I have just cut out the totally rusted dash from my '69, and plan to weld in a new replacement. The VIN plate bracket has the correct star rivetsin the old dash; but the star side is on the bottom instead of the top where I would have expected it to be. I realized that the dash pad will cover the rivets anyway; but do the factory original rivets have the star side on the top or bottom side of the 1969 dash?

John Z, who worked there, had the answer.

Fisher Body installed the windshield prior to moving the body to Chevy for final assembly. The holes could no longer be accessed from the top so the rivets were installed from under the dash, technically upside down. Firebirds built at Lordstown had the rosette end up because the windshield was installed later.

My rivets in my '68 vert are the say way, upside down. I was going to post a similar message in a few months. I thought my VIN was an oddball.

Given that it was common for the rivets to appear this way does anybody think it would be a bad idea to just use regular rivets to put the VIN back in. Unless you got up from underneath with a camera in some hard angles I don't think you'd know the difference. My '68 was a plain jain 6 banger so I don't think anybody will question me if I ever decide to sell it. 'Why would I ever change the VIN to a 6 banger?'

I've read all the posts about documenting it, etc and I'm going to do this. I just keep going back and forth as to put it back.

thanks
Eric

Thanks for the information.
I would agree. My '69 was also born as a 6 cylinder, so originality is not a big concern and I have enough pictures of the rusted car when I bought it, as well as 'in process' resotration pictures to prove that even though I may just use regular rivets, it's still my car.
Dave

I wouldn't worry about it.