['ol Pinion head]

my bet is a previous owner had rust repair done on the windshield sealing area, & the bodyshop that did the repair used a cutoff cowl panel off of a '70 Malibu. This panel only extends about two inches inside the passenger compartment on a Malibu-Chevelle-Elco-Monte, it does not extend up to the same plane as on a '69-72 Pontiac A-body. After the rust repair was made, the original Arlington cowl tag never made it back on this '70 GTO body.

The whole scenario of a GTO VIN tag swap onto what amounts to a '70 Malibu convert body, well, that's just doesn't make sense, unless one was extremely desperate. The Malibu body incorporated the use of totally different rear 1/4 panels, different outer wheelhouses, different trunk drops, different rear tail panel area going down into the trunk. Also different doors, different back window, different rear 1/4 windows. It would take extensive work to change all of those pieces of sheet metal over to '70 Pontiac A body 2 door pieces.