1960 block casting and assembly schedule question

[Loren L.]

Re: 1960 block casting and assembly schedule question

Plant was on strike - who stamped it?

60 Corvette vin #1617 stamp attached. FI208CQ stamp. One of the earliest stamps I have.

[Loren L.]

Re: 1960 block casting and assembly schedule question

Plant was on strike; also two months before VIN stamping was announced; plus, it's hard to read, but it looks like a "gang" stamp that doesn't occur until sometime in the 5/6,000 VIN range.

Here's one a bit earlier Jim, kind of hard to read but it's #1322 F1014CU

[Loren L.]

Re: 1960 block casting and assembly schedule question

Gary, the "humans" coped; the most interesting one I've seen was an un-remembered VIN being judged at the Nationals in St Paul in the '90s; the stamper at Flint apparently "didn't have the word" about the VIN stamp and had put the Assembly stamp dead nuts in the center of the pad; I and others were asked for comment - my view was that the St Louis stamped had done all he could do - by stamping 3 digits on the left side and 3 digits on the right side of the assembly stamp, which =d Top Flight.

[Garry B.]

Re: 1960 block casting and assembly schedule question

Guys, thanks for all of the thoughts and technical knowledge shared on this thread. Clearly, the mystery continues regarding when four digit dates were instituted.

I wanted to let you know that now that we have gained a consensus on my original post and the pad I presented (#2552), this block is available. What I know is it has been sitting in a garage for the last twenty years, was rebuilt before storage bored to 40 over and honed. Probably needs a refresh. I thought I had found the car and current owner it came our of originally, but there was some confusion at the source and turned out that his car VIN was off one number. So, anyone out there know who owns 1960, VIN 2552? If you use the C1 registry you will find is #2552 listed, but it was listed incorrectly by a previous owner. I am trying to help the owner of this car avoid getting numerous contacts from people that think they have found his original engine block (like I did). I was hoping to couple the owner of the block and the car and let them work it out, but that didn't happen for obvious reasons. Let me know if you have interest in buying this block and I will provide you with the contact information.

[Edward M.]

Re: 1960 block casting and assembly schedule question

Guys, thanks for all of the thoughts and technical knowledge shared on this thread. Clearly, the mystery continues regarding when four digit dates were instituted.

Garry, No mystery here....

The leading zero for the month of assembly occurs between January 15th (Friday) and January 18th (Monday) of 1960. The engine assembly pad for Jan 15th is FII5CQ. The engine assembly code for January 18th is F0II8CQ.

This change, of course, applies to Flint engines. I am sure that Tonawanda engines also changes at some point, I just do not know what it is.

All Flint engines starting with 1957 to January 15th will NOT have a leading zero for the month part of the assembly date. All Flint engines from January 18th and beyond WILL have lading zeros for the month part of the assembly date.

So now the question is, what about the 16th and the 17th (Saturday and Sunday) of January? Perhaps no engines were assembled on those two dates.

[Garry B.]

Re: 1960 block casting and assembly schedule question

Ed, mystery solved. I completely understand your explanation (thanks), but am wondering if everyone agrees to the January 15th roll over to the additional 0 stamp. The 16th and 17th were a Saturday and Sunday and I am assuming that the factory was shut down for the weekend, so that too makes sense.....assuming that my assumption is correct on the weekend shutdowns.

[Edward M.]

Re: 1960 block casting and assembly schedule question

Ed, mystery solved. I completely understand your explanation (thanks), but am wondering if everyone agrees to the January 15th roll over to the additional 0 stamp. The 16th and 17th were a Saturday and Sunday and I am assuming that the factory was shut down for the weekend, so that too makes sense.....assuming that my assumption is correct on the weekend shutdowns.

Garry;

I have a picture of a January 18th Corvette engine pad that has a leading zero, and I recently saw a picture of a January 15th Corvette engine pad that did not have a leading zero. Of course I wasn't smart enough at the time to actually grab the Jan 15th engine pad pic. Note that that is for Flint engines, as I also saw a Jan 15th Tonawanda engine pad that did have a leading zero.

I suppose it is possible that the change occurred during the Jan 15th production day.

Any way, I think we are safe in saying before Jan 15, no leading zero, after Jan 15th a leading zero, and Jan 15th itself may be a toss up.

[Garry B.]

Re: 1960 block casting and assembly schedule question

Thanks Ed. Good stuff. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.