62 Block - Yeah or Neah?

[Joe S.]

Re: 62 Block - And VIN TAG!

Rich,

Thanks for the info and pictures. The picture of your Vin Tag brings up another anomaly for me though. Yours looks perfectly straight and even. For mine, up until the build sequence number it's perfectly straight. But the 00053 look almost like they were done by hand or something slipped because they go down and then up at the end. The picture below is terrible and I'll get another one on Monday when I get back from a little weekend gettaway, but you can get an idea from this.

I wonder if the early cars vins were done by hand? Also, in regard to the early production ramp up, according to Jedi Master John Hinckly his best scenario on what happened goes like:

"Actually, there are 240 days in a standard production year. During the C1 years, St. Louis only worked one shift, and produced 60-65 cars per day.

During a new model startup, the daily rate "ramps up" gradually; for the 1962 model year launch, they didn't reach full daily rate until the first week in October, eight weeks later - it took four days to build the first 54 cars (8 the first day, 14 the second day, 16 the third day, and 16 the fourth day)."

The only thing for me in this being a problem is the JOB NUMBER 45 painted in the trunk and on the inside of the Doors which is still visible. Unless while ramping up over a period of days they sequences the job number instead of starting back at 1 every day.

I'm curious about the Vin tag though. Thanks...

[Richard M.]

Re: 62 Block - And VIN TAG!

Hi Joe,

I'm not familiar with the vin tag procedures. Maybe early cars like yours were stamped like that. Yes the photo is blurry but it looks like the original spot weld. When you get the body off the frame the vin# may be seen if it's not rusted over. If you don't know, it's under the drivers' seat area on the frame top, sometimes stamped twice. My 59 frame is very clean and can be seen with a mirror and flashlight. I can't see it on my 62 due to scale and rust, but the body has never been off so I think it's original. I can't wait to finish my new garage/shop so I can finally tear into it.

So my job number is 467(found in trunk pic below). Car is sn#483. I read recently here or in the DL that the job number went from 1 to 500 then started over. Quick math: SN 483 minus 53 = 430. Job 467 minus 45 = 422. 430 cars minus 422 jobs = 8 so it's off a bit between our cars. Maybe the job # was a little off on the line sometimes. Again I don't know, maybe the more experienced folks can add more info.


I love these archaeological digs!

Rich Mozzetta #13499