Without getting into the legal/moral implications of re-fastening the VIN tag to the cowl, I've seen a lot of discussion about the proper VIN tag rivits. But how exactly is the tag supposed to fastened? Has anyone else noticed (at least in mine anyway) in the 1969 assembly manual shows the VIN tag being rivited to the cowl from underneath. So the heads are under the dash and not visible anyway. How exactly was it really done at the factory? Were the heads underneath or on top (under the dash pad?)

On the 1968, the dash pad hides the rivet heads.

With the dash pad removed the hex rivet heads are visible.



From beneath, the tag looks like this.

One of the pictures disappeared. Here it is again.

Whike we are on the topic, what color was the number plate, black I assume. I am just about to refinish that part...

David, On my burgundy dash it looks either like overspray over something dark like black or grime over dash color paint. With 38 years of sun fading and grime, who knows.

The assembly manual says it is supposed to be zinc plated.

Anybody else wanna share how thiers is mounted?

They are all the same if not tampered with. The part that is zinc plated is the back-up plate. The plate with the numbers is black with possible overspray.

OK, I'll give you the zinc plating, but how do you explain this drawing from the '69 assembly manual showing the rivits being installed from under the dash?
(Now, If I can make this image post.)

I'll paint the plate with black but I am a little against making it exactly factory and overspraying everywhere....

I got my firewall plate rivets from this guy for $12;

joe@trimtags.com

He wanted $24 for the VIN # rivets....OUCH. Anyone have a less expensive source...


"Those are rosette rivets and are $24 per pair, includes S&H."

Lee,
No matter what the assembly manual says, after you've looked at a hundred of these you know how they go. 68bigbird's pics are 'spot on' correct. If you are installing one, make it look exactly like that.

Looks good to me...I was not looking forward to trying to get that rivet gun under the dash anyhow. Still, anyone have any better (or less expensive) suppliers for those correct rosette rivets?

My god, just googled "rosette rivets" found them from between $45 and $65 per PAIR ....I guess $24 sounds better already

Jim,
Thanks. That's what is was trying to find out. I've never seen a tag rivited from underneath (but that doesn't mean it wasn't done.) Just wanted to hear from someone who's seen or worked on lots of them. So basically, the factory ignored what was in the manual and installed them from above. Works for me.

More like the manual ignored what the factory did. They had a big a$$ rivet gun they used so you wouldn't want to be lugging it around. They had it hanging overhead. Pull it down and 'bip' your done. Two rivets at a time. It was the only thing they used it for. They made an attemp at making them hard to reproduce in the average garage of the day.

Why buy rosette rivets? You can't see them with the dash pad installed. It will be obvious to anyone looking under the dash that the VIN had to be moved from the old dash to a new because it won't be rusted underneath. The dash pad is very difficult to remove to look at these rivet heads. Put the $25 to better use and used pop rivets from your home center.

S'pose you are right, I wasn't thinking about the fact the d@rn thing is hidden.

Be careful with that tag. Someone on Camaros.net talked about some rust on the numbers and the numbers damaged or wiped off. It's really thin, similar to the trim tag I think. That's probably why it's backed up with another piece.