Beginning in 1964 AO Smith in Iona, MI was contracted to help build Corvette bodies due to high demand that the St. Louis plant couldn't keep up with. The completed and painted bodies with interiors were shipped to St. Louis by rail to be mated with chassis and engine to form a completed car. These AO Smith built bodies carried a trim tag with an A in front of the body number. St. Louis trim tags carried an S in front of the body number on the trim tag. As noted, for streamlining reasons, St. Louis was deemed the plant that built the bodies for cars ordered with side pipes and in 1967 St. Louis was deemed the plant that built bodies with the big block hood stripe. This is the very short answer.
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