1965 Fuel Injection

[Robert D.]

Greetings,
I'm sure this question has been asked many times, but I would like to get as much input as possible. Many ' 65 cars I have looked at do not have any paperwork to verify their originality. Is there a very good indicator to prove the car was originally fuel injected ? With more restoration engines
around each day, I would hate to choose the wrong car. Thank you in advance for your help.

Bob
28849

[Mike M.]

Re: 1965 Fuel Injection

You are correct in being cautious when inspecting 65 FI vettes as its not unusual for what is today a 375 hp vet to have started out life with a carter or holly carb. best advice i can give is to get involved with judging the 63 to 65 where you'll be exposed to both real and not so real FI cars.good luck in your search. PS. if you live in my neck of the woods, feel free to stop by and inspect a handful of midyear FI's. mike

[Duke W.]

Re: 1965 Fuel Injection

It's fairly easy to "fake" a '65 FI, especially if it started as a 365 HP engine with the same long block and 6500 redline tach. All you need is a 380 FI unit and air cleaner, correct exhaust manifolds and FI heat riser spacer, and the '65 FI radiator support, which was the service replacement, so there are a lot of them out there.

The toughest part would be restamping the block and VIN derivative on the plenum, a procedure that St. Louis began in '65, or it might have been a little earlier.

Your best bet is to become an "expert" at verifying block and plenum stampings, so you can recognize restamps.

Duke

[Mark S.]

Re: 1965 Fuel Injection

Duke:

The service replacement '65 FI radiator support is a "red flag" for the car being non-original. The original radiator supports for a '65 are a bit different.

Mark

[Duke W.]

Re: 1965 Fuel Injection

I thought the last production FI radiator support became the service replacement.

Are you saying they changed the design for the service replacement? Is the service replacement NOT the same as one of the production configuration.

Duke

[Jack H.]

Angels on the head of a pin....

Absent undisputable source documentation (usually increases the vehicle cost substantially), just about anything can be 'made' up. In fact, some can be 'made' SO WELL that they're virtually impossible to distinguish from a real McCoy original.

But, this wouldn't be a real problem.... If it's been 'made' so well, it defies expert detection, then it's just that: a GREAT FAKE.

About all you can do as a novice, is protect yourself from buying a 'badly' made up car. There are two ways to do this.

(1) Spend the time necessary to learn through apprenticeship the in's and out's of judging. Unfortuantely, this will take YEARS.

(2) Hire an 'expert' to look at the car for/with you. You'll find many senior NCRS judges are happy to help fellow club members in this regard.

[Mark S.]

Re: 1965 Fuel Injection

Duke:

The cross brace rods are welded on the top and bottom on the service replacements. The originals are secured differently on the bottom.

Mark

[Robert D.]

Re: Angels on the head of a pin....

Thanks guys.
I have done a bit of judging in NCRS but mainly in solid axles. I 'm familliar with build dates and so on. but need more exposure to engine pads and broach marks for mid years. Also, I have noticed many fuel cars with the radiator support with welded rods. As I remember the lower portion of the rod was held by clips not welds. I haven't seen to many cars with the vin stamped on the plenum. It also appears that there is some correlation between vin # and serial # of the unit as the cars progress... lower ser # , lower unit #. I will be careful and take my time. Who knows, maybe I will be lucky enough to find an original owner (HA !)
Thanks all for your help.

Bob

[Michael H.]

Re: 1965 Fuel Injection

Duke has some very good points about the 65 FI but there is one almost absolutely fool proof way to tell a REAL 65 FI car from the hokies that seem to be most common. If someone removed the crossed flag fender emblems that would have come on all cars except FI and filled the original holes so the FI emblems could be installed below them, the evidence of the repair/patch would be near impossible to fake on the inside of the fender. This area is usually lightly painted black at St. Louis during black out but usually heavily coated during restoration so you may have to request that the seller be willing to remove the paint in this area for inspection. I know of no way to ever get that same raw textured fiberglass look back again. Hope this helps.

[Robert D.]

Re: 1965 Fuel Injection

Thanks Mike.

I was thinking of that.

Bob