Question about VIN stampings

Keith Tedford · #1 12-26-2005, 04:57 PM

The transmission and engine were done with the same hand stamp. The frame and firewall were done with the roller type stamp. The numbers were changed manually so sometimes numbers were installed upside down and "6" and "9" got mixed up along with whatever other mistakes that could be made. I maintained these units in the Oshawa truck plant for many years. Hand stamping the firewall with that many numbers would cave the sheet metal in and just would not work. The roller type stamps for the sheet metal could act up some times and not index properly but worked pretty well for the most part when properly maintained. Our Baltimore built '69 had no VIN numbers on the frame, just some frame manufacturer's numbers.

firstgenaddict · #2 12-27-2005, 11:59 PM

My Pontiac built 68 GTO has no VIN on the frame nor does it hav any hidden VIN's that I can find...

**Rainer** · #3 12-29-2005, 10:13 AM

If the body VINs were stamped as described above, what are the thoughts on the cowl stampings of this LS6 rag on ebay?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=4599998347

**Bill Pritchard** · #4 12-29-2005, 06:57 PM

My thoughts are that I would be suspicious of those stampings. The sheet metal looks pretty distorted in the stamped areas. Perhaps the Los Angeles plant used a different stamping method on the bodies

**1969L78Nova** · #5 12-29-2005, 07:19 PM

Is that not a hidden VIN number on the cowl below the heater fan?..Why is there not a close up of that number?
Martin

**Bill Pritchard** · #6 12-29-2005, 08:42 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Why is there not a close up of that number?

[/ QUOTE ]

Better look again...there IS a closeup of the number under the blower motor opening.

**1969L78Nova** · #7 12-29-2005, 09:30 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Why is there not a close up of that number?

[/ QUOTE ]

Better look again...there IS a closeup of the number under the blower motor opening.

[/ QUOTE ]

Bill:Are the eyes the first thing to go?

Keith Tedford · #8 12-29-2005, 10:31 PM

The firewall on the LS6 convertible looks like what you would expect from a hand stamping. The metal around the numbers on our car is flat and not indented like this one. The numbers are not stamped nearly as deep either.

The hand stamp shown above is the same as what we used on the truck engine and transmissions until a few years ago. We added a big flat knob to the back end of the stamp so that the operators had something to hit. New, unco-ordinated operators used to hit their hands a lot before this modification.

**Bill Pritchard** · #9 12-30-2005, 12:38 AM

[ QUOTE ]
We added a big flat knob to the back end of the stamp so that the operators had something to hit. New, unco-ordinated operators used to hit their hands a lot before this modification.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ouch

Can you say "Lost Time Injury"

**Bill Pritchard** · #10 12-30-2005, 12:42 AM

[ QUOTE ]
The firewall on the LS6 convertible looks like what you would expect from a hand stamping. The metal around the numbers on our car is flat and not indented like this one. The numbers are not stamped nearly as deep either.

[/ QUOTE ]

Keith,

Does your car have the CON VIN stamp in one place or two on the firewall? Our Impala had it in only one location, under the blower motor opening. The metal around it was very flat also. Kinda tough to seal up the blower motor housing when your firewall is all wavy.

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