1979 Eldorado, chassis VIN location?

[Roger Zimmermann]

When the VIN was introduced behind the windshield, no VIN was stamped on a frame or on a strong sheet metal part for unibody vehicles. In most European countries, the VIN must be stamped somewhere in the engine compartment. This was done on export vehicles and it's still done.
You have to let stamped the VIN on the frame, I see no other alternative.
As some posters wrote, the VIN is stamped on a hidden place; you have to separate the body from the frame to see it, if you find it.

[bcroe]

When the VIN was introduced behind the windshield, no VIN was stamped on a frame or on a strong sheet metal part for unibody vehicles.   

So, the hidden VIN was dropped in this country with the windshield VIN, except
on export models?  Which would explain why I couldn't find it on my 79, that I
stripped to the frame and even much smaller pieces.  Bruce Roe

[TJ Hopland]

Its not clear to me in what has been said here, is / was the practice different between a full frame and unibody vehicle?   

I just find this topic fascinating.  So much is apparently put into a number that would not seem all that difficult to alter in one way or another and is also subject to a typing or writing error on the paperwork over time which seems to further question them.   Since computer data its easier to search histories but that only helps for maybe the last 15-20 years which may be only half the life if that of most of the cars we speak of around here. 

I'm glad I don't own anything that is really worth anything.  Seems like if you did own a truly valuable car you would also need to retain a legal department to constantly defend your ownership.   

[m-mman]

Vehicle Identification Numbers are there to let the manufacturer know which car is which (important for such things are running production changes), establish legal ownership AND to prove a crime.

Way back in the teens and 20s the most valuable part of a car was the engine. Even just a 2-3 year old (wood framed) body shell was relatively worthless. If a car ran, then it had value. If the motor was shot then it was worthless. Motors were rebuilt but not rebuilt & exchanged. So the factory installed motor was assumed to always stay with the car. It represented the 'backbone' of the car so the identification number was stamped on it.

Later in the 30s & 40s if a car was stolen (and it wasn’t going to be sold as a complete car) it was generally for the purposes of getting the engine for another car.  Police think they have discovered a chop shop full of stolen cars? All they have to do is check the numbers stamped on the engines and the scattered engine parts to see if any were reported stolen.

During WWII the process of creating exchange rebuilt engines created a huge problem. When you got a cheap rebuilt engine form Sears or Western Auto, it had originally come from some other car and by installing it you had effectively change your Vehicle Identification Number. War surplus Cadillac tank crate engines that were installed in prewar Cadillacs also had this problem.

Each state handled this problem differently. Some required that the car be reinspected and re titled. In other places all you had to do was file a statement with the motor vehicle department and they would 'correct' the number on your title and send you a new one.

Sometime in the late 1980s and early 1990s engines and drive trains became worthless. (likely they became so reliable people did not need a replacement) HOWEVER, the prices charged by auto makers for BODY and interior parts went up. Car gets a dent? It is the body parts that became valuable and were easy to sell to body shops.

Suddenly stolen cars were being dumped completely striped of their body (and later interior) parts. The engine and frame numbers were still in place and clearly visible. Police then searched the suspected chop shop and found fenders that match the COLOR of the stolen car, but without having a number on them it is impossible to PROVE that they came from a stolen car.

So automakers (at the urging & support of the insurance industry) began putting VINs on other parts of cars. Sometimes these are full VINs, sometimes they are partial VINs (the numbers dont always look like a VIN) and sometimes they are not stamped in the metal but are just a sticker. Depending on the year they can be found on doors, fenders, trunk lids, and eventually seats and door panels.  (stolen Escalade third seats are a serious problem)

So as time has moved on and the parts of a stolen car that are quick to sell at a profit has changed, then the identification of those parts also had to change. 
Today the most profitable theft is to steal a complete car then stuff it quickly into a shipping container and send it to a country that has a weak law enforcement system and where people don’t ask much about where a vehicle might have come from. In these situations there is very little that anyone can do.

[Glenn R. McLeod]

There is no V.I.N. code stamping on the chassis on '79-'85 Eldorado's. The only I.D. is the one in the lower left corner of the windshield.

[Eric DeVirgilis CLC# 8621]

It was my car. The dash vin was very hard to read and I thought I would just go to the hiway patrol to verify it and see about getting a replacement vin plate. I found out the info I posted and found out I could not do it so I so never went thru with it.
Jeff

Out of curiosity, what exactly made the dash VIN tag so difficult to decipher?