Does anybody know when the hidden VIN's were stamped?

[TonyHuntimerRaceHome]

Were the hidden VIN's stamped on the cowl and firewall before those panels were attached to the shell?

I found one of the 2 hidden VIN's stamped 2 digits off the VIN tag and the second hidden VIN...and apparently restamped at the factory when they found the problem.  Have you seen this before? 

Tony Huntimer
RaceHome.com

[1968RSZ28]

http://www.camaros.org/numbers.shtml#PartialVIN

Paul

[william]

The VIN-derivative as it is known was stamped by Chevrolet soon after receipt of the completed body-it was done after paint. We have seen errors. I personally looked at a '69 last fall in IL that had no hidden VINs and a mis-stamped VIN tag.

[TonyHuntimerRaceHome]

http://www.camaros.org/numbers.shtml#PartialVIN

Paul

Thanks Paul.  I saw that before.  I was wondering if the cowl and firewall panels were stamped after the panels were all assembled.  It looks like William asnwered that for me. 

Thanks William.

Should I post a pic of the restamp?

Take care,
Tony Huntimer
RaceHome.com

[x77-69z28]

please do.

[TonyHuntimerRaceHome]

The VIN-derivative as it is known was stamped by Chevrolet soon after receipt of the completed body-it was done after paint. We have seen errors. I personally looked at a '69 last fall in IL that had no hidden VINs and a mis-stamped VIN tag.

I wonder why they would stamp after paint...wouldn't that leave exposed metal and start rust?  Apparently it didn't cause too much rust, at least on dry climate cars.  It seems like a bad idea to send exposed metal out into the "field".

[TonyHuntimerRaceHome]

http://www.racehome.com/camaro-book/mis-stamp.jpg
This Camaro has a #9 on the end of the hidden vin under the heater box and the VIN plate.  My only thought is that the person in charge of the VIN stamping machine didn't change the last number since the 2 cars before, which ended in #7.  If it was a stamping machine that was supposed to change the stamp on each car, then the machine got stuck.  I wonder how many OTHER cars after this one went through with the wrong stamp and had to be restamped by hand.

You can see that a person had to use a #9 stamp (probably a hand stamp driven by a hand held hammer) to stamp over the top of the inccorect #7 and then stamped about a half inch above the #7 too.  You can see that the #9 stamp was hammered pretty hard and there wasn't a dolly placed underneath the cowl when it was restamped, because the #9 stamp left a good sized dent under it.

Does anyone have an idea of the type of machine they used to regularly stamp the numbers?  I'm guessing it had some sort of back-up "dolly" of some sort that allowed the stamps to be deep without distorting the cowl like the physical re-stamp did.

According to the Trim Tag, the car was 06D (4th week of June), which according to the real professionals here just means that was when the Trim Tag was stamped, not when the car was built. 

Thanks guys,
Tony Huntimer
RaceHome.com

[JohnZ]

Does anyone have an idea of the type of machine they used to regularly stamp the numbers?  I'm guessing it had some sort of back-up "dolly" of some sort that allowed the stamps to be deep without distorting the cowl like the physical re-stamp did.Tony Huntimer
RaceHome.com

Yes - my Chevrolet Production Engineering Group supplied that tool, through the George T. Schmidt Co. in Chicago; it was essentially a stack of indexing discs with number dies on the O.D., in the shape of an egg, with an axle through it, and an anvil backup segment that went behind the cowl or firewall for each hit. It was driven by an air cylinder, and cycled twice - once in one direction for the cowl, and once in the other direction for the firewall hit.

Have you read the "Assembly Process" CRG Report?

http://www.camaros.org/assemblyprocess.shtml

[crobjones2]

the guys sure stamped my firewall light, I almost missed it when documenting numbers. - that and it was also upside down

[TonyHuntimerRaceHome]

the guys sure stamped my firewall light, I almost missed it when documenting numbers. - that and it was also upside down

You wouldn't happen to have a photo of the stamping device would you? 

Tony Huntimer

[JohnZ]

You wouldn't happen to have a photo of the stamping device would you? 

Tony Huntimer

Nope - if I had known 40 years ago that it would be a popular subject today, I would have taken pictures.

[glenn64vette]

You wouldn't happen to have a photo of the stamping device would you? 

Tony Huntimer

Nope - if I had known 40 years ago that it would be a popular subject today, I would have taken pictures.

Hell, if we would have know 40 years ago ( or even 25 ) what was going to be popular now, we would all be rich.