Timing mark – harmonic balancer – engine 472

[Roger Zimmermann]

GENERAL MOTORS SUISSE S.A. BIENNE
→ Indicates that the car was assembled in Switzerland (CKD kit – "completely knocked down" from the USA, then assembled locally).

Sorry, but you are not interpreting the GM Suisse plate correctly. The release number, when a car was assembled in Switzerland had a number AFTER the word "Release". The plate you have is just an indication that the car was imported by GM Suisse, but not as a CKD. Just for your info: I worked there from 1970 to 1982.
All cars assembled at GMS hat a "Typenschein" number (the letters CH on the plate), this one was not typetested as the number of unit was too low. There was also a code for the paint and trim, as the materials for those applications were produced locally. The car you have had US paint and trim. Cars from GMS had their own VIN with "SS" as prefix (SS= Special Suisse); your car has the US VIN.
I'll post later a plate picture from a car asssembled at GMS.

[Ragnar]

Hi,

Hoi 
Merci fürs Schriibe – das isch mega spannend gsi. Mir hei au es 1969er Sixty Special, wo i de Zyt us Hamburg cho isch. Mi Mueter isch derbi gsi bim Abhole, zemme mit mim Vater und sim Schwiegervater. Drum glaub i, für sie het's grad eso gilt. 

Denn het's no es '55er und es '57er gha, aber über die weiss i nid so viel. Vom '55er han i nume Filmli und Föteli. 

Alli sind neu chauft und vo Kontinent us i d'Schwiiz importiert worde. 

No einisch merci – das isch für mi öppis Neus gsi und sehr interessant. 

Da es Bild vo minere Grossmueter vo dämol. 

Thank you for reaching out – that was very interesting. We also have a 1969 Sixty Special that was imported from Hamburg in 1969. My mother was there at the pickup together with my father and her father-in-law, so I suppose the same applies to her.

In addition, there were also a '55 and a '57 model, but I don't know much about those cars. I only have some film and photos from the '55.

All of them were bought new and imported from the Continent to Norway.

Thank you once again – this was news to me and very interesting.

Here's a picture of my grandmother back in the day.



Br
Ragnar

[Roger Zimmermann]

As promised, I'm coming back with the plates from GM Suisse. A man called Thomas Suter did an incredible book with hours and hours of researches about the US cars assembled in Bienne. As I wrote earlier, only 24 Cadillac cars were assembled in Bienne, from 1938 to 1940.



As you can see from those plates, all fields from the plate are stamped for vehicles assembled in Switzerland. The release number was probably assigned by the inventory control; I really don't know. COL (for paint) and TRIM are specific GM Suisse, you will not find those paint and trim codes in the GM US documentation. The VIN is also specific, using such a VIN to request infos at GM will give no result.
The cars assembled in Bienne had numeros items made in Switzerland like as mentioned, paint, cloth, vinyl, tires, glasses, batteries, and so on. To restore such a car as it went out the assembly paint is amost impossible, anyway, much more difficult as for a car assembled in the US.

By the way, it seems that you can speak/write Swiss German; my mother tongue is French; I can speak and read German, but not Swiss German.

[Ragnar]

I speak German, but I got some help from ChatGPT to write in Swiss German. I have a family in Zurich that we've known since the 1950s. My grandfather, through his business, and I, through having a Swiss au pair who lived with us and become a close friend.

So all the other GM cars that came to Europe were sold directly to the dealers, or did they go through GM Suisse?

[Roger Zimmermann]

So all the other GM cars that came to Europe were sold directly to the dealers, or did they go through GM Suisse?

For a long time, the cars for Switzerland went to a distribution center; if some modifications had to be performed to comply with the authorities, the changes were made at the distribution center. Later, (don't remember when), the vehicles arrived at the distribution center, those which were not yet ordered were stored outside until sold to dealers; the dealers performed the possible minor modifications, usually restricted to outside illumination.

[Ragnar]

Great, thx