Small Grille Badge

[65GS]

Chris

a pleasure to help.
I will look in to some of the small casting co in my area and see if it would be cost effective to have maybe 2 dozen made up.
A good friend does chrome plating, so he maybe able to help.

Will keep you informed.

Al

[GranSportSedan]

Guys,
 how can i tell if my car is supposed to have the small badge or the script badge? here is a pic of my data tag which i think shows it to be an early car.

[Chris]

I think that the 2D at the beginning of the plate would mean this car was built in Feb. 1965 on the forth week of the month.  My understanding is that if your car was build within the first two months (Jan & Feb.) then there is a possiblity that it was a small grille badge car. 

It's unknown exactly when the switch to the larger grille emblem occured however we are all pretty much in agreement that it probably didn't make it past Febuary and they used up any remaining stock on the cars until they ran out.  Since your car would've been built right at the cut-over time, I think you'd be safe to run either emblem on your car and still be correct and running the small emblem (if you can find one) will just make your car a little more unique.

Hope this helps?

Chris

[schlepcar]

 Hitting on an older post,but did anyone ever decide when these were changed over. I have a small badge car built the second week of February and it is still in unrestored condition. Some have said the first couple hundred cars were small emblem and I was wondering the earliest production dates still in existence. When I bought this car I was planning on restoring it,but I am having second thoughts after driving it. It is a maroon post car with red interior with completely original drivetrain. How many Jan-Feb cars are out there?

[gssizzler]

I believe the Walker Book has a production memo dated From February that states the change over times! Got to remember and believe there were still small badges in the bins that were to be used up! Another words if a bin has remaining stock and new stock gets dumped in is the average worker going to dig in !? NO This could explain why there are some later date cars with small badges! Also think if a replacement one is order and a small badge is sent for a replacement or there is one already on the shelf that is a small badge! I have a 02 B hardtop KC car,  the convertible I was going to build 01 B Flint car!

[schlepcar]

So the second week of January car is a month older than mine?..does it have a star by the paint code? This post car is NN with a star to the right of it. Apparently yours and this one were both FB built and were both small badge in those months. Is January a month of total production or partial when they were first produced?

[GS66]

Did a small batch ever get produced?

[gssizzler]

Yes convertible was a very early car! Maybe first in the 200 ? Not sure if the month would be considered full production or not !? Most sources/ research says like the second week of January as a build date for cars available to public for sale, and the earliest known examples have dated firewall tags with low body numbers and low vin numbers! And no there is no star on the convertible body tag! There are dated photos of cars preproduction though but none have been documented or are in existence to my knowledge.I want to say this has been discussed here with samples! I have not been able to determine what why or when it was used! As there are early cars with and without, also not specific to any models as some with some without stars on tag! Could be something as simple as the paint manufacturer!? Got to remember bodies were made by fisher and items on body tag are in reference to what was done to body not if the car came with wire hub caps or posi rear ! Sales codes are not the same as production codes! GS ‘s were built at 4 different plants which had variations in this ! Flint and Kansas City were the closest by firewall decoding!

[schlepcar]

Thanks Jon,
  I was not sure if they reproduced any of the small badges. I will disagree with something you stated as far as VIN number because none of these early GS cars should have a low number. The cars were already being made for months and GS vin was nothing special so anything made after January would just be a mid year sequence. My Feb car is 189XXX which is definitely not a low number. I wonder if yours being a convertible would be low just because the convertible VIN was different. If what we are saying as far as mid January VIN sequence....you may have the oldest convertible still intact.

[gssizzler]

Hey sometimes I even confuse myself! lol By low I should have stated that early production gs that is true the vin would be say 180000 not 270000 as on a late production! Thanks for noticing my Brian fart! I’m sure there is an earlier one somewhere! Hard to determine build date versus vin without knowing vin and I understand not giving out that info!