VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1958-1960 Chassis Serial No.

Where is the Chassis Serial No. stamped on the 1958-1959 Chassis

I believe that the first chassis with serial numbers stamped on was mid-year 1960 Corvette. Later chassis serial numbers were used on more models.

Hi Dave,

Its located on the top frame rail under the driver area of the frame.

It can also be found on the left rear frame rail under the trunk floor....

Not 100% true I have seen (and own) a few passenger cars that had no traces of any number at all. I know that I am not the only one who has come across this. And I was looking for it?? I have heard of people finding them on passenger car frames in the location that Ollie mentioned, I have yet to find one that has a number
John

chip: all corvettes, back to and including the 53's,had a vin derivative stamped on the cars frame. from 53 to 62, its just under where your left buttock would be positioned while driving. the 63 thru 67's were also in a similar position as well as just over top the rear axle half shafts on the upper wall of the frame.i'm thinking your post regarding mid-1960 vin derivatives should have been directed to the stamping on small blocks engine pads, not frames. regards, mike

Having spent the last thirty years of my forty-four year tenure with GM doing full scale durability testing of Chevrolet vehicles I have never seen or heard of a Chevrolet passenger car vehicle frame having a serial number. The Corvette may be an exception to that statement but I've never seen that information on the 1989 thru 1996 Vettes that I was associated with.

During the 1965 - 1996 era, Chevrolet vehicles of the Body/frame configuration (namely Chevelle and Impala/Caprice) had three frame sources. Chevrolet purchased frames from A.O. Smith and Parrish and they built their Station Wagon frames in house at their Flint stamping plant. All production frames had identifing information on them which consisted of a Source identifier, Part Number, a Build date, a plant work shift identifier and if required, an assembly line identifier. That information was located on the front vertical surface of the frame rear suspension crossmember, left of center. Build dates, Source, and part numbers were easy to understand, but shift and line information varied and a key was needed to correctly identify them.

The frames were made up of several components and if you were to look closely at each component you would find additional numbering information pertinent to that particular component stamped on them. That information was all there so that if a problem occured there was a tracking system for that particular component.

Station Wagon, Convertible, and El Camino frames generally had a full box in the center side members while two door and four door models tended to have an out side member only or open side member as we refered to them. A frame with a full boxed side member may have a lighter gage material in the inner and outer halfs of that side member while an open side membered unit might have a heaver gage side member in that area. It always scares me when I hear someone say they are replacing their Convertible frame with a Two door model frame. It has been my experience that if Chevrolet offered five different body styles within a given car line there were five different frames released, one for each usage.

Ooops, my mind skipped a beat or two. I was thinking frame number and substituted engine number. I should have gotten the Corvette frame number info correctly as my '56 has the correct frame with number stamped under the drivers butt. The last digits of the serial number were stamped into the engine serial pad beginning mid-60. Sorry guys but had a brain f@&t.

Chipper,

I agree with the engine having the last digits of the vehicle serial number added to the engine information on Mid Year and later Corvettes. Those vehicles also had/have the last digits of the vehicle serial number added to the transmission numbers.

GM also added a hidden vehicle serial number to their vehicles at one point in time. It's location was not publicized even within the engineering community. I've seen mention of such a number within written documentation, but it referred you to another layout print for its location. On one occasion I saw that number inside the Heater/Air conditioning plenum when we cut a vehicle apart after test. In todays world many vehicle components are serialized as a theft deterrent.

I can confirm that I have seen several '59 to '64 passenger car frames with VIN derivitives stamped on them, in the locations Ollie mentioned. The 6 digits are usually preceeded by the plant designation letter. Ex: B123456
I also have an Auto Theft Investigation training manual (for police officer training) which indicates the locations on those frames where the VIN can be found.
Verne

Have you found them on every one you looked at?
John

Okay, I stand corrected, somewhat!

Based upon Verne's input, I went into my Passenger car & truck serial prefix & numbers records and Verne is correct. The yearly data that I viewed clearly states (1966 vehicles and back as far as I looked - 1956) "The frame Serial number on all Cars and Trucks will include the Model Year Designation, Plant Designation and continous Serial Number". "As an eample the Frame Serial Number for Passenger jobs shown above would be 6T100025". That's 1966, Terrytown, sequence number 100025.

Now starting with the 1967 Data and moving forward, the information no longer makes any reference to Frame serial numbers and the new statements read, " The serial Number other than that shown on the Vehicle Identifcation Plate on all Cars and Trucks will include the Model Year Designation, Plant designation and continous serial Number." "Serial Number, other than that shown on the Vehicle Identification Plate, will be located according to the following Layouts," and it goes on to note the specific Layouts for each Car Line. I'm assuming that statement is referring to the hidden Serial Number because there is a later statement that reads, "The Assembly Plants are to stamp the Model Year, Assembly Plant Designation and the Vehicle Serial Number on the Engine serial pad adjacent to the Engine Identification." It also goes on to discuss stamping the transmision case. This is the first time that this statement shows up in the yearly data and it is continuted forward for subsequent years with no further mention of the word Frame. Although I couldn't verify it with the data I viewed, I do believe that adding serial numbers to the Corvette Engines and Transmissions started earlier that 1967.

corvette engines and trannys were stamped with the vettes vin derivative beginning in mid 1960. mike

I remember reading somewhere that sometime in early 1960 that Corvettes began with the engine getting the VIN stamping, I think February or January of 60. I think it was in the Colvin Book. Mine are down in the shop. I will check later. As far as the frames I have seen photos of the VIN numbers, but yet to have seen one myself. I just finished a frame off on a 62 and looked all over for the stamping, no sign of it anywhere. I think this might vary plant to plant, afterall who is checking to see if it is done
John

John,
I would agree, there no absolutes, and the practice probably did vary by plant (or shift, or operator). I've looked at roughly 7 or 8 frames under restoration, and all of them had the stamping. I've scraped and poked at about 10 frames with bodies on them, and have found the stamping on all of them. I suspect that at some plants perhaps, it was not an "inspected" procedure, therefore it just got skipped.

As for the VIN derivitive showing up on passenger car engine pads, I have many examples of that practice beginning in the '62 model year, on high-performance engines. But again, I have seen exceptions to that as well. The VIN derivitive was also stamped on 4-spd transmission cases beginning with the '62 model.....on passenger cars with those same high performance engines.

Verne

The problem in my State [NSW] in Australia that the RTA [DMV] want to sight a chassis [frame ] no.??? before they will register the vehicle and they claimed the 58-59 No. should be stamped on the rail behind the LH front wheel, but this is obviously wrong.
Thanks for the input
dave41

I checked three frames in my shop today for vin numbers,a 56 and 57 1/2 ton, a 63 Bel Air. The two 1/2 ton frames had the number stamped in two places, on the left frame rail in the engine compt. and under the drivers door. The 63 frame had no numbers stamped on it.
In regard to Oldies comment about the number being stamped in tha AC,Htr, Plenum area I remember having to move an Inspection station in the early to mid seventys above the installation area of the evaporator in order for it to be checked by an Inspector. The number was stamped by hand by an operator on the shroud and once the evaporator was installed it was no longer visible.
I can only remember doing this for one year.(another senior moment) They may have continued to stamp the number and decided it wasn't worth while to check it. This was on the A body car line, later changed to the G body.

May not be pertinent to the application being discussed here but my 59 Apache has the VIN # stamped into the top of the frame under the hood on driver's side. This in addition to the riveted tag inside the cab. The truck doesn't appear to have ever had a trim tag anywhere though.