69z28&ss396

Ok, So in my thirst for knowledge and this comes from the black 67 L71 in the for sale section, how do you tell if you have an A.O. smith body or a St. Louis trim tag? Ive got a small block car that im turning into a big block tribute to my late father, so if anybody wants info on my car, h*ll Ill send pics of the tags to you. I have no intention of trying to sell my car as a big block, as my car is never going to be for sale. And even if it was, I wouldn't misrepresent it anyway!

This is strictly so I can look at trim tags and tell if its an A.O. smith or St. Louis car.

Thanks
Tony

66jack

On your trim tag...If theres an 'S' besides the body number its a St Louis car...

Mine is S2652

kenba

If it's a A O SMITH it will start with A

66BlkBB

Yes!!!!!!!

BB767

And if there is an "A" beside the body number it is an A. O. Smith built body. (BTW, disregard the switch ingloriously installed in that trim tag!!)

Jack, perhaps to make this a little more clear to some folks out there that are new to Corvettes, all are St. Louis cars, but some are A.O.Smith built bodies that were shipped to St. Louis to become St Louis built cars. It's a small distinction but some out there still don't understand.

Cheers.

Thomas

Powershift

For 1967 model, big block cars were built with St Louis bodies, so the BB cars should all have "S" Trim Tags. This had to do with AOS problems/issues with the BB hood stripes.

IT COULD BE POSSIBLE (in my opinion) for a few of the very first BB cars produced to have come from AOS, and the hoods redone at St Louis body shop. But these would be late August 1966 or early September 1966 built cars. They would likely have VINs below 500 (or so). If you discover one of these, then let's talk again.

Larry

C2Jeff

Do collectors value one body over the other or are they both about the same?

vettsplit 63

Don't know about the collectors value, but had read that there was quite a bit of inter agency rivalry, where the St. Louis plant disparaged and found many faults with the AO Smith bodies. Guess it was cutting them out of some work.

midstyle

Hey -- somebody switched your trim tag

BB767

.........................

Thomas

Fawndeuce

Nope, has no effect on the value one way or the other.
Also, no Smith car ever had factory sidepipes, only the St-Louis plant had the big stamping press to notch the birdcage for sidepipe cars.
So whenever you see a Smith car with pipes, you know right away it weren't born that way.



Paul

426 Hemi

Besides the trim plate, how do you tell an A.O. body from a St Louis body?

Fawndeuce

Here is a post from John taken from a thread back in '07.

"About the only difference between an A.O. Smith body and a St. Louis body is that the steel reinforcements riveted to the underbody and the radiator support were primed with green zinc chromate on A.O. Smith bodies, vs. dip-primed black on St. Louis bodies, and A.O. Smith used different rivets where the upper door hinge reinforcement attached to the door inner panel. A.O. Smith bodies had NO additional parts or reinforcements.

For option restrictions, no sidepipe bodies were built at A.O. Smith - only one set of hydraulic die tooling for notching the sills was built, and it was installed at St. Louis; not one A.O. Smith body with sidepipes has ever been documented. Also, it's generally agreed that no '67 big-block bodies were built at A.O. Smith after the first few weeks of '67 production.

I wrote a photo-illustrated tech article on the history and body build process at A.O. Smith in the June, 2006 issue of "Corvette Enthusiast" magazine (800-448-3611 for back issues). It's also available for viewing or download at BarryK's site - scroll down to "Misc.", and it's "AOSmith.pdf". "

Here is the link to thee whole thread, some interesting reading.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c1-a...lt-bodies.html



Paul

Nowhere Man

If the car does not have power windows a St. Louis body will have dimples in the jams for the p/w where as A O Smith it's smoth. There are other little clues as well. And as to a value to one or anther I think the St. Louis body wins becouse you can add side pipes and make it look factory and a bb unlike a smith body

A-Snake

The front clip was assembled on a separate jig at A O Smith thus the side body line is straighter on a AO Smith car. If you site down from the front you will see a straight line from the point the 'corner' ends on the front fender through the door. On St. Louis cars there is a 'bow' about where the front wheel wells are. Of course this may not be true after front end body work has been done

The AO Smith body is also a slightly different width, that can become apparent when trying to fit a deck lid from a AO Smith car to a St Louis car.

JohnZ

So was the front clip at St. Louis - the only difference was that A.O. Smith included the front fender lower (gill) panel in the front clip bonding fixture, and St. Louis didn't - they installed that panel on the main line after installing the front clip on the body.

A-Snake

Thanks John, didn't know it was the gill panel install that 'created' the difference.

69z28&ss396

My 67 has an S beside the body number.. Thanks guys, I appreciate it!