcon, from the bottom! When I checked out the under carriage of a Camaro, I thought "Now this is more like it!" I guess that's when I became a GM guy and I've been one ever since.

[Rocky1974]

Originally Posted by 102SS

This thread doesn't want to die

If your from the higher class wine and cheese crowd the GMX blah blah blah may be your cup of tea.

But for a redneck like me F Body does just fine(too bad I can't grow a mullet,I am follically challenged )

I know exactly what you mean. I almost got the drift a few times that some people just didn't want to admit that this car is a F-Body. Like they thought that F-Body would be demeaning or something. This car is definitely a cut above the older ones, but if I felt that F-Body was demeaning also, I'd think that Camaro was demeaning also. Us hillbillies grew up on F-Body's and were proud of them!

[AZCamaroFan]

Originally Posted by fbodfather

... Ride in a stock 1967 Mustang and then in a 1967 Camaro and you'll hear and feel a decided difference.

my first car was a 68' Camaro and my brother's was a 68' mustange. not only can i attest to the ride and handling difference....my brother can LOL

[Jose]

So, if you have an X body with the F on the 4th position and your car is a Zeta divided by the Omega and substract the Alpha by replacing the F by a Z and then having the 11th character divided by the 1969 3rd digit of the VIN number for the Camaro and then continue to page 9 pargraph 3 sentence 4 that mentions the conversion of the Z by 9.2 divided by 34.5% with a temperature of 102degrees and a 34% of relative humidity, then add the ZL1 3rd character and have that taken out of the 3rd VIN number forthe 1977 Camaro, the result is a Camaro SS. Nooooooow I get it, it was not so difficult.