Hello Everyone, its my first post here and i hope someone here might have some advice and can offer assistance. Long Story short i have Chevrolet Deluxe 1952, i own it from around 20 years and most of the time i was keeping it in a garage and was taking my time to restorate it when i have enought time and money to put into, now unfortunately i have some issues when getting all the necessary documents to safely drive it. Now the chevy does not have it serial numbers on the front door pillars like most of them do, it has this serial number plate that should be the original one, but i could not find any other chevy from around the year 1952 which has a similar plate, I`m gonna upload it so u can see what i`m talking about, the question is i need to prove the chassis serial number which i cannot find anywhere on the car. Also the plate says 1958 but it looks like the previous owner messed with it, the car is 1952 year for sure. If u`ve seen a similar plate like this your help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
Where are you? The US cars have a smaller plate spot welded to the hinge piller, you open the front door to see it. They also have a body tag where that plate is on the firewall, but it does not have the car serial number. And there were no numbers stamped on the frame on Chevrolet cars before 1955 that I know of.
I`m in Eastern Europe, when i got the car the previous owner mentioned something about possibly getting the car from Cuba so that is a possibility as well... The fact that it was 20 years ago makes it harder for me now, also there is no smaller plate on the hinge pillar at the front door, there are no holes or indication there has ever been one.
Also the only thing thats a problem right now, is the chassis number, the plate and the engine number matches, but i cannot find the chassis number.
I don't know where they would have stamped a chassis number on the car. As I said, the US cars did not have a number on the chassis. So your number could be anywhere....sorry.
Here is a tag like yours I found on the internet. Just like yours except it says 52 for the year, so you may have the wrong tag on yours. I wonder if there is information somewhere on GM export cars that would show or tell where the serial numbers are located? Was there a GM assembly plant in Antwerp Belgium in 1952? It says Antwerp on the tags.
Here is a tag like yours I found on the internet. Yours says the engine was assembled in 3/4/52 yet the year says 58, where this tag says 52. Could it be that it sat around somewhere until 1958 and they stamped it when it was sold?
Yeah, i believe the previous owner messed up with the plate, thanks to everyone u`ve been very very helpful, as Squirrel said US cars did not have a number on the chassis, seems like i have to check up to make sure that there is no chassis number since it seems it may not be a US made.... anyways when inspector comes in few daysi will have to explain that the chassis number is on the Plate ONLY and hope that he would actually understand the situation. New laws about vintage cars are forcing me to get new documents and this is why i`m in this situation.
Hi. With a tampered plate with a stamped over # I would expect you will be very lucky if you do not have problems with the inspector. Hopefully you have a title with numbers that match the plate. Good luck, Jim
Here in the USA, 1949-52 Chevrolet vehicles were titled from the engine serial number. Not the chassis number. So if an engine were changed, it would require a title change. The door pillar tag was not used. I found this out the hard way when the engine in my '51 was changed and the seller never had it corrected through the DMV. I cannot speak for vehicles out of the country. But you may want to check the engine serial number against the paperwork you got.
Some states used the engine number, some used the vehicle serial number, and some used both (AZ used both back then). You have to be careful when making general statements about what happens in the 50 different states of the US of A. The rules are different in every state.
Not true in all states. My 1951 Chevy was originally sold and titled in Idaho. It uses the door pillar tag # for the VIN.
If the only numbers on the car are the plate pictured and the engine number is the same it may be acceptable in your country, if the paperwork matches. US states had various ways of titling until the standard VIN system started; some with engine number, some with serial number. Not to mention, some dealers selling a car titled in the year sold - not the year manufactured.
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