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Does any one know why, all  June 1969 body's,  cowl tags are  stamped  06A ,   NOT   06B,  06C, 06D.........?

More than likely just a big screw up by a new employee. 

The VIN could not be assigned to a car that was not yet in production.  And the order was just that an order, it was not a car till it arrived on the final assembly line.

The way I read the report, the body bank had a staging area and the VIN were assigned once the body came into the bank.  Then the bodies were released onto the line irregardless of the vin sequence assigned but by work content.   If you got 20 cars in the bank but only 1 line to feed, some are going to get released before others.  They had job numbers they worked with so the vin sequence never meant anything to the assembly line operations, that was just a legal thing they had to install.  Chevrolet released monthly reports showing the last VIN built during the previous month. 

That statement might be correct as it pertains to the body number BUT not the VIN IMO.

My info indicates replacement engines from GM parts or GM Performance parts, don't know anything more about them.  

I have notes in my old GM parts catalog on XXB, XBB, XBA etc being parts dept engines (might be made in Mexico?)  

All the marine and industrial engine codes I have all begin with a number, followed by 2 letters.

For my education, this seems like a nothing car. Why would anyone pay for the tags and vin.

1. Cannot title a car they currently own.
2. X44 is the popular code for the Yenko/COPO cars.

Am I correct?

3. To make a stolen car appear legitimate.

Last January at B-J there were at least 3 cars in the main tent disclosed as re-bodied. This of course means VIN tags and who knows what else was removed and messed with. The ZL-1 also had a repro body tag. The cars sold for good money, no one was arrested.

Where are these people, I got some snow banks I can sell them.

That's not a build sheet GM of Canada provided.  They created that from shipping records

First a hello and thank you for allowing me on your forums. As an update, Vintage Vehicle Services at GM of Canada is still here, no problems. We have never offered 'build sheets' nor 'invoices'. As 52chevybob stated above build sheets were used at each work station to identify which parts were supposed to be installed by that worker when the car/truck got to him. They were supposed to be put in the garbage as the next vehicle rolled up, but some folks were lazy and did not want to empty their garbage at days end, so they were stuffed in the car going down the line, the result being a much cleaner work station! As bowtieollie said, we work from a monthly shipping report, transferring the data to GM letterhead, and also providing some technical specifications.We can document back to 1945 on Canadian built or sold cars, so you Chevrolet folks down in the USA have a lot of Canadian built product down there from the 60's and 70's. Feel free to email me if you have questions, or call direct. »george.zapora@cc.gm.ca« and 905-440-7636.

Why did they even bother to stamp it?

So the cops could trace stolen cars/engines etc!  It was required by law.

Cowl Partial VIN

GM's use of Julian dates would start on the first calendar day of the car model year (Jan 1, 1968 for a 1969 model)  and continue thru the end of production of parts for the 69 model.  So if parts production continued into 1969 it would be 366+x days.  Its confusing but that how the did it.

1968 was a leap year!

Whats the reason for the change?  Different body shop?  Or just a change for the sake of a change?

Thats what I was thinking also.

It look like someone forged a 72 Chevelle SS 454.  The W in the 5th position is for a 454 engine which could only be ordered with the SS option.

Thanks for the reply!

I don't suppose anyone with the rivets installed from the bottom would have a picture of the top of the dash and what the rivet end looks like installed there? 

Here is a a photo, could this be the blind side of the rosette rivet?



Does anyone by chance,  have any GM/Chevy etc documentation that references the type of rivets?

Has GM used the Rosette Rivets exclusively?   I see 65't them but there are many who insist the regular pop rivet type was also used.  I-Car and some other groups say the Rosette was only from 1970 up.

So whats the story?  Who know for a fact?

I have seen several photos of VIN that had non-rosette rivets and the look original as the cars a baskets cases.  I know some have been installed from the bottom up but many don't agree with that.

Additional info.


This letter + 1 to 3 digits was on every car built at that plant.  I have seen them on full size Chevys also

From 1971 to 1973 I worked part time for a used car dealer. Mostly I went to the auctions and to the dealers with the buyer and we bought cars to sell.   Many times we had vinyl tops put on cars and also body side moldings.  What ever the boss thought would help sell the car. 

ps - one of things this dealer would do it roll back the odometers.  I seen cars with 99,000 miles go to 29,000 over night.  Lots of them were Chevelle's and Camaro's as they were popular cars to sell.  We often got 5 cars and when one sold it paid for all 5.  Seen that many a time, lots of money to be made in the used car business back then, no laws to stop you from doing a lot of things.  We would hit the big car dealers in the Chicago and but 10 cars at a time for next to nothing.