[John65ss]

OK... here's the story.

I've owned my '65 since 1986. When I bought it, it was a Nova 400, 194 ci, PG, white, red interior. By chance, I met the grandson of the original owner who told me a lot about the car. I KNOW it was always a 6 cyl. When decoding the cowl tag yesterday, here is what I found:

03C D
ST 65-11637 NOR10294 BDY
TR 791 C-C PAINT
W 2MP
5L

Two things struck me:

1. 11637 codes a V8! Obviously a factory mistake... the car was never tampered with.

2. The body sequence number seems to be missing a digit.

The VIN is 11537Nxxxxxx - Correct for a 6 cyl car.

Obviously, the factory screwed up from time to time!!!!

 

[CdnL79 Registry]

The VIN tag always takes precedence over the cowl tag. 65 thru 67 Chevy IIs frequently have cowl tags indicating V/8 when they really are sixes. Your VIN is telling the true story...your car is a six cylinder.
Bob

 

[John65ss]

Yup... I know it is a sixer, as I yanked the original engine many years ago. Plus, the car has the 6-cyl fuel line. I just thought it odd that the cowl tag said V8.

cdnl79... you mentioned that this is somewhat common? I'd have never guessed!

Any idea why the body sequence number is not 6 digits?

 

[oldGMguy]

At some plants, ALL cowl tag codes showed a V-8 option, regardless of the engine called for the car. Reason? The cowl tag is actually the FISHER BODY Build Plate. It's a scratch pad build sheet of what was originally planned to go on the car - as Fisher Body knew it to be. FISHER BODY built the body from the firewall back, then shipped the car to the CHEVROLET side of the plant. All Chassis and engine work happened on the CHEVY side. Chevrolet installed the VIN Plate. Back then, these were two different companies. CHEVROLET installed and painted the hood, front fenders and valance panels. Sometimes the paint would actually match what color Fisher had painted the rest of car. Sometimes not. The 'firewall back' options are usually true to the tag. Engine and chassis options may not be.

Oldgmguy

 

[69NovaSS]

its not just the early gen cars this happened to...there are many 3rd geners out there with this conflict, so to speak, between the cowl tag and VIN tag...as was noted the VIN tag says is always right... ..........unless of course an error was made

But seriously the VIN is what you go by not the cowl tag.

 

[Nova Research]

As oldGMguy stated. The Cowl tag always reflected V8. To Fisher 11427 (for a 3rd gen) was a two door car. 11469 was a 4 door. Nothing more.

John65ss;

Your sequence number is correct. These numbers had from 1 to 6 digits depending on when the car was ordered. Nothing wrong there.

Greg R.