help please: where to find VIN (serial number) on 1950 chevy sedan?

[jerry whitfield]

hi

Hope someone can help me. have 1950 chevy styleline deluxe 4 door sedan. Vin # inside drivers door has been changed. Dept of Motor Vehicles will not accept that. Where else on the body, frame, etc, is the vin (serial number) stamped,

data trim plate on cowl does not include a vin or serial number for the car.

thankyou very much for your time and help

jerry whitfield

[NTX5467]

In that earlier time frame, many states used the Engine Number for titling and registration purposes. Reason was that the original production engine block very seldom left the chassis it was installed in on the factory's assembly line. A "VIN" as such did not exist, back then, in the form we now know it as. There were "Body Numbers" and there were "Engine Numbers".

Texas, for example, used the Engine Number prior to the middle 1950s. Again, this was due to the fact that most engines never left the chassis they were originally installed into by the manufacturer. This also leads to other state-official paperwork if there was ever an engine swap/change in one of these older vehicles.

The "Body Number" could be moved to a different chassis, if desired, but it was much harder to swap engines from the original chassis. Overhauls were usually done "in frame" rather than with the engine on an engine stand (as we now use, generally). The cylinder heads were removed, the oil pan removed, the crankshaft was usually "ground" in-chassis, too, with the cylinders being bored by placing the boring bar on the block's deck surface and moved from cylinder to cylinder . . . which is why many inline engines usually ended up with just fresh rings on the rear-most cylinder . . . where the overhang of the cowl prevented the boring bar being placed on that last cylinder.

The engine number was usually stamped on a machined "boss" near the distributor, on the passenger side of the block, on most Chevy and GMC inline 6 cylinder engines back then. It's pretty easy to find and see.

In Texas, at least, the state DMV can issue their own number for the vehicle, for titling and registration purposes. The state's operatives need to inspect the vehicle, looking for any numbers and such, then they can choose to issue their own "number" for the vehicle and then the registration procedure can progress further.

You can probably download, from the state's website, the state DMV registration requirements. These should also, I suspect, tell which numbers your state used for the earlier model vehicles when they were new and also list when they made the transition to the VIN as we now know it. It might take some time to find these things online, in the various registration statutes and publications, but the burden of proof is usually on the OWNER to know these things rather than the State's operatives . . . also considering that the State's operatives might not be fully-versed in these areas, possibly.

Please keep us posted on your progress through the system.

Take care,

NTX5467

[jerry whitfield]

thankyou, so you believe there was no identification number stamped anywhere on the frame or underside of the body ?

thanks

jerry

[NTX5467]

In the earlier times, the "body" was a Fisher Body item which was, as I understand it, shipped to the GM assembly plant. This generated the "Body Plate", with paint and trim codes on it, ONLY. Nothing special on it which could be used for registration/titling purposes.

In the World of Buick, there were engine numbers and frame numbers. One of our Buick Club associates, with the assistance of noted Buick Historians, put together a spread sheet of Buick engine numbers and which frames they could have been installed in. In this case, the frame number could well have been marked at the assembly plant, with some sort of "job number", for tracking purposes and such. Then the batches of engines would arrive at the assembly plant for installation during particular timeframes. Mating this information could generate a window of time as the possible Build Date of the vehicle. In many cases, as earlier Corvettes, there were stencil-painted "numbers" on the frame (which the restorers MUST reproduce for complete restoration accuracy, if that matters to them). I somewhat suspect that the way Buick did things might be similar to what Chevrolet might have done . . . IF anybody on the Chevrolet side of things might have the needed information, somewhere.

You might want to research the '55 Chevrolet cars, as I suspect they were still using the system that was used for your 1950 Chevrolet. As in "engine numbers", "body numbers", and "frame numbers". 1956 might have been similar, but I'd look more toward the '55s as that's closer to your particular model year. I suspect we might term the "Tri-Five Chevies" to be the "most researched" Chevrolets of that decade. The first "excitement" cars that were extremely popular and transitioned Chevrolet into a viable product for centuries to come.

Again, check with your state's DMV's manuals and state registration statutes to see what is actually required. By observation, many employees in the local offices, unless they've had some experience in registering older vehicles, might TRY to put the same restrictions/requirements on the older vehicle which they would put on a much newer vehicle. It's not really their fault as the bulk of what they normally deal with would be newer vehicles with a manufacturer's dedicated VIN on them. Nor might they know where to look to find the information they really need to do the deal.

Respectfully,

NTX5467

[jerry whitfield]

thankyou

[Packard Don]

I know this is an old post which I found after receiving a request today for a VIN verification of a 1950 Chevrolet Deluxe 2 door hardtop. I am hoping that others might have additional insight that could help.

 

Starting in early 2016 and recently enforced, California's DMV now requires a secondary VIN. As a VIN verifier who specializes in vintage cars, this has been a real problem as many don't have them and those that do have them in hidden places, such as under the cowl on Ford Model A where it is not visible with the body in place! If there is no visible secondary VIN, only the CHP can verify the vehicle as they are the only entity authorized to check the "hidden VIN" box on the verification form. Even the DMV cannot verify one without the secondary VIN.

 

Thoughts? Comments?

Edited July 13, 2017 by Packard Don (see edit history)

[Vila]

Here is where the Serial # tag should be located on a 1950 Chevrolet according to a  Chevrolet website I ran across.

 

 

Edited July 17, 2017 by Vila (see edit history)

[Packard Don]

In California, a secondary VIN is now required but is hard or impossible to find on most vintage vehicles. Without it, it is necessary to refer people to the CHP for the verification.

[Keemo]

The VIN number on the VA.title doesn't match the VIN plate on the door pillar of my 1950 Chevy Convertible. I understand that they used to use engine block numbers on paperwork, but the original engine is long gone. To get the car registered in Ca. I need to find a secondary VIN number somewhere  on the car. The body tag under the hood won't work. The CHP says the frame is stamped, but all my research says that the frames were not stamped until 1952. The officer says if I can't find a secondary VIN to verify the door pillar number I can't register it. So my question is where else is the VIN located on my 1950 Chevy Convertible? Can anyone help me?

Edited December 11, 2018 by Keemo (see edit history)

[Dave39MD]

It is my understanding that Chevrolet did not start stamping the serial number on the frame until much later. I believe it was with the Corvette to start with. It has been discussed many times on the VCCA site but I could not bring up the posts in a search. Why don't you ask there and see what they say.

 

https://vccachat.org/ubbthreads.php/forum_summary.html

 

Dave