Saving a 65 GS 3 speed

[red65gs]

I guess the star remains a mystery. I'm stumped. However, I did find a nice kit for barrel nuts on eBay. https://www.ebay.com/itm/202855924472?ViewItem=&vxp=mtr&item=202855924472
1/8" x 3/16" are the right parts for the glove box emblem.

[BuickGS65]

1/8" x 3/16" are the right parts for the glove box emblem.

Forgive my ignorance - aren’t the holes for the glovebox emblem square? So how do the round barrel nuts work?

[BuickGS65]

PS - any photos you can posit of the glove box emblem install would also be helpful.  Thanks!

[red65gs]

I thought that was weird myself. The barrel nuts have 4 tapered guide tangs at the bottom to guide the barrel into place on the 4 sides. Then there are 2 more outward facing tangs further up that lock the barrel nut in the hole. Those have to be overcome if removing the old barrel nuts. I'll take a close up  photo and post later. Only time I have ever seen a round peg fit a square hole. Very weird, I guess if the holes was round there would be no chance of removing the nut once in place.

[red65gs]

One more thing about the star on the cowl tag. Lots of forum searching leads me to believe that the star is Flint's way of denoting painted steel wheel color to match the lower body color. The Fremont tags use a 3 letter system as does some Pontiacs. I've yet to see a Flint tag with the 3 letters but the star is in the same position as the third letter in the Fremont code. It's logical that being on the Paint line would have something to do with paint. Since changing wheels is one of the first things people do it might be hard to find originals with born with wheels and the star code. Sure would like to see some feed back. i don't mind being wrong but would like to see the mystery solved. It seems logical that if the star feature was something to do with trim, interior or date coding it would be located in another area than paint. Sure would be nice to find a service bulletin, even from another year that mentions this star.

[197064buickspec]

I've had multiple Flint cars and all had black painted wheels and none of the cars were painted black on the exterior.  I have a few trim tags in a box here.  I was going to start a post and attach pictures of them.

[Brian]

Here is some evidence for the * meaning wheels painted same color as the body.  This is the firewall tag from a 65 Special 4-dr sedan I used to own, and I know for a fact it came with wheels painted body color--they were still on the car when I got it back in 1994.  Car was un-touched--brake drums had never been off of it, and had bia-ply Sears tires on it. 

[WkillGS]

^^^ And Brian's car is an early build.
So we have a January and an April build with star, and a March build without star.

Since the cowl plate only determines how the body shell was built, and not which options were later installed at the assembly plant, I wouldn't think the cowl plate would have anything to do with what wheels were later bolted on the car.

The 1966 cowl plates added a hole punch when the car had front seat shoulder belt reinforcements added to the body.
I would guess the 65 star may indicate a similar mod to the body shell. Just as an example, maybe rear seat belt mounts. ( was that a 64 or 65 addition?).

The fact the star is Flint-only and appears on builds throughout the model year adds to the mystery!

[Brian]

Walt,
   That same 65 4dr I posted the tag from also had factory installed rear seat belts...

[197064buickspec]

Here are a few trim tags....

1964 Tags have the * as well. The 1964 tag below the blue tag is a highly optioned car. I believe it came with spoked hubcaps.

They are all from some Special, Sportwagon and Skylark cars I parted. I have 3 more cars here....I'm sure no one needs to see those tags.

[elagache]

Dear Walt, Brian, Brian, and mid-60s Buick history detectives,

This conversation about the meaning of the symbols on the cowl builder's plate is indeed interesting and puzzling!  Thanks for all your insights.

Of course, at the time the only the GM employees who needed to know were informed and if any employee was asked what future owners would think these symbols would mean in 50 years, I'm sure they would have simply laughed.  Still it is a testimony to Buick in those days that we still have these cars around so we can puzzle over these questions.

Cheers, Edouard 

[gssizzler]

More body tag samples! Top pair are GS cars! A rare  4speed ,pw  post car!, and a 3speed hardtop! Bottom two are hardtop Skylarks

[gssizzler]

A couple more! One from a hardtop and one from a convert gs!,both very early cars no star!

[gssizzler]

I'm kind of along the same thoughts as Walt on this! ,as the body tag is just that for items on the body !  The star after the paint code is only found in Flint cars!? So far? The other cars I have seen with a star where KC build cars that had special order paint! But there where two stars not one! Special and Special Deluxe cars had body colored painted wheels many times as they
ran just the dog dish hub caps! The Skylark and GS models ran the flipper
hub cap which covered the whole wheel! My KC built early GS had flippers and
the steel wheels were painted silver when I got it! No way to document this without the build sheet or original order! Of interest is KC plant used much the
same coding as Flint, but I have never seen a star on KC built cars! Another point of interest is the material use sheet which shows only 5279 cars got rear seat belts! Only 1 car that I parted had rear belts!

[red65gs]

Here's a photo of an old emblem with the barrel nuts on it.