Hi Guys, new to the forum & hoping you can help me figure out a mystery. I have a '69 RS that is a heck of a mystery. I have clear title on it, its legal & was registered legally up until '97 when I bought it & took it off the road tofix it up (and no, I'm not done yet). The weird thing is...the Vin# isn't 124379Nxxxxxx, its 2PC104672. Idid a VIN searchwhen I bought it, and they were able to pull up registration history back to 1982, but before that nothing exists.

To spark your thinking caps, here are some past theories people have come up with, but nobody has ever been able to confirm that their theory is correct so I'm no further ahead now than I was then. If you can confirm or deny any of these theories with conclusive evidence, or have ideas of your own, please do so because I'd love to know where she came from.

Theory 1 (my favorite): 2PC is a VIN for an internal prototype that GM never meant to let out in the world. 2 designates Camaro like normal, since its internal they didn't need to begin with a 1 for Chevy, because they already knew that. PC means Prototype Car, and the serial # shows its the 4672nd Camaro off the line. The theory is that this was a prototype for the redesigned RS headlights & backup lights that came out in '69. I'd expect a serial # like 100001 if that were the case, but I guess its conceivable that the first 4671 cars were non-RS models because they were still finishing up the new design. If it were true, seems to me this would be an incredibly rare bird, but it seems like a longshot to me.

Theory 2 (also interesting, but should be easy to prove or disprove): Canadian cars have a different VIN pattern because of different DOT regulations. As such, a camaro from Canada wouldn't have the typical 124379 mask. This explains 2PC, IF 2PC can somehow be translated into Chevrolet Camaro using the canadian guidelines. This should be easy to prove or disprove, any canadians on the board with a '69 Camaro? Whats your VIN?

Theory 3 (most entertaining and somehow compelling): Its a cop car. They didn't use standard vin #'s on it because it was purpose built for the police force, not for public ownership. PC in the vin actually indicates POLICE CAR. Sounds ridiculous, but there are 2 weird bits of evidence to support this theory. First, the paint is now black, but in some areas you can clearly tell the original color was metallic blue on the hood, fenders, deck lid, quarter panels, and lower sail panels. You can also see that the original color was white on the roof, doors, and top half of the sail panels. Could be a coincidence only meaning that the guy who painted it black used a blue parts car for sheet metal. But then the 2nd weird bit, there are 4 spots in the paint with hairline cracks indicating bondo under them on the roof, 2 on the right & 2 on the left, centered on the roof exactly where a light bar would have been bolted on. Its a long shot, but how cool would THAT be?

Theory 4(most realistic but least fun): The car didn't exist before 1982. The gentleman who registered it when I am first able to find it obtained a kit car title for it, fabricated a vin plate with the VIN the state assigned him, pieced the car together from a white camaro & a blue camaro, never included a trim tag because there was no need, and just hotrodded what he had. This one should be easy for someone to prove if its true...anyone ever build a car & apply for a VIN? Does 2PC104672 match the format?

There are surely other explanations too, if anyone has ideas of where I can look for additional details...maybe some unknown spot a build sheet could be hidden or a VIN stamping on a framerail or somethin' like that...or if you know how it got that VIN and wh

 

I dunno, it seems fishy to me.

I'd follow theory 4 until its disproven before anything else.

 

Yeah, that seems like the most likely one...but there's got to be some solid papertrail somewhere that says WHY its funny lookin'. Until I know that, I'm a little limited as to what can be done to the car in clear conscious. Lets go with the most extreme example...pretend I want a pro-street car with 1000 hp, big ol' tubs, and a chopped top just for kicks. Then pretend the prototype thing is true. If I cut this up later to find that its something that rare, I'd have to go find a nice tall building to jump off of. [&:]

A more realistic example is if I ever decide to sell it, base my assumption on it just being a reissued vin, and let it go for 10K or less, then come to find out it was a cop car or a prototype or something really rare...a collector gets wind of it and gives 100K to the guy who bought it from me. That'd suck pretty bad too. See my dilhema?

 

the police car makes sence...

 

Were there any '69 police cars though? And Rallysport at that? Seems weird to me that they would've used a dress up package on a cop car... Any ideas where to track this info down? Like maybe a police car registry out there somewhere or something?

 

Police cars are drawn from a ' Fleet pool ' which are vehicles built to be bought by orginizations that drive alot. They are used by taxi servises, fire dept's and police. To say that PC is for cop car is not quite possible for that reason, there were no cars built then specifically for cops. Also I think Dodge had the contract for the fleet vehicles in the 60's and 70's, then ford ( who had it before ) now GM has it again.

What happened to the trim, or Cowl tag?
Sometimes the build sheet can be found in one of three places, under the rear seat, in a cubby hole - behind the rear seat in the body of the car near the rear window or on top of the gas tank.

I think you are going to be hard pressed to find out what it means, Then again this thread is only a day old. More folks will look at this and hopefully someone will have a more difinitive answer for you. Sorry.

 

I have no clue what happened to the trim tag, it almost looks like there was never one there...but since its been resprayed I'm sure whoever did the bodywork in the pastjust popped it off and never put it back on. If the build sheet is above the gas tank, I'll go on just not knowing about it until someday in the future when I have to pull the tank out, cuz thats more of a hassle than I'm in the mood for..but doesn't the back seat come out pretty easily? If I remember right, I think I heard you just push the cushion in, then lift up...right? I'll check that out when I get home from work tonight.

 

Mine came out a while ago and I dont remember exactly how. I think it was fairly easy though. Good luck, let us know what you find.

 

doesn t look right. the 9 is in the wrong place.

 

Interesting story, and impressive that you can theorize and admitantly not know if your right or wrong. To many people just go with whatever works for thier minds or wallets and never really dig.

You peaked my interest in it. How about some pics of locations where ID numbers should be, and also I'd start trying to locate some phone numbers to GM and see if they have any archives for that. They also may put you on to someone who knows something.

I feel your pain in not wanting to do anything until you know. I was the same with mine when I got it. I made sure I knew what it was originally before going to town on it.Threw the trim plate ID, mine was suppose to be a 69 RS, Hugger Orange with a black vinyl top. V8 manual trans

Here is from the GM restoration guide I have. I'm sure you've seen this before, as many here also have but in case someone is reading this and doesn't know.....

First character- Manufacturer
Second character- Model
Third -engine type
Fourth and Fifth- body style
Sixth- model year
Seventh- assembly plant
Last six, sequintial unit number

GM selected a number "1" to indicate the Camaro was constructed by the Cheverolet Motor Division. THerefore, all 1967-1969 Camaros have a "1" as their first VIN character.

All Camaro model numbers begin with a numeral "2", thus the second VIN character of a 1967-1969 Camaro will be a "2".

Unfortunately, GM did not provide codes that specified the specific engine installed in the first-generation Camaros, but rather only the engine type; A "3" indicates a six cylinder, while a "4" indicates a V-8.

Two Camaro body styles were available: a code "37" two-door hardtop coupe and a code "67" two-door converitlbe coupe.

The model year, for 67-69 Camaros, was identified by the last character of the year; for example, "7" was 67, "8" for 68 and "9" for 69.

Only two assembly plants construted 67-69 Camaros; Norwood Ohio and Los Angeles (Van Nuys), California. Norwood cars feature the letter "N" as the seventh character in the VIN, while Van Nuys cars were coded "L" (for Los Angeles).

The final six characters of the VIN, the sequential unit number, are unique among all vehicles produced at a given plant. In other words, no two Norwood built Camaros of the same model year have the same sequential unit number. However, Camaros built at different assembly plants-one at Norwood and one at Van Nuys-can and do have the same sequential unit numbers, but these cars would not have identical VINs, because even if all the options where the same on the two cars, the assembly plant codes would differentiate the two.

Hope this helps anyone looking at VINs. It is important to know.

Keep us posted on this first Gen, it sounds like a cool mystery. Where is Scooby when you need him