My 51 buick special. When i had the engine out I cleaned and painted the frame rails. Saw the vin somewhere Forgot where. Ive spent 2 nights scraping paint searching for it. I'm one beer away from pulling the engine. .. Factory manualsays its by the master cyl on left rail. Going for a state vin check And registration A soon as i find it. Any clues?
Thanks I trolled the web quite a bit before asking. Probably the best resource page i found. Didnt help though. I also read the locations vary On models within the year and possibly different for assembly plants. I know Its there,i have seen it.
Here is mine, hope it helps! My finger is on the number! Driver side frame horn! Can take a better pic tomorrow. Mine was tricky to find as it was covered in grease and grime!
I looked on the posted Buick archive about the 49 Buick location. Just for info, on the two 1949 Buick frames I have, they both also have the serial number stamped on the top of the passenger side rear frame. Located about a foot ahead of where the bumper bolts on. Since this was not listed in the archive, you may want to check your 51 in the same place, just use a mirror if the body is on.
Thanks again Unfortunately nothing there. Pulled the engine, mirrored the top of the rails. Used a inspection camera. Magnifying glass different lighting Removing paint etc. . Going nuts. Had an eye injury about two years ago.i don't have that eagle eye like I used to. I know I saw a large format number on one of the rails a while back. 1/2" tall font. In between the wheels some where. Any help appreciated
Believe it or not. Still looking. I have been using paint stripper on the frame. Slow going. Dont want to sand or grind like i did on the frame horns .
As an example, my 46 Olds has the number stamped on top of the LHF frame above the front bar bracket, and in the same location on top in the middle of the frame under the 'B' pillar and on the rear frame top just forward of the rear bar bracket. They are very feint hand stampings, when the frame was cleaned and rubbed with chalk they weren't that obvious however my body is not on the frame, I had no idea that the other stampings were there as they were not easy to find.
Using chalk is a great idea.thanks I do believe there's more than one location. As I said i found two in the past. Hoping for a third. Pulling the body off the frame is an option.
The number on the frame isn't necessarily the vin #. On my 49 sedanette the vin on the title corresponded to a number on the engine block. The frame number's were different. You might want to check this, unless you have already replaced the engine. Here in Indiana that opens up a whole can of worms. They don't want to use the frame stamping if the title has the engine vin.
Thanks. Found it. Frame and A pillar tag matches the vin on paperwork. I was looking at another old 40s buick recently ,With a stuck engine, title matched the engine block, so i turned down the sale.