We are looking for the vin tag on a 2 dr sedan. We can't find it on the post. Where is it supposed to be on the post? Thanks in advance.
Drivers side upper A pillar. About eye level if you are sitting in the seat with your legs kicked out. If it's gone you should still be able to see two small screw holes where it use to be.
50 they were screwed on, 51 was when they started spot welding them on. Yeah, that's the place on the pillar that would be chopped out.
55 and up had most of the VIN stamped on the top of the frame rail, kind of under the driver. I don't think they did that back then though. But that's it.
GM also used a Data Plate on the firewall, this plate is located on the right side of the firewall, above the heater in the engine compartment. GM also stamped the VIN on the frame, usually near the front cross member on the left side. Of course if the ch***is has been modified with a later model front clip, the original number would have been cut off and if there is a number stamped into the current frame it could be for the later model car... Hmmmm? how did this car become a '74 Camaro? I knew that Ford used VIN's that were stamped into the frame, I did not know until just last year that GM did the same thing... The trick with GM is that you have to know where to find the frame VIN. Last year I was talking to a former police officer that had been ***igned to the vehicle fraud division... I was telling him about a '65 Chevy pickup that I was working on. I told him I was going to do a front clip with a '77 Chevy pickup subframe to get disk brakes and more modern suspension.. The ex-officer told me not to do it because the '65 had a frame number as did the '77. I said to myself.. Hmmm? I wonder if this guy knows what he is talking about? Cleaning the '65 frame I found the number which was the same as the number as that on the one on the VIN plate... Checking the '77 ch***is showed the '77 VIN. The removal of sixteen bolts on each ch***is and the switching of the cross members resulted in an upgrade to the '65 with no number changes....Bill
The "data plate" on the cowl under the hood is the body tag, and does not have any VIN info on it at all.
AFAIK no hidden vin on 54-back, as per Chevytalk.org discussion. Guy who chopped car should have put the tag back, or it never should have been sold past who owned it then.
There is also a hidden VIN about midway on the top side of the frame...I want to say on the p***engers side if I remember correctly. You might be able to get up there with a small mirror and read them off that way if all else fails.
The data plate, body tag on the firewall of a GM car does in fact list info other than the paint code, etc., The first number on about the second line lists the vehicle year, e.g. 4900000 is a '49 ... 5100000 is a '51, this holds true from about '36 to '54, probably later. I don't have much interest in the tri-fives or later so I don't pay any attention to them. Since many GM cars are very hard to identify from one year to the next, especially '47-48, '49-50 and '51-52 I usually look at the data/body plates first.
Many states back in the '50's used the engine no. as the "vin" no. If you still have the original engine, look at the stamped number just aft of the distributor.
Just went through this on my 52 chevy in texas, your car was originally ***led (if in tx) with the engine number as the vin. You have to go to the dmv to get a new "t" number and stamp on your new engine if you dont have the original. 49-52 chevys do not have a hidden vin number on the frame from the factory unless someone stamped it on there later. The number on the driver post was the serial number that fisher attached to that body when they built the car. PM me if you need the low down on getting a new vin/T number. good luck.
Sorry missed this earlier. No, if you have a good ***le you can get a new number to put on your care pretty easily.
on the 54 its top of frame under drivers seat you need a mirror flashlight and some kind of cleaner wd40 gunk or a carb cleaner wipe clean you will find it.that will be the same # as the one that was on piller.
The Jalopy Journal
