'65 327 body/engine dates

[Chris H.]

[Joe L.]

Re: '65 327 body/engine dates

Chris-----

It's VERY possible IF the body was an A.O. Smith-built body. These bodies were built and fully trimmed out at the A.O. Smith plant in Ionia, MI, then shipped to St. Louis by rail car. So, a body could have been being built in Ionia at just about the same time that an engine ultimately installed in it was being built in Flint, MI.

A.O. Smith bodies are easily identified by the "A" prefix code on the trim tag.

[Chris H.]

Re: '65 327 body/engine dates

Joe, thanks. It's definetly a St.Louis body.

[William C.]

Re: '65 327 body/engine dates

I don't know wht the total body cycle time was on a St. Louis body, but you need to look at the key date which is tied to the VIN number, not the body build. The VIN is the final determiner of when the final assembly was completed, not the body date. An engine installation would only be a few hours away from the end of the assembly process.

[Jack H.]

Re: '65 327 body/engine dates

An unusual but NOT impossible situation.... Car could have been built with faulty motor, pulled off the final line and experienced an engine 'swap'. Also, 'feeder' lines to the final assy process were occassionally asynchronous (final line schedulers had to pick 'n choose from on-hand completed subassy's to schedule the final build flow and there were two body feeder lines--A.O. Smith in Ionia, MI and the St. Louis body shop).

Here, the issue is the CAR itself vs. completed final sub-assy components (power train, chassis, body). The car has a VIN and THAT is the key date to question. Using a souce like the Corvette Birthday Book, interpolate when the car was actually built and see if the build dates for the engine and the body actually pre-date it....

As Joe points out, such anomalies were rather common with AO Smith bodied cars. We tend to forget that the body build date is NOT the vehicle's final assy date (although with St. Louis bodies they DID tend to closely approximate one another).

[Chris H.]

Re: '65 327 body/engine dates

For reference, the VIN is 4624, and the Body number is 1509.

[William C.]

Re: '65 327 body/engine dates

By a quick calculation, that would have put the car off the line on the 15th or 16th , but I have seen a reference to the "Birthday book" to determine the exact date, especially with a holiday month like December. You might want to look it up there. I calculated the date based on a typical 20 working day month.

[William C.]

Re: '65 327 body/engine dates

As I remember, the Christmas holiday in '65 was 1/2 day off on Christmas eve and all day on Christmas Day, followed by 1/2 day on New year's Eve. I think '65 was the last year before the switch to full week down, but that was a long time ago.

[Wayne M.]

Re: '65 327 body/engine dates (further questions)

Chris --- here's some #'s from the protect-o-plate imprint of my first car; a '65 convertible VIN 04835, F1212HT, P0829, W1209AL. Don't know the trim tag details (heck, back then I didn't know or care what #'s were).

I'd like to continue Jack H's thread on engine switch after initial firing (car would have probably been pushed to a holding area to await a swap). My question to the board is: in this instance, what would have been the quality / method of the VIN derivative stamping ? Would they have pulled a motor from the rack and used a portable (non-hydraulic ?) gang holder, with detectable different features ? Or, would they have re-loaded the last 3 dies and used the production line "stamper" (which was by then several hundred units behind the sequence being applied on the production line)? I'm assuming the engine would have been stamped BEFORE installation.

[Page C.]

Re: '65 327 body/engine dates

Hi Chris,
I have some info on #4774 a 65 convert. The engine was F1203HJ. A St Louis body #S1559 and a build date of E16. If anyone has some info on cars in this range and could post it you would be able to see a pattern. Another possibility is a mistake at Flint when they stamped the assembly date. What is the casting date on the 870 block.
Hope this helps
Page Campbell