Thread: cowl tag/vin?????

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can you use the body # as the vin # for a 30's car? where is the vin located on a 30 something car? Need some help guys.
Thanx

To answer your question, the answer is that it depends. Many cars of that era, all the way into the '60's, have two or three sets of numbers. Many bodies were built by outside suppliers like Briggs, Fisher, Fleetwood, etc. Cowl tags were usually the body number, not necessarily the chassis number. Chevrolet VIN tags (or chassis numbers) of the late '20's were affixed to the left side seat risers. On Fords, both numbers are attached to the firewall.

My experience as an insurance adjuster has shown VIN's to be in the following areas on various cars; top of the instument panel, firewall, top of cowl, top of radiator support, left door jamb, ight lower instrument panel, right door jamb, left front seat riser, inside firewall, inside glove box, and left windshield pillar.
Having not seen every car ever made, it's possible that there are other locations as well.

In some cases, the chassis number was stamped on the frame rails as a secondary number. Hope this helps.

Thanx for the imfo , I have a 34 chevy , would you happen to know where the vin is located on this vehicle?

I have an 81' Impala that I'm using for parts and in 2 locations on the car there is a tag that says " Body By Fisher " so it must be that most cars were made with body company's until the late 80's probably.

Originally posted by cool55belair
Thanx for the imfo , I have a 34 chevy , would you happen to know where the vin is located on this vehicle?

Unfortunately I don't. My guess would be near the driver's seat area. The left outer seat riser was the location on the '27 light trucks, this I know. Sorry.

Originally posted by Matt167
I have an 81' Impala that I'm using for parts and in 2 locations on the car there is a tag that says " Body By Fisher " so it must be that most cars were made with body company's until the late 80's probably.

Sorry Matt, but you need to do some reading. The Fisher brothers sold their holdings to GM in the '20's. While the name appeared on GM cars until 1984, Fisher Body just handled the body engineering and stamping as a division of GM.