Cowl Tag

Cool, looking forward to seeing them.
My car will never be in Concourse, but even if it were, I'd want it to be right, whether it's a points issue or not...

 

From a low mileage car

I bought an all original '72 Skylark this weekend with 25,320 miles. Here is a picture of the cowl tag on it... 1/2 painted and 1/2 shiney unpainted. It's not pretty but it's correct. If someone were to restore his car this way most people would not believe him when he told them that he just duplicated the original look.

 

Wow, interesting thread guys!! I've got a couple pics that tend to back all this up, so thought I would post them. The more info the better, right?? Anyway, first is a 72 GS 455 (sorry, parts car) that was built in fremont. Tag is black, and this car has never been touched as far as I can see (never taken very good care of either).....

 

And here is a picture of my (I think) untouched Flint built convertible 350/350 that had been sitting for 15 years when picture was taken. It is obviously unpainted. It also had some corrosion on the IB end and tag is starting to crumble so I had it painted along with the cowl (sorry Duane!) just to make it look better.

So the car was painted and then they touched up the black on the cowl area?? That explains the orange everywere on this car...

Later
Tim

 

Tim,
That's how I remember the tags,
Flint-unpainted except the edges
GMAD- all painted black
and if you look at the pictures of the two tags you posted, you will see they are also shaped differently.

They painted the cowl black up to the raised seam, where the top cowl panel welds to the outside cowl panel. The fender then covered it up.

I knew I wasn't crazy.
Duane

PS. If you guys want me to start taking points off for incorrect cowl tag painting, just let me know. (Just kidding.)

 

Duane,
:spank: Some folks will have things like neutral-colored frame pads and axle tubes to give us deductions. No others required at the moment!

Tim, Thanks for the pictures.... great help! BTW, your part is packaged and addressed and gets shipped tomorrow (USPS is closed today).

 

Another Flint built '72 Cowl tag

Here is the tag from another of our unrestored cars (junkers). It was built 2nd week of August '71 vs the other tag I posted above that is a very late car 1st week of July 1972.

This tag looks like it possibly had more black paint on it originally since there is some evidence of black paint in the small letters on the bottom half of the tag. However it appears that it was very faint and therefore wore off over the years due to the elements. Until I lightly cleaned the tag for this picture it appears to have never been touched. We bought this car from the original owners in 1997 and believe me, they couldn't have cared less about what the tag looked like so I know they didn't rub the black paint off! So the 2 Flint built '72s I've posted on this thread appear to have partially painted tags and our Fremont built '72 has a different style tag and is painted all black. Looks like a person can paint a Flint car's tag black or leave it shiny or go 1/2 and 1/2 and still be correct.

 

To The Top...

Great topic. Any new or updated info regarding the correct appearance of the cowl tags? Should the rivets be filled in with black sealer or hollow? Thanks.

 

James, I think the rivits usually got a blob of some sort on them. Over time it dries up and falls off.

One thing that has been scaring me lately is the number of guys who are talking about changing their tags to make them match their car. I dont see the point of that, I mean yeah maybe it makes it more correct since the incorrect paint now matches the tag but if anyone does any research on the car (if its sold for example) how would you explain that the paint matches the cowl tag but the cowl tag no longer matches the VIN options??? ou:

My tag on the ragtop is partly corroded in one corner and I left it just like that. That would be one case where I could see wanting to do something with it but I'm just not comfortable replacing the cowl tag.

later
Tim

 

I'm redoing my 69 GS350 which was build in Fremont. And the tag is black the same color as the firewall.

Louie

 

Does anyone have a small "gash" above their tag ? I posted in chassis resto about whether or not to paint a Flint tag , and I haven't seen anyone else with this. It's pictured in that post , just above my tag. Funny thing is , it looks like the metal is torn , but not pushed in on the bottom , just folded in on the top.o No: I can't see a reason for doing this , but I can fix it .

 

Post #12 in chassis resto , thread " Overspray onto cowl" showing gash . Anybody ever seen one like it ? Right above trim tag .

 

Yes mine has a big and several gashes around that area including all on the tag .Real mess . Looks like someone was installing hood and dropped it . tore up the tag pretty bad . From looking at some work done by previous owner that has to be what happened in the tag area .

 

Thanks Mike. I'm not sure what happened to mine , but it's fixed now.