car question

[cycloneman]

How many different places are a vehicles vin numbers located on a vehicle?

Ford

GM

I am looking to add identifying numbers to some vehicles and would like to know where the manufacture has started. Any ideas?

[Country101]

If I remember correctly, I think I have seen them on the engine side of the hood on a sticker, the door frame, and a few other places.

[BillM]

Just pick your place. If there isn't a number there already you
are good to go.


Highly unlikely that anybody is going to tell you ALL the places there
are ID numbers on a modern auto. Unless maybe you are LE, and even
then you would "need to know".

[millwright]

Lots, CM ! Seems to me you,re gilding the lily with your scheme. Hell, its even possible to document the OEM build list of 60's classics ! >MW

[cycloneman]

Originally Posted by millwright

Lots, CM ! Seems to me you,re gilding the lily with your scheme. Hell, its even possible to document the OEM build list of 60's classics ! >MW

What?

Allright i will go into it alittle further. Recently i had 2 guys tresspass on my property after isaac. I have a vehicle locked in the garage and my truck which is left open.

I am recalling days in my youth when i had a buddie with a mustang stolen. Police found the car under the mississippi river bridge in a swampy area. They knew the car was his but could not prove it because the vin number at the windshield was removed. So my friend had to wait a certain amount of time before he could collect on his insurance. If they could have prooved the car was his then his claim would have been processed faster.

But i am not concerned about a claim. I simply hear some say that a vin is under this and that and maybe here and there. And i really think no one know crap for sure. The only one i know of is the one that everybody and their brother goes to if you need to look up a part and that is the one under the windshild.

I sure would like to know if they stamp it on the rear end, engine and tranny. That would be nice. But i have to tell you i have never seen a vin number on a block and i have built more than one.

Some other things i remember about my buddies car was that the people who stole it primed the car gray and we found the bolt heads ripped off. So what they did was use a impact wrench and tighten the bolts till they broke off. Strange hugh? I recall saying this is the car and some ahole saying you cant prove it the vin number is gone.

[Country101]

Take a stamp set and stamp it on the frame is an obscure place that wouldnt be subject to damage or excessive rust. Manufacturer wont have it there, but if you put it there, you'd be able to have it identified pretty easily. Thieves wont know where to look.

[Bindernut]

It depends on the manufacturer where the VIN is all stamped.
What years are you talking about?
In past years (and still with modern trucks) when a car had a separate body and frame, the serial would be applied to both the frame and the body. Also the engine and transmission too...these two are the whole farce behind a "numbers matching" restoration but that's another story in itself.

I'm not real positive on the GMs or all of the Fords.
Chrysler up through the late 80s has traditionally used the dash mounted tag, the radiator support (back when it wasn't a bolt-on piece), the rear frame/sub-frame rail, plus a couple other spots depending on what body style it's on. Those are the standard locations though. The (original) engine and tranny are also stamped with the VIN.

Late 60s Fords are similar to Mopar. They used several body and frame locations in addition to the government mandated (in 66 or 67) dash tag.


If you add your own ID marks, be sure you document them with photographs for future use. This helped a friend of mine get a custom ice-drag snowmobile back a couple years ago.

[carver]

On the door frame/door post of the front doors (usually driver's but sometimes passenger's)
On the dash near the windshield
On the engine itself (machined pad on front of engine)
On the car's firewall
In the left-hand inner wheel arch
On the steering wheel/steering column
On the radiator support bracket
On your car's title, registration, guarantee/maintenance book or on the declarations page of your auto insurance policy

[wv hillbilly]

most all major parts of your car/truck will have an ID number. engine, transmission, transmission mount, rear end housing, the hood, the trunk and etc

[montezumaz]

My Lexus CT200h has the VIN etched on all the glass.

[Double D]

Originally Posted by montezumaz

My Lexus CT200h has the VIN etched on all the glass.

Yep, thats what toyota does.

[68c15]

PM me with year make and model and I can tell you where they are. I have all-data at work, it lists VIN locations.

I do like the idea of stamping your own and documenting it for later reference.

but if you have crap like I do nobody wants to steal it anyway. I've even found some leave a $20 bill on the seat along with a sympathy note.

[armedandsafe]

Only $20? You must have a pretty good lookin' clunker.

Pops

[Country101]

Originally Posted by Double D

Yep, thats what toyota does.

Really? Where at?


Now I'm gonna have to look at my truck.....

[Double D]

Originally Posted by Country101

Really? Where at?


Now I'm gonna have to look at my truck.....

On all of the window glass. Not sure what year they started it...

[carver]

Originally Posted by cycloneman

I am recalling days in my youth when i had a buddie with a mustang stolen. Police found the car under the mississippi river bridge in a swampy area. They knew the car was his but could not prove it because the vin number at the windshield was removed. So my friend had to wait a certain amount of time before he could collect on his insurance. If they could have prooved the car was his then his claim would have been processed faster.

Some other things i remember about my buddies car was that the people who stole it primed the car gray and we found the bolt heads ripped off. So what they did was use a impact wrench and tighten the bolts till they broke off. Strange hugh? I recall saying this is the car and some ahole saying you cant prove it the vin number is gone.

Back in the old days cops/civilians didn't know where to look for the vin #'s. Today things are different.

While working as a security guard for a company, a man pulled into the praking lot, got out of his car, and started looking over an employees car in the lot. By the time I got to him he was on the phone with the police. He told me that the car in question was his, and that it was stolen. That he had seen it on the street, and followed it to the parking lot. The cops arrived within a few minutes, and the man told the cop what he had told me. The cop then called another cop, and I ran the tags on the car with the data base for employees, and notified the employee of what was happening. The second cop made it to the parking lot in about 15 min., and started crawling all over, and under the car. After about 10 min of this he declared that the car was indeed stolen, as per the police report he had with him. The employee began to dig pappers from the glove box to prove that he bought the car legally, which he had. From start to finish the whole thing was settled, and a wrecker was removing the car from the lot in less than an hour. No charges were filed against the employee, but the cops said that their next stop was the dealership that sold the car. I can not tell you the outcome, cause I don't know who, if anybody, was arrested.

[gvw3]

I used to own an auto body shop. The state requires you to document all used parts you use. The vin # is on the used parts when you get them from the wreaking yard. If you mess this up you could go to jail. Today the vin # is all over the cars. It's in places only the State Police know.

In the 60's and 70's car theft for parts was a big business. I once put a front end on a recovered theft job that had a small crease on the lower left fender. The crease ran down the whole side of the car. This used front end had to be the one that was stolen off the same car a few week before. I have seen the same thing with pickup beds.

The new laws and vin # all over the car have pretty much put an end to this.

[ozo]

Originally Posted by montezumaz

My Lexus CT200h has the VIN etched on all the glass.

So does our Grand Caravan

[Joel Lehman]

I worked for the Texas Department of Transportation, motor vehicle in a regional office. We reassigned the VIN of stolen vehicles that were recovered.
Manufacturers stamp the VIN or partial VIN all over the vehicle.

Remember the first World Trade Center bomb. The rental van that housed the bomb was Identified by vin on a part of a rear axle.

[Gun Geezer]

I worked in a body shop. We used lots of used parts. Every major part has an identifying vin # etched on it to be able to trace it back to its point of origin to prove it wasn't stolen. It required quite a paper trail.