Finding the VIN or Serial number of your Glassic

 

New in 2008. See a MOVIE
showing the location of the VIN tag

 

The VIN tags on Glassics (1966 to 1974) are in the same place as they are on Replicars (1976 to 1981), but the tags are different in appearance.  Both are a three - or four digit number starting with 101 for the first 1966 sold, and ending somewhere at or beyond 1505, with the last Replicar sold in 1981.

In both cases, the VIN tag is on the driver's side door post. Not on the door itself, but on the upright that has the door hinges attached.  The Glassic tags were plastic, pop riveted on, and the Replicars were aluminum looking stickers.  Here are samples of each.

GLASSICS -- to 1974

 

Replicars 1976 - 81

 

Replicars Serial Number on the frame. (1976 - 81)


The serial number by the factory is shown in these pictures. There is no
indication that these OTHER VIN locations were used on the pre-76 Glassic-named
cars.

 Car 1254 is the Annexmaster's car)

Scroll down for another picture

You are looking up under the front bumper on the driver's side of this 78 Phaeton. The purple is the little flat panel in the front of the car, right behind the bumper and below the grill. The parking light and turn signal is not original to the car.

On the bottom side (facing the ground) a few inches back from the front of the car are very poor welded beads making crude numbers representing the serial number.

This is a closer view of the number with the bumps chalked over so you can see them. The red and black wire is not in the top picture, so don't use IT as a reference. The tops of the numbers are nearest the driver's side wheel, bottom toward the center of the car. The 1 is at the front of the car, the 4 at the rear.

I share this detail, because the numbers are very hard to read!


Another serial number was hard to see -- on the SIDE of the front rail of this car appears number1254
stamped lightly into the frame with what looks like a 1/2 inch set of number punches. Joel, the builder,
does not recall this placement, and car 1239 has a similar stamping -- see below.
 
This close-up is after sanding the surface and trying to fill the indents by rubbing chalk over the surface and wiping away the residue. The oval was drawn in by the computer. The number is 1254.

See that the number is just to the rear of that triangular brace at the front of the frame.

The Photos below are of car 1239, a 1978 Roadster.


Yep! the number above is the marking on the frame of car 1239! Joel, the builder had hardly any recollection of this numbering system, nor why the frame number might not match the VIN sticker.
The above view is looking up from the ground.


Unrestored car 1239 also seems to have the number stamped on the SIDE of the front frame rail.
In this case it 123 is visible, which doesn't match the number on the bottom of the frame.

Our joint best guess is that the frames were numbered in the shop by the person welding the frame and the number assigned based on what body style it was supposed to go on, or perhaps which body mold would be used with the frame. 

Then, when it came time to title the car, the next  VIN sticker that was not yet gone was assigned to the car. Perhaps there was a rush to finish a car for someone, and when the car was ready to go, (maybe out of turn) it was assigned the next un-issued sticker.

So, as of Jan. 2007 I have uncovered a couple of these mis-matches.  Since the sticker seems to be what is on the titles, I have assumed that the sticker is the CORRECT VIN, and the frame number is incorrect.

 

ALSO -- some of the later Replicars had a number scratched into the inside of the fiberglass hood.
 It was probably done to match a hood to a car. The number was several inches high. This picture is only to give you an idea of what to look for. Car 1239 had "#" (the number sign) "239" scratched in the driver's side underneath of the hood. The number is almost invisible and even with my white lines you can hardly see them. They were done like with an ice pick and are about 6 inches tall. They were scratched in very crudely and probably just to identify one of a few cars that were being constructed at any one time. In this highly enhanced photo, the 9 is within the white line area, and the 3 is scratched to the left of my white lines.

The upper right corner of that picture is the back edge of the hood.

Anyone with info about these secondary VIN locations from cars other than 1978, please send me an email to GlassicAnnex@aol.com .