VIN stampings on Engine block and trans - process and details

[Gatorslayer]

Cuda Cody,

Thank you for the kind words and great info.

I have had the car since 2002 but the crazy thing is that it is 1 of 10 1971 Barracuda Convertibles with a 383 ci/4 speed (and my first car was one of the other 10, which is now languishing in a warehouse in Canada. I've tried to buy it back through a friend who knows the guy but no luck).

I also echo your sentiments about buying and using Dave's books from MMC. I have restored a number of these cars and found them chock full of invaluable information ESPECIALLY the fastener guide. I don't know how you can restore a rolling shell, even if it comes with a box of bolts, without this guide to nail down where they go or to buy replacements.

I just wish I could get the main reference book with color photos instead of black and white (even if he offered a separate color copy and charged more)They are great books.

Greg

Thank you and everyone else for their input.

[Cuda Cody]

One thing I will also add is the year matters.  If I recall, the federal government is the ones that made manufactures put the numbers on cars.  It was around 1967 or 68 (I think) that they started to mandate it.  So a lot of Mopars were hand stamped while they figured out how and where to put the VIN stamp.  That's why you see 1968 auto trans with the hand stamped VIN on top of the bell housing area and it was usually a full VIN too.  Then they started casting engines and trans with a place to stamp the VIN and they must have figured out that the law did not a require a full VIN, but just a way to match the engine and trans to the vehicle.  That's why you they switched to partial VINS.  But this was all happening in the 1968 / 69 time frame and by the model year 1970 they had it pretty dialed in.  So be careful looking at VIN's stamped in 1968 or 1969 and trying to see if they match later 1970's stampings in terms of straightness and fonts.     

[tparker]

If it is at all like that tool above, I could imagine a few scenarios. It is possible those individual stamps could wear out a bit or they can not "seat" properly if some debris or something gets in the way. If one digit didn't get stamped properly, they probably had a way to "fix" it. I have no doubt mistakes happened and throwing out an engine/tranny pair was probably not an option.

[cuda hunter]

Also, consider that there were warranty blocks and transmissions.
These were handled by the dealership. Perhaps that hand striker was used for the dealership and the vin stamper that was in the factory was a roller type.
There had to be some difference between the factory and dealerships.

[7E-Bodies]

Wanna see an odd/peculiar engine stamping? LOL. Here's one...if you run across this JS27N0B, question everything...

[RUNCHARGER]

I kind of wished I had taken photos of all the VIN stamps that have come through my hands over the years. One thing is for sure, I've yet to see a "perfect" original stamping. My orange Challenger even had a wrong digit stamped in, not an unusual event I am told.

[Gatorslayer]

Does anyone know when the engine and trans were stamped in the assembly process?

I was told they were stamped at the same time when the engine and trans were mated together so the stamps on each should look the same. However I have seen where the numbers match on engine and trans but overall stamping looks like it was stamped by different people and/or at different times.

Does anyone know how that process worked?

I'm focusing on Hamtrack builds primarily because I restore Cuda convertibles.