The date that the frame of my '65 was pulled has long since worn away. I was wondering if the information on the trim tag or the VIN of the vehicle can be used to estimate the frame pull date so it can be applied to the restored frame. Is there a specific color that the pull date was written in? Member assistance, as always, is most appreciated. Have a great weekend. Joe
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Good question, Joseph. The 1965 pull date will appear on the passenger side outer frame rail forward of the frame stencil. It should be written in white. The date should appear upside down and preceed the car's build date by a day or two.
I hope that helps.
TonyRegion VII Director (serving members in Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas).
Original member of the Kansas City Chapter, est'd 07/11/1982.
Member: 1965 and 1966 National Judging Teams
Judging Chairman--Kansas City Chapter.
Co-Editor of the 1965 TIM and JG, 6th and 7th editions.
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Joe,
FYI - Per one of John Hinckley's C2 Corvette Enthusiast magazine articles, here's what he said about the frames:
The Corvette frame was manufactured by the A.O. Smith corporation…
1963-1967 frames were made at the plant in Granite City, Illinois, just across the river from St. Louis…
and the almost-identical 1968-1982 frames were made at their Milwaukee plant, which also made the 1953-1962 Corvette frames.thx,
MarkComment
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I believe early 1966 frame markings were similar to 1965... before the pull date switched to a stencil.
Here is an example from Noland's book... the hand written pull date is for the 20th - Sept - 1965.
(writing appears 'normal' in the image... but will be upside down, once the frame is flipped)
1966-Frames-(Noland-Adams)-TDB-01.jpg
1966-Frames-(Noland-Adams)-TDB-02.jpg
BTW- If you haven't already, be sure to check the 1965 Judging Guide for guidance.
(they may also have some example images)Comment
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Both of my 65's frame pull date preceded the cars build date by 2 days however both cars dates were written in orange.Comment
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Somewhere I've seen a photo(s?) of frames stacked outside exposed to the elements.
Because the St. Louis Corvette Plant was very small and cramped as most Assembly Plants go and frames were large parts, my guess is Production Engineering at St. Louis probably worked closely - translate to "pressured"?
- AOS/Granite City to not run out of frames ready to install, but also not to deliver too many causing storage; rusting (if stored outside); and other maneuverability problems.
That's probably the reason Jim D. and others have reported pull dates so close to build dates.thx,
MarkComment
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Joseph,
I think a more nuanced answer to your question is that it depends on whether your car has a St. Louis body or an AO Smith body. The reason I say that is that I have a frame stencil & Trim Tag database with details on more than two dozen 1966 Corvettes. I assume the basic statistics for ‘65 are similar to those for ‘66. For ‘66, for St. Louis bodied cars, the frame date PRECEDES the Trim Tag date by an average of 2 days, with a range from 1 to 15 days. For AO Smith bodied cars, the frame date is, on average, 4 days AFTER the Trim Tag date, with a range of 1 to 6 days.
Gary
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Herez another observation from Noland's '66 production frame photo... if you look at the frames stacked in the background, the date has a different format, and appears to possibly be earlier (going by the 'slashes', the date is likely a single digit... perhaps 9/4/65). So the format and color of the grease pencil, may have depended on the individual worker, during that particular shift... then placed in a nearby stack, for future use.
1966-Frames-(Noland-Adams)-TDB-03.jpgComment
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I also tried a favorite photo colorization website... just to see what color values they assigned.
It appears the grease pencil dates in this image, were calculated as 'white'.
1966-Frames-(Noland-Adams)-TDB-01b.jpgComment
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Absolutel. I’ve seen two date formats for hand written dates on early ‘66s. Here are examples:
9/14/65
20-9-65
9/21/65
9-22-65
10-7-65
Surprisingly, there are at least six different date formats once the date was incorporated directly into the stencil and no longer hand written.
GaryComment
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Ok. Folks seem to think the date on the frame was a "pull date" or date the frame was taken from stock and used on the assy line.
If that is correct, then why do the 67 frame stencils include a date, which logic says, was the date of manufacture of the frame, not the date the frame was placed into production, (pull date). The stencil was applied at the frame manufacturer, Granite City.
IMHO the crayon "pull date" is the date of manufacture...... just like everything else that was date coded on the car, such as alternators, transmissions and door panels to name a few.......
In my case the date was 4-7 for my 67
Frame Part Number and date.jpg Frame part number 2.jpgComment
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Steve- That makes total sense... but why did the C2's start out as stencils, end in stencils, yet have some hand written dates in the middle? I'm certainly not knowledgeable on the subject... just evaluating known images. Perhaps those members with more info/experience (likely at the Convention) will eventually chime in.Comment
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Stephen,
I don’t know who first coined the phase “pull date”. And I don’t know what it refers to. Nor do I know when the stencil was applied nor when the grease pencil date was applied for, say, pre-November 1965 cars. Obviously, the stencil and date was applied after the frame was painted, but before it was brought to the production line. I do not know that the stencil was applied the day of frame manufacture. Maybe the frame paint was given a day or longer to dry before the stencil was rolled. I just don’t know. Perhaps we should just call it a frame date and leave it at that.
Gary
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