Does anyone know if any of the late 65 cars had fender inner skirts like the 66 and 67 cars with the hood support on the right side. I have seen several 65 396/425 cars with the hood support on the left. What gives?
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Re: 1965 Corvette
It 'might' have happened (used of '66 style inner fenders on late '65 L78 production), but that wouldn't have moved the hood prop to the LH side of the car...
The '65 version of the hood had only ONE mounting location for the hood support (RH side), so the factory would have continued mounting the support there instead of moving it to the LH side.
This is a more probable explanation for what you've seen. Designers tried to make new parts downward compatible with earlier versions to minimize the inventory impact on service. The '66 hood differed from the '65 version in two aspects:
(1) It had provisions for both RH and LH hood support location.
(2) It had access holes in the LH front lip to accept the hood badge ornament that was used in '66 and not '65.
I suspect the cars you've seen were raced/wrecked and repaired with service replacement components (inner fenders and hood) that would have been available (downward compatible '66 vs. one-year only '65 versions). I DO know of a '66 BB I saw wearing a rare '65 hood.
The car was originally purchased early in '66 by a local brain surgeon as a present for his wife. She 'smacked' the front end about a month after the car was delivered and it underwent dealer repair. The 'replacement' hood that was used was a '65 vs. '66 and since the car was non-AC, there was no trouble relocating the hood prop to the LH side.
As soon as the car was repaired, the first owner 'dumped' it because "once a new car is wrecked/repaired, it's NEVER the same again". The fella who owned it bought it from the original owner YEARS ago and never realized he had the wrong hood.... -
Re: 1965 Corvette
Hi,
I have a late 1965 396 car and the hood support is on the right(passenger) side.
JoelComment
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Ditto -- Late L78, RHS hood support *NM*
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Re: 1965 Corvette
Never seen a true L78 with a hood support on the left side. My 117829 is on the rightComment
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Wayne's "late" =s "The Last One" *NM*
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