I'm looking for some information regarding the first generation Firebird, so what better place to come than this site? I am aware of the fact that both the Firebird and Camaro's new 1970-1/2 body style was not introduced until February 1970, and that the model year reference for the earlier generation 1969-style cars was removed from dealer literature and other records. Some of the earlier-style cars were sold in the interim. The "Camaro People" have evidence of some of the earlier-style cars being sold and registered as 1970s. My question is, did the same thing happen with Firebirds? Are there any 1970 Firebirds out there that appear to be 1969s? If so, do we know how many? As a member of the Society of Automotive Historians, i believe it's important to be able to speak with authority and accuracy regarding our vast automotive history.What I'm looking for here is some sort of documentation or first-hand knowledge of this issue. There are a lot of stories and opinions out there - and all of them are interesting and have value, but facts are stubborn things. You folks are the experts. What can you tell me? Thank you.

The story I've head is production was delayed on the 70 models( most likely from the auto workers strike in 69) and GM was preparing to re-invent the 69 model with a few suttle changes and sell it as a 70 model car. I heard somewhere they had even printed some brochures promoting the release but evidently they got their [censored] together and tooled up the design(albeit somewhat late). I'm not sure when the first 70s reachd the dealers but I think it was around May or June, hence the 70 1/2 monicker. Mike Noun would be the one to ask. He seems to have a good working knowledge of the timeline. I heard a lot of stories in the last 37 years that I have owned my 69 but have never heard of one registered as a 70 model year.
There's also a kid out in Fresno, California, who's attempting to sell his 69 on eBay, that seems to have his own take on what Pontiac did with the 69s around that time. But then it may be that he is insane too.

I thought the delay of the new '70's had to do with die stamping problems with the rear quarter panels for the 2nd gen F-bodies. They were not working and the stampings were cracking. It took them a while to work it out.

Found that info at the Camaro Research Group Site:

Q: When were the first-generation models built?

A: First generation Camaros were built from the 1967 model year (starting with August 1966 production for the September 1966 model launch) through the 1969 model year. Note that the 1969 model year was an unusual one for Camaro, since it extended through November 1969, several months beyond the conventional end of model year.

The extended 69 production and the delay of introduction of the '70 Camaro was not purposeful, nor was it related to labor problems; it was late because the quarter panel draw dies failed during final die tryout and had to be rebuilt from scratch. Fisher Body had lots of troubles drawing the 1970 quarter panels without wrinkles and splits. They attempted to correct the problems by modifying the draw dies during final tryout but the problems got worse instead of better. Fisher finally had to redesign/rebuild the draw dies, which delayed the launch by 4-5 months. Chevrolet decided to extend the 1969 model, which created a wild scramble, as this meant extending part supplier contracts for the '69 (suppliers had already committed their facilities to other business), finding alternate capacity for '69 parts, etc. The PR department attempted to spin the delay in a different direction for public consumption as GM never publicly admitted any internal problems or failures, especially within Fisher Body, its biggest manufacturing Division, with the biggest tooling budget. But the delay of the 1970 Camaro was a black eye for Fisher Body Die Engineering, as it was the first production launch delay that was ever laid at their feet.


So from this one can assume that the 2nd Gen F-bodies were hitting the dealerships around Jan 1970.

Totally probable. The strike thing was just a guess on my part. I don't know how long the strike was but it must've played havoc with production plans. I believe I heard it was the reason they shutdown building Firebirds in California after only a few months of production and the rest were all built back east.