Fishy Date Codes?? Body / Engine / Rear End

[Bob S.]

Greetings -

I'm looking at a '67 Coupe that is claimed to be very original. The date codes are:

(AO Smith) Body Trim Tag: H03 (i.e Mar 3, '67)
Engine Stamp Pad: V0306 (ie. Mar 6, '67)
Rear End Stamping: AO 3 9 67 (i.e Mar 9, '67)

Do these make sense with both the engine and rear end apparently being assembled AFTER the body passed the Trim tag station in AO Smith assembly???

Thanks in advance for taking the time to look and share your wisdom.

Best Regards,
Bob S.

[Donald T.]

Re: Fishy Date Codes?? Body / Engine / Rear End

Bob,

The key to the mystery is the AOS body. The trim tag reflects the date the body was built at AOS. It was then shipped by rail to STL. So it is not uncommon for the engine assembly date to postdate the body build date by a few days. I have a 65 with an AOS body and the body build date preceeds the engine build date as well.

[Gerard F.]

Re: Fishy Date Codes?? Body / Engine / Rear End

Bob,

The trim tag on my 67 AOS body is K19, 0619.
The engine stamp pad is 0626, rear end is 0614
Final assembly by the VIN is 0629

Don't think yours is fishy.

Jerry Fuccillo
#42179

[Jack H.]

What others have told you...

is dead nuts on. Having a clear mental image of the mfgr process helps.

Major sub-assy items were manufactured asynchronously to the final assy line. The components they produced (body, engine, drive train components) were in a 'race' condition traveling to the final line, being received, placed in inventory and then being pulled from inventory and scheduled to the final line for build.

That's why it's important to go from each car's final assembly date, as interpolated off the VIN by one of the Corvette 'birthday' calculators to get the 'real' build date of the car vs. a sub-assy build date you see elsewhere, like the body build date....

This is especially true of AO Smith cars since these bodies were built outside the St. Louis final assy plant, traveled by rail to St. Louis and could/did sit on rail cars outside the plant before being selected for final line assy. The St. Louis body shop had little space to 'warehouse' finished bodies causing them to migrate pretty rapidly to final assy. But, that's NOT the case with AO Smith bodies and we often see what, at first blush, appear to be dichotomies in time sequence that become rational compared to the 'born on' date of the actual VIN.