VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1949-1954 1950 Cowl / Body Tag Codes

I have a 50 Bel Air with conflicting info. The body tag is stamped 14 indicating the Baltimore plant however the body number on the cowl tag is stamped S indicating the St. Louis plant. The style, paint and trim codes all match my car. Was it possible that the body was built in St. Louis and shipped to Baltimore for assembly or is it more likely that one of the tags is from another car?

buddan8, I think that you may be interpeting the tag a bit off. If I remember correctly all of the assembly plants all have an intial. Maybe the body came out of a Fisher plant, went to an assembly plant and was matched up with a chassis bult there or somewhere else?, just AWAG. Was the number stamped in from the back side of the tag (raised letters)or stamped in from the outside of the tag (depression)
P.S. have you checked out this site" Chevrolet Cowl Body Trim & paint tag

It may help explain your problem
A real trim tag from a 1966 Impala 2 door sport coupe built in ST Style,assembled at STL (Saint Louis plant), and inspected by inspector with the number of 17



Note: The assembly plant is ST Saint Louis on this tag,

The 17 is stamped into the tag from the outside, it is often an inspectors stamp.

I got the coding info from chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/models/index.htm Everything on the cowl tag was stamped from the back. The tag on the door pillar was stamped from the front. Thanks for the help.

buddan8,

The cowl tag for a 1949 or a 1950 should show "Body No." which is a letter and the body serial number. The letter is the Fisher body plant that produced the body. Typically L for Lansing.

The plant that assembled the body to the chassis and finished the car is found as part of the vehicle serial number which is on a plate riveted to the driver's front door pillar. It will be something like 3 HK C 12345. 3 is St. Louis, H is 1950, K is De Luxe and C is the month it was produced, March in this example.

14 would be the number for Baltimore.

Chevy50Jim

In 1950 most Bel Air bodies were produced at the Lansing Fisher Body plant. Later some of the other plants produced them, All GM convertible bodies were made at the Lansing plant with some being produced at the StLouis plant in 1957. Wagon bodies were made in Cleveland.
Yes, the bodies were shipped to other plants for final assembly.
Your tags are stamped in the correct "direction".

My '48 convertible has L on the body tag and the first number on the serial number is 3. The L is Lansing and the 3 is St.Louis. As Gene says convertible bodies were produced in Lansing and shipped to other assembly plants. All the convertible bodies of that era that I've seen were produced in Lansing and shipped other assembly plants.