I just went out and
investigated the VIN tag on my ’55 Chrysler 300 and its VIN tag
attachment is a mystery, also. I was able to reach in behind the tag and
felt small sharp-edged holes at the attachment points. It’s not riveted
in a normal manner and I don’t think it has a normal spot weld,
either. The only thing I can think of is there were tiny mounting lugs on
the back of the VIN plate that fit into the holes and these lugs were either
mechanically expanded into the holes or brazed or electric welded in
place. The tags must have been attached after painting as all I’ve
seen have been made from a nice stainless plate. I notice some
discoloration at the mounting points that could be brazing rod.
Gotta be someone out there
that has popped one of these VIN tags off and observed how they are
fastened. It may be a difficult process to discourage ID swapping.
I did have one similar car offered for sale that had a state DMV replacement
tag attached, but the serial number format was that of an engine.
Almost as big a mystery as
what kind of critter gnawed on the gas cans. We had squirrels chew enough
holes in lead flashing around the chimney of a house in Houston to allow leaks and water damage.
Gophers regularly gnaw on buried cables and PVC.
Rich
Barber
Brentwood, CA
Date: Thu,
1 Mar 2007 19:26:27 -0800
From: eastern sierra Adj Services
<esierraadj@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: "Splain THIS,
to me....
--WebTV-Mail-17126-4543
Content-Type: Text/Plain;
Charset=US-ASCII
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7Bit
OK, the attached pic is
lousy, but it shows Ron Mog's 56 NY'er, that
he's fixin up, to take to
Tulsarama.
Anyway, he (& I) had
thought that the door hinge-piller's metal VIN tag
had been 'spot-welded' to
the door post.
He discovered that the VIN
tag had MERELY been "punched" into
PRE-existing(??)
mating-HOLES, cut into the hinge piller.
I say "pre"-cut,
because, if the VIN tag would
have been 'punched' into the
hinge piller, the "punch" would have had to
penetrate the VIN tag, in
order to punch holes clean-thru the
heavy-steel hinge piller!!!
So, the mating-holes HAD to
have preceded the VIN tag being 'punched'
INTO those holes.
Again, there was ONLY a
physical -attachment (via the punch-depressions)
of the Vin tag, to the hinge
piller.
Neil Vedder
Rich Barber
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