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I'm considering buying a 1970 LT-1 Convertible. The body build date was March 2. The block number on the stamp pad reads KTC5160V. Assuming the number is backward, it would read V0615CTK which would be correct for a Flint engine plant LT-1 made on June 15 (3 months after the body build date, which is a little unusual). Has anyone heard of a backwards stamp pad number like this? Appreciate any feedback ASAP because the seller wants to complete the deal.
machine assembly data 3 months after car built is what would sour the deal for me. i guess its possible the stamps were inserted in an inverse order by a GM employee with monday morning hangover, but my guess it was done in Bubba's Backyard. good luck, mike
The questions you have will follow this car forever. The legitimacy of the car will never really be proven so it should be treated as a restamp and not a good one at that.
The factory made all kinds of errors doing things. However, the chance that an error like this could have happened there is virtually nil. For one thing, the prefix letter, "F", "V", or "T", was a more-or-less "permanent" character in the gang holder (i.e it was not necessary to remove it every day when the date characters had to be changed). So, even if someone had put the other characters in wrong, the "V" should still have been in the correct, first position.
What happened here, I'll bet, is that some "erstwhile restorer" (stated more frankly, a "klutz") attempted to "restamp" the block. First, this "genius" couldn't figure out the date he was going to use would be an "impossible" date for the car. Second, he couldn't figure out how to install the characters in the gang holder correctly so that when the stamp was turned "upside down" to do the actual stamping it would stamp the numbers correctly. Last, even though this was a critical, one-shot-only sort of thing, he didn't think to perform a practice stamping in a piece of wood or sheet metal to make sure that it would look correct. He just "whacked away" on the stamp pad and, then, screamed out "NUTZZZZZ" (or, something else).
This boy was, indeed, a real "genius". It's too bad that slapstick comedy is passe-----he'd have a real future in that.
Keep one more thing in mind: this fellow likely also did other work on this car or, at least, the engine. Does this tell you anything about what the rest of the car might be like?
As I recollect, we used to have contributors to this board (or the other one) with that degree of klutziness. One, that I can think of, is still in the hobby and posts elsewhere. In particular, he was always asking how to weigh a part for shipping. Klutz, indeed.
Joe, that is the reason you keep a scrap of wood laying beside the bench, to check out the stamps BEFORE you hit the pad. And I thought that I had done some stupid things.
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