ovenman

Hi all. I have a chance to pick up a 1936 two door business coupe. The car is rock solid, excellent wood dent and rust free. It has a camaro front clip put in many years ago. My only problem is locating the VIN number. The body tag says 36-3807. I need a VIN to register in NYS. Does anyone know where it is?? Thanks Bill.

47 Convertible

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I'm kind of guessing as I've owned two '36 Chevy's and a lot of GM stuff was done similarly between brands. That said, Chevy and maybe Olds had an aluminum plate on the passenger side floorboard just to the rear of the hatch cover for the battery compartment.

Strictly speaking it was not a VIN but a build tag that identifies the year, model, plant number where it was made and then about 5 or so digits that denote its place in assembly. In Chevy speak 20500 would be the 20,500th car off the assembly line in that plant that year so the last series of number is individual to the car. That is the number that was on the title to both my 36 Chevys.

I also read that in 1938 Oldsmobile had a tag riveted to the frame in the engine compartment, driver's side I believe. Long shot but perhaps '36 is the same.

To further complicate things in the 30s some make's engines had unique numbers and that was used to register the car. If your Olds has the original engine you might be able to find that as a stamping on a smooth spot on the block if you can't find the build tag.

Search the vintage oldsmobile sub forum for '36 Olds as I think there are a couple of guys who own them and have posted here in the past. If you can identify them you can ask them directly.

Finally you might contact Oldsmobile Club of America (OCA) and see if they will respond to your question.
Jerry

twintracks

My '37 Olds L-37 has a vin number plate on the top of the left side (drivers side) frame rail, just to the rear of the front suspension. It does not match the engine serial number, which I've been told is normal on these. You can sort of see the tag below the generator tag in this photo. It's only wide enough for the series of numbers.

twintracks

Ah, I just read that the car has been "clipped". The vin plate probably went away with the front suspension. Is the removed frame section still available somewhere?

wr1970

Got any pictures of it!!

blucar

According to the Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942, the Serial number for the '36 Oldsmobile is on the frame left side rail under the hood.. Engine numbers were on the upper left corner of the cylinder block.
For identification purposes the numbers on the body tag mean nothing other that the fact that they do establish that the vehicle is a '36.. Some states will utilize the body tag as a secondary ID, California is one of those states.
Since you have said that the car has had a later model front clip welded into the frame, you are probably up the proverbial creek without a paddle. Most guys that sub frame/clip older cars are not smart enough to retain the original frame ID tag and/or to stamp the number into the new frame section..I encounter this type of thing on a regular basis...
A second issue that you should take a very hard look at.. As a general rule a Camaro front clip is to wide for a '36-54 model car, of any make. A '68-70 Nova is 2" narrower than the Camaro, so the front clip and rear axle will work well in '36-54 GM cars.. A better option is to use a front clip from one of after market manufactures that is made for the car
I recently ran into a man that bought a '36 Pontiac coupe that had been sub frame with a Camaro, it also had a Camaro rear end under it.. The car was a mess, did not drive very well. A friend of mine fixed the car for the owner, he cut the Camaro front clip off and put a FatMan unit in the car with rack/pinion steering..
The owner of the car had paid $28k for it, then had to spend a bunch of money to make the car road worthy.. Bill

blucar

I just took a few minutes to read all of the info about the '36 Olds in the Standard Catalog...
The body tag on the car is correct for '36.. 36-3807 is a "L" series, eight cylinder car, 2 dr bus cpe.. The serial number range for an "Lancing" L series is 100001/139925 to 202001/250000.. the second set of numbers being a Fisher car... Bill