TheSaint

I was reading Nolan Adams Volume 2 Updated Version about 327 engines for 1964 Corvettes and found the VIN and suffix for the car that was in front of my car on the assembly line.

The car from Nolans book have a suffix of F1130RE and it is a 365 hp car

My car is also a 365 hp car and since my car was the first car after the one in Nolans book makes wonder if my car also should have a suffix of F1130?

Thinking of the fact that this is the car that was placed in front of my car when they where built it sure is makes me think that the suffix on my car should have the same date numbers on the suffix?
So do you agree with me that my December 6, 1963 built 1964 coupe is correct to have a suffix of F1130?
If not what suffix date should my car have?

For your information the trim tag on my car have D5 and the official production date for my car is 12/6/1963

Nowhere Man

One would think two cars built on the same day would have the same engine assembly date....

Mike Ward

There was no attempt to use engines in an orderly, sequential manner by following the assembly dates on the pad. This means that your own engine might have had an engine with the same date, or maybe earlier or maybe later. Nobody knows.

I'm not sure that the car in Noland's book was typical. If that car was also completed on Dec. 6th, the engine was probably installed on the 5th or possibly the 4th. An engine assembly date of Nov. 30th is 'tight'.

ejboyd5

Just curious, how do you know that your car was next on the assembly line? It may have a sequential VIN, but as I understand it that is no guarante that is the order in which product moved along the line.

63 Blue Thunder

inventory control at St Louis in that era was haphazard at best.

The car that was two cars ahead of my 63 (both 340 HP cars) had an engine that was assembled about 6 weeks before mine.

So it would not be unusual to have very different engine build dates for cars close together on the line.

wombvette

I would expect vehicle serial numbers to be sequential coming down the line, however engine build dates were not.

TheSaint

Well, it is the engine that have the vin just before my car since where i red about it in the book it was about engines.
I was pretty sure that the cars was lined up one after the other according to the vin and therefore i was sure that this car was the car in front of my car sine my car is one digit after this car

I was also 100 percent sure that my car would have the same dates in the suffix since the 2 cars are so close
I was also sure that my engine could not have a build date before the car with the vin before mine

That the engines as well as the cars had serial numbers after their place on the assembly line

So i thought that the engine for my car could not have an earlier date than the car in front of my car and that the dates in the suffix would be the same and if not my car would have the next day. When the car vith the vin before my car have F1130RE suffic my could not have a F1129 date in the suffix but a F1130 or later

TheSaint

If a assembly date of November 30 is tight the the suffix would start with F1104 or F1105 or am i wrong about this?
Or would it be F114 or F115?

Mike Ward

You're trying to turn this into a precise science. It's not.

I think most people agree that the average or typical interval between engine assembly date and car assembly date is somewhere around two weeks with lots of exceptions on either side.

JohnZ

As Wayne noted, VIN numbers were sequential in Final Assembly (after the Paint Shop); the first operation in Final Assembly was the first station on the Hard Trim Line, which is the station where the VIN was assigned, created, and affixed. The unit was "locked in sequence" from there until it was driven off the end of the Final Line.

TheSaint

Thanks John

Mike. I am not trying to turn this into a precise science
I just asked about how the date is in the suffix

If it have 0 in in the suffix like F1204 or F124?

What i asked about is if a single digit day and single digit month have a 0 in front in the suffix?

So a Flint engine that is assembled April 7 have a suffix like F0407

JohnZ

All Flint pads after mid-1960 have four digits for the month and day.

Mike Ward

That's a very different question from "what date did my engine have". Sorry, I'm not a mind reader. Are you a woman?

As John says, they had four digits to represent the month and date.