Is there such a thing as a factory restamped engine pad? I was speaking to the owner of a car that I am interested in buying (65 Convertible). The car received a Top Flight and Bloomington Gold in 2000.... The owner claims that the engine is original to the car (350HP with A/C) but also said that the engine suffix was stamped twice which he claims was done at the factory (and was not uncommon). I have never seen this and am wondering if this could be true. He also said that the rest of the pad is fine just the suffix was changed.. Any ideas??
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Re: Factory Restamp???
There have been some excellent articles in The Restorer about stamp pads in past issues. Everything from double stamps to grind off's and restamps. In the last 2-3 years there was an article about mid-years, near the end of production for 65's(?) where they ground off the stamp pad and restamped it to match the production line. I THINK it was 65 and I THINK it was the high horsepower cars. If you have your old Restorers or the Restorer on CD look this up and see what is available.
Gary -
Re: Factory Restamp???
Scott - yes, there are cases such as this. Personally, if I were you, I would contact Al Grenning ( algrenning@aol.com) and send him a photo of the pad on the car you are contemplating. He has a master pad library (my 67's L79 is in it and I have seen the library at his Bloomington classes on pad stamping) that will give tell tale signs with respect to all letters, stamp characteristics, etc that can verify that the stamping was original. Chances are good it is anyway, as if someone goes to the trouble to forge a pad stamp, they will not want it to be done in this fashion anyway...good luck!...CraigComment
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Is it an Extremely Late
production car? If so, it becomes more likely because of the changeover from 870 blocks to 174 blocks for the '66 year. There might have been all sorts of L79 motors in the engine room, but none on hand that were made for L79 w/A/C; hence the restamp.Comment
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Re: Factory Restamp???
How do the broach marks and the VIN stamp look, the appearance of those would go a long way to validating the story.Comment
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Re: Factory Restamp???
The other way you can find out is to take your car to an NCRS meet. Have it judged! It's one of the best ways to learn about your car. If you're not up to that yet, even if you drive it and observer judge at the meet, you're more than likely to find a few experienced mechanical judges who love looking at factory anomalies and would be more than happy to wander over to your car during a lull and have a look at it for you. ~Juliet
1970 Corvette Registry2019 Sebring Orange 8-Spd Coupe (daily driver & autocross) 6k mi.
1970 Bridgehampton Blue Convertible - Chapter Top Flight 2005 68k mi.
1965 Coupe (Greg's project No Flight)
Gone but not forgotten:
1987 Yellow Convertible 199k mi.
2002 Yellow Convertible 100k mi.
2007 Atomic Orange Coupe 140k mi. RIP flood 2015
2007 Lemans Blue 6-Spd Coupe 34k mi.Comment
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Judged?
Yes, Ma'am, that is a good method - if you can throw the judging balls in the air and predict whether or not the the judges doing stamps have a clue as to what they are looking for or at; and a black hat with leaves on it is NOT a guarantee.Comment
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Re: Judged?
Well Loren, the good news is that a lot of the judges will tell you if they have limited knowledge of something like broach marks. At last years Regional meet in the Phoenix area there was a car with a VERY badly re-stamped pad. Terry McManmon knew that I was interested in seeing this and called me over. He pointed out the very obvious faults of the re-stamp (missing characters) and then took me to a couple of cars with good pads and we compared those. We looked at broach marks on big blocks and compared them to small blocks. I like Juliet's idea because it will give the owner a better idea of what he has or doesn't have.
GaryComment
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Re: Factory Restamp???
In the original post Scott mentions that it already has been judged both NCRS and Bloomington.Comment
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Re: Factory Restamp???
But... by the prior owner. ~Juliet2019 Sebring Orange 8-Spd Coupe (daily driver & autocross) 6k mi.
1970 Bridgehampton Blue Convertible - Chapter Top Flight 2005 68k mi.
1965 Coupe (Greg's project No Flight)
Gone but not forgotten:
1987 Yellow Convertible 199k mi.
2002 Yellow Convertible 100k mi.
2007 Atomic Orange Coupe 140k mi. RIP flood 2015
2007 Lemans Blue 6-Spd Coupe 34k mi.Comment
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Re: Factory Restamp???
Juliet, actually, by the current owner. Scott mentions this is a possible purchase situation and he is soliciting advice. I was thinking that by sending Al Grenning a photo of the stamp pad, Al could attest to it's originality.....and epix are easy these days....CraigComment
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Re: Factory Restamp???
Would be interesting to see a photo of the pad - generally speaking, Flint Engine factory engine code restamps were preceded by an assault with a rotary grinder (which also took out the longitudinal broach marks), and assembly plant restamps of VIN derivatives were (supposed) to have the erroneous stamp "X"-ed out (all of it) and the correct restamp done ajdacent to it. Maybe Al's library has some examples of these.Comment
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Re: Factory Restamp???
Yeah, you're right. I missed that part. Oops. Anyways, there's an example of a stamped VIN pad 1970 where there's a sort of echo on one of the letters on the Registry website. ~Juliet
2019 Sebring Orange 8-Spd Coupe (daily driver & autocross) 6k mi.
1970 Bridgehampton Blue Convertible - Chapter Top Flight 2005 68k mi.
1965 Coupe (Greg's project No Flight)
Gone but not forgotten:
1987 Yellow Convertible 199k mi.
2002 Yellow Convertible 100k mi.
2007 Atomic Orange Coupe 140k mi. RIP flood 2015
2007 Lemans Blue 6-Spd Coupe 34k mi.Comment
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