1965 vin tag problem

[Joe DeTomaso]

I am looking at a 65 roadster that has a good title and the vin tag looks original. Problem is the vin tag has a number 9 in place of the S. All the other numbers match. Title has the S.
Has anyone ever seen a vin like this?

[Joe L.]

Re: 1965 vin tag problem

Joe-----

If all the other numbers match, then I would say that it has to be a factory error that occurred when the VIN plate was produced and that went un-discovered. The title, registration and other documents were usually originally generated from other paperwork rather than visual inspection of the VIN tag. So, that would explain why the other documents are correct.

The part that is surprising, though, is the fact that such an error could occur. I believe that the VIN tags were "pre-generated" rather than being made up for each car. So, it would seem strange that such a mistake could occur for for plates produced this way without the same error being found on a lot of other plates.

Also, regardless of how the plates were produced, one would think that the portion of the VIN number which includes the "S" would be part of the more-or-less "static" characters on the machine which produced the plate. In other words, it would seem like the machine that generated the plates would only have needed to be revised for the sequential number portion of the VIN.

Also, for 1965, there was no assembly plant which used a "9" coding.

For another thing, it would seem unlikely that if someone were going to make up a phony VIN plate that they would make an error like this.

[John H.]

Re: 1965 vin tag problem

Joe -

There was nothing automatic about the Addressograph machine that produced the midyear VIN plates - it was an old, decrepit, manually-operated character-indexing keyboard machine, and every single character had to be manually typed for every car. Plenty of opportunity for typo errors - surprised we don't see more of them.

[Joe DeTomaso]

Re: 1965 vin tag problem

Guys thanks for the input on this. I've never seen anything like this. and I agree if someone was going to makle a phony tag why would they amke such a blunder. What else would I look for to tell if the tag is original?
Thanks
Joe