I wonder if your aluminum identication plate was somehow changed? As far as I know, all Volvos had this plaque attached to the firewall at the factory. As I mentioned earlier, until August 1966, this plate had the model type, chassis number (V.I.N.) color and interior codes all punched onto the plate. The fact it was only held in place with 4 phillips screws, meant it could be removed. Recently I've seen replacement blank plates for sale on eBay.

As you can see, rather than having one long V.I.N. code as we see today, Volvo had this information on multiple lines of the plate, but someone decided that the chassis number was all that would be used - maybe people were more honest 50 years ago? Needless to say, I'm certain there have been countless cases where the car's identity was either deliberately or accidentally changed. Every time I license one of these older Volvos, I'm questioned why it has such a short V.I.N. and have to convincingly tell them that's all that was used way back then!
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Cam a.k.a. CVOLVO.COM