upside down vin on kansas built big block chevelle

[Keith Tedford]

In those days the VIN was struck with a hand stamp and a big hammer. The stamp could be turned 180 degrees very easily by someone careless or distracted. Just a few years ago we were still using VIN machines, for the frame, with a roller ball setup. It was hand indexed. When frame sealer got into the unit it would sometimes misindex. They would hand stamp over the number with an "X" stamp, hand stamp the proper number and record the change. Upside down numbers on the block wouldn't warrant a change. I don't recall what they did with a block that was stamped with wrong numbers.