The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk VIN number oddity

Greetings,

This is my first post so I hope I'm putting this in the right place.

At 60 I've finally fulfilled a longtime desire to own a vintage "driver" and purchased a 1951 Chevy 1/2 ton. It's in excellent mechanical condition with a straight body, bad paint and an interior that only needs *some* work. This is going to be fun.

According to my VIN number mine is a 1951 model assembled in Norwood, OH in December of 1951.

Is that possible? My dad worked for Chevrolet for 35 years and I can never remember a time when the "change of model" didn't occur in September. How could a 1951 vehicle be manufactured in December of 1951?

Thanks for any help.

Woody

Welcome to the Stovebolt Page and good luck with your truck. So you are saying that the character in the VIN (body serial number) is an "L" for December. I would say it's actually December 1950 for the 1951 model year. Maybe somebody else will speculate. If you can find the engine block casting date down by or behind the starter, if it is the original motor, that may help.

The VIN plates are easily changed.A 50 has pull down door handles,no vent windows and a left side cowl vent.In 51 the side cowl vent goes,vent windows and pull down door handles.52 is the same except for pushbutton handles.There's a few other small details.but all these things could also been changed over the years.

I think Frank50 has it right. If your ID plate has 9HPL#####, that would be a 1951 model manufactured in December, 1950, in Norwood, OH.

My VIN number is 9JPLxxxx and on both of the VIN number "translation" sites I get that it's a 1951 model assembled in Norwood Ohio in December of 1951.

It has side cowl louvers on the passenger side, push-button door handles and the engine has casting numbers on the forward right side of the engine which appears to be a 1952-53 block because it has the three bosses on each side for the motor mounts but that is not where the engine is mounted.

I can't read the engine casting numbers clearly but will be getting it up on a lift here in the next couple days.

Is there anything in particular that I should look for in the engine casting numbers/letters?

Sorry, I messed up in my first post. JP is definitely a 1951 1/2 ton. Regardless of what the VIN translation sites say, I think it would have been manufactured in December of 1950 for the reasons you pointed out in your first post.

From the looks of things, I think I'll nickname this one Frankenstein :p

Welcome to Stovebolt.com. Frankenstein would be a good name for it. The push button doors are '52 or later. That and the later engine show it's had it's share of transplants over the years. But don't be alarmed. Most of the others have too.

I bought it to drive and I couldn't be happier with it. She's in excellent mechanical condition and the few things she needs will get me off my butt and be fun to fix.

Thanks to everyone for making me feel welcome.