Dash Top VIN Plates
 

The dash top VIN plates were installed from underneath the dash. I assume these would not have been painted, correct?

Bob

IT depends...
Sometimes they were painted dash color sometimes they were not, it seems that if the car was built at a GMAD plant such as Van Nuys they had the tag painted because the VIN was assigned to the car body earlier, whereas Norwood the dash was completed prior to the VIN being assigned.

I am going to pose the question regarding VN... the Norwood cars had the cowl VIN rolled after the body was painted... was the same process used at VN?
Or at VN were the VIN numbers rolled in prior to paint?

Bob, you're probably asking in relation to a Chevelle, but further to what James said above, I have a LA-built '69 Camaro; the car has a dark blue interior (including the upper dash) but the VIN plate is a low-gloss black, so it must have been painted separately and then rivetted on after the interior was painted.

James - Phil Borris would be the best to address where in the body build process the VIN tags were installed, but for 70-71 at least, the VIN tags in Norwood cars were interior-color and Van Nuys were black regardless of interior color.

Van Nuys did those numbers after the cowl had been painted.

Early production '69s at Norwood [to approx. N520xxx] with non-black interiors had a VIN tag painted to match the dash top. Black suede afterwards. I don't know if Van Nuys did that.

The last 6 characters of the VIN were assigned when Chevrolet received the completed body from Fisher. The 'con VIN' [ex. 9N500001] was stamped in two areas into the freshly painted cowl. The body was then routed to a spot in the Schedule Bank to await release to assembly. The VIN tag was installed at the first stop, the Trim Line. Since the windshield was already installed, the rivets were installed from under the dash, the rosette heads technically upside-down. VIN sequence had nothing to with scheduling; cars were not built in strict VIN order.

Later on when the foam rubber dams were glued to the cowl panel, workers smeared rubber cement over the cowl top con vin as a rust preventative.

http://www.camaros.org/assemblyprocess.shtml

Sorry, should have been more specific. I'm trying to help a guy understand a 1970 Nova SS. Per the cowl tag, it had a factory Sandalwood bucket seat interior (Code 746). It now has a complete '69 Nova red bucket seat interior, which by fluke was also code 746. There was no red Nova SS interior in '70. The repainting of the interior metal resulted in a red VIN plate. He thinks the plate should have been masked off and I tend to agree with him. Most 3rd generation Nova SS interiors are black, so it's hard to find one in another color to prove it one way or the other. This car has all kinds of other '69 pieces, too, so this is just one of the things we're trying to sort out. All these cars were built at Willow Run.

Bob

I want to say the Novas started in 1970 with a flattening agent on the dash top for anti-glare. Also, my 70 Willow run Nova has a different finish on the tag than the top of the dash (black int). Wilma would know more as he has like 50 of them.,..

Suede finish on the dash top was used across GM in the 60's. I doubt it started in Nova in 70.....

Where are the 70 Nova guys?