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I bought a 69 Cutlass Wagon over the weekend and was told it was about 95% original outside of maintenance items and paint. Can anyone help me decode the VIN and Cowl tag as well as tell me where to look on the engine block, heads and trans to check that it is all original?
Im not too concerned if it is all original or not but figured it would be a cool thing to check out.
Also are there any other things I should look for? IE rear end codes, or build sheets
VC455 covered the cowl tag. There isn't any other information on it.
As far as the VIN, it tells you little that you can't tell by looking at the car.
3 = Oldsmobile division
36 = Cutlass V-8
35 = 2-seat station wagon body style
9 = model year 1969
M = assembly plant (Lansing)
435427 = sequential serial number at the Lansing plant
As far as checking the numbers-matchingness of the car, there would a derivative of the VIN stamped on the engine block and on the transmission that would include the last six digits of the VIN. If these numbers match, those would be the original engine and transmission.
Well I climbed under the hood today and took some pictures. It is the original engine block. It also has #5 heads on it. Does anyone know if these were factory option for this car or were they swapped at some point?
on a side note with everything in the car it is hard to get pictures of the head casting letter.
You can kind of see the #5 on the head here. This is the passenger side. Completely impossible for get a pic of driver side with alternator bracket in.
October 18th, 2017, 12:20 PM
