1953 - 1967 Corvette Specification Guide
General Information

VIN Plate Locations

1953-55:  The Vehicle Identification Serial Number (VIN) plate has rounded corners and attaches with Philips screws at the top of the left-hand door hinge pillar just below the courtesy lamp remote door switch.  Very early 1953 VIN plates are of magnetic stainless steel, with attachment holes drilled by hand; later VIN plates are of aluminum with machine stamped attachment holes.

1956 through early-196:  VIN plate (with rounded corners) attached with Philips screws to the door hinge pillar, just below the upper hinge.

Early-1960 through 1962:  VIN plate  (with rounded corners) is spot welded to the top of the steering column mast jacket, about 13-inches rearward of the steering gear housing in the engine compartment.

1963-1964:   VIN plate (with rounded corners) is spot welded to the body hinge pillar brace below the right-hand side glove compartment.  A new design plate  (with rounded corners) entered production about June 15, 1963, containing the letter "DD" (indicating Delivery Date) with blank space provided for the dealer to stamp the delivery date of the vehicle.  It should be noted many VIN plates do not contain the delivery date stampings. 

1965-67:  VIN plates  (with square corners) are riveted to the body hinge pillar brace below the glove compartment.  The change to rivets was necessary due to the breaking of VIN plate attaching welds by dealers when stamping the delivery date. Early-1965 VIN plates are attached with normal circular-head rivets; later rivet heads were rosette shaped.  Again, delivery dates stampings were not always done.

1968-82:  VIN plate attached with rosette-head rivets to the inner vertical surface of the left-hand windshield pillar, visible through the windshield glass.  Location is such that VIN tampering would require glass removal.

Engine Identification

Code Location:  The engine type identification and manufacturing serial code stamping is located on a machined boss just to the rear of the ignition distributor opening on 1953-55 six-cylinder engines; on 1955 and later V-8 engines at the right front top, on a pad just forward of the cylinder head.

Note: The use of the die stamp resembling the alphabetical letter "l", is often the Roman numeral character for the number one.

1953:  Corvette's "LAY" engine prefix indicates the 1953 model-year "L"; passenger car (not truck) type engine "A"; and Corvette 150 horsepower 235 engine with Powerglide transmission manufactured at the Tonawanda, New York, engine plant "Y".  This engine code is followed by a six-digit engine serial number.

1954-1956:  Engines were serial numbered in sequence starting with 0001001 at the beginning of each model year.  There is no correlation between this engine serial number and the vehicle identification serial numbers other than higher serial numbered cars tend to have higher serial numbered engines.  1954-56 engine serial numbers were followed by the source designation letter "F" (for Flint Engine Plant); "54","55" or "56" for the vehicle model-year; and the engine type suffix code.

1957 & Later:  Beginning with 1957, continuous engine serial numbering was discounted.  Engines were prefixed with a source designation ("F" for 1955-66 Flint small blocks; "V" for 1967 and later Flint small blocks; and "T" for 1965 and later Tonawanda, New York, big blocks); followed by three of four digits representing the date of manufacture [first one or two digits representing the month("1" through "12" used 1957-59; "01" through  "12" used beginning sometime in 1960; the last two digits representing the date of the month ("01 through "31"")]; ending with the engine type suffix code as indicated in the Engine Identification Codes section of this Spec Guide.  Also, beginning sometime during 1960, a VIN derivative stamping was added to the engine pad, mating the engine to the vehicle in which it was installed.

Carburetor Identification

Carter:  The numbers shown in the Carburetor section will appear on a triangular metal identification tag attached to the bowl cover on YH models, or the air horn on WCFB and AFB models have carburetor identification information stamped into the throttle body base with or without the metal tag.  Tags also carry a date code ("A" for January, "B" for February and so on; followed by the last digit of the calendar year), and a number indicating the Carter assembly line.  Note the letter "l" was not used to represent the month of September.

Holley:  Model identification and date code are stamped into the forward vertical surface of the air horn.  The normal Holley date code can be deciphered as: 1st digit is last digit of calendar year; second digit indicates the month ('1" through "9" for January through September; "0" for October; "A" for November and "B" for December); ending with the third digit representing the week of the month.  Some original equipment Holleys may be coded using four digits, the first three indicating the Julian Calendar date, ending in the single digit representing the last digit of the calendar year.

Rochester Carburetors:  Quadrajet identification numbers are stamped into the vertical boss on the left-hand side, above the secondary throttle shaft.  Also contained are the Julian calendar date and an assembly line broad-cast code.  Some Quadrajets were manufactured by Carter for Rochester and their castings are so identified.

Rochester Fuel Injection:  Unit identification is by means of a metal tag riveted to the forward left vertical side of the plenum.  The tag contains the unit model number (refer to Fuel Injection section), and a serial number that ran "1001", "1002" and so on, with each unit series.  Note that approximately the first 100 model 7014360 units used in 1957 do not use the metal tag, but rather have a serial number hand stamped onto the plenum.  Fuel meters also have a triangular metal inspection tag mounted under a screw on the power enrichment diaphragm cover.  this tag contains the unit model number and date of manufacture code indicating month and year.  Air meter and fuel meter part numbers and their serial numbers (refer to Fuel Injection section) were hand stamped into the components.

Rear Axle Identification

1953-62:  Serial code will be stamped on the front, right-hand side of the differential carrier housing.  The prefix code (refer to Rear Axle section) will be followed by one or two digits representing the month of manufacture ("1" or "01" through "12"); followed by two digits designating the date of the month ("01" through "31").

1963 & Later:  Axle codes will be stamped on the bottom of the differential carrier housing just forward of the cover.  The axle type and ratio identification prefix codes letters (refer to Rear Axle section) will be followed by various numbers and letters which may indicate the date of manufacture, plant, and/or type of axle.

The Month Letter "l"

Generally, the letter "l" will be used to represent the month of September only on Chevrolet Central Foundry metal castings.  It is generally skipped over and not used to represent September on hand or machine die stamped components such as generators, alternators, distributors, carburetors, radiators, etc.  The stamped letter "l" is, however, used to represent the ninth month of body production on 1963 and later St. Louis body identification tags (see Body Build Date Codes section).

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