Stamp Pad Preservation during Rebuild

[Jack H.]

Re: Stamp Pad Preservation during Rebuild

A point here is that there is no 'condition' consideration when judging the stamp pad...it's SOLELY a matter of originality.

You'll find some judges who want to deduct because a given pad looks 'too fresh/too new' as well as those who want to deduct for the presense of 'distrubing' marks from prior use/abuse. Owners need to understand this nuiassance (originality is judged and condition is NOT judged when determining authenticity) and be prepared to kindly, calmly, gently appeal such calls.

I'd simply explain what happened at the machine shop and urge the judges to look around the 'disturbing' marks for the underlying broach marks that remain and can be seen.

[Chris E.]

Re: Stamp Pad Preservation during Rebuild

Make sure you have him use the steel frost plugs also, a step i forgot on my 65, my builder used the popular brass. point deduct!

SERIOUSLY? How can they tell once you paint the engine?

**EDIT**
Nevermind, I just went out and looked at my newly rebuilt block. It has brass frost plugs and the part numbers are plainly visible. The judging manual says that the original frost plugs had no visible part number. I wonder if that will be more than a 2 point deduction? It falls in the "casting number and case configuration" segment, which is 350 points. Hopefully I'll get all my points because I have THE original engine still in the car and the judges will give me a break on the frost plugs....

[Patrick H.]

Re: Stamp Pad Preservation during Rebuild

SERIOUSLY? How can they tell once you paint the engine?

**EDIT**
Nevermind, I just went out and looked at my newly rebuilt block. It has brass frost plugs and the part numbers are plainly visible. The judging manual says that the original frost plugs had no visible part number. I wonder if that will be more than a 2 point deduction? It falls in the "casting number and case configuration" segment, which is 350 points. Hopefully I'll get all my points because I have THE original engine still in the car and the judges will give me a break on the frost plugs....

Use a bit of body putty to fill those numbers.

[Michael F.]

Re: Stamp Pad Preservation during Rebuild

never heard of frost plugs.....thought they were called freeze plugs

[Terry M.]

[Francis F.]

Re: Stamp Pad Preservation during Rebuild

Hey Terry,

We called them "SOFT PLUGS" and thought they
were there to pop in the event there was frost
(ice) forming within the block,But then we are in the
NORTH COUNTRY .NEW YORK...ice station zebra.

Francis.




.

[Loren L.]

Re BB Rebuild

In Dec a friend lost his freshly rebuilt 390 after about 100 minutes - blamed it on lowered zinc oil concentration (which made me wonder) and his engine guy agreed on teardown and rebuild. The concern was that the car was to be consigned at B-J and it was a legitimate black/red leather 390/A/C/TI car.
It got fixed and found a new home.

[Kenneth B.]

Re: Stamp Pad Preservation during Rebuild

If we are talking about the plugs on the side of the block they were there to let the water out of the bottom of the casting. Cylinder cases were cast with all internal cores pasted together & set as a unit & did not need core prints on the side of the block. The cope & drag pattern made the outside of the casting & it was split it the middle so each half of the mold made the outside of each side of the block All internal features & some external ones were all cast with the core assembly. Looking at the cope & drag pattern you would only see the sides of the block. No core prints were needed to support the cylinder jacket core unlike the head water jacket that needed core prints on the end of the heads to support the core because it was cast standing up as it looks if you place the mating face flat on a table. That's why the pipe plugs are there.
KEN

[Jeff B.]

Re: Stamp Pad Preservation during Rebuild

This is unbelievably timely for me. I just got back from the machine shop where they went ahead and decked the motor without contacting me. We had the discussion but an employee... you know the rest. I'm sick about it. The numbers are visible but only barely in some areas. Is there any way back from here or is it best to just leave it alone? My car is a matching numbers 64 327 300 HP currenlty about 50% through a complete restoration. My intent was to NCRC judge it and maybe Bloomington. What now?

[Thomas N.]

Re: Stamp Pad Preservation during Rebuild

What I've done is use a couple of the blind tapped holes on the front of the block, and bolt a piece of angle iron over the engine pad on a car I restored. Once the angle iron is bolted in place, tack weld the bolts to the angle iron, but leave a gap so the angle iron doesn't contact the face of the engine pad. It sounds like overkill, but eliminates careless mistakes on eradicating/altering the pad. You could also stamp on the top of the angle iron (before installation) do not deck and/or do not remove.

[Pat K.]

Re: Stamp Pad Preservation during Rebuild

This is unbelievably timely for me. I just got back from the machine shop where they went ahead and decked the motor without contacting me. We had the discussion but an employee... you know the rest. I'm sick about it. The numbers are visible but only barely in some areas. Is there any way back from here or is it best to just leave it alone? My car is a matching numbers 64 327 300 HP currenlty about 50% through a complete restoration. My intent was to NCRC judge it and maybe Bloomington. What now?

Jeff - I can't advise you on what you should do, only what I did. A few years ago a similar thing happened to me, and I was sick too. It was not a complete decking, they clipped the top of the last 3 numbers and pretty much eliminated the broach marks. I told them on numerous occasions to not deck the block, but just you said, an employee made a mistake.

I hired an attorney and we sought compensation for the damage, but the that's the problem how do you discern how much the damage is worth. That's subject to market conditions and many other factors. After numerous attempts of trying to get some money back with no response I gave up. I never sought the restamp route, and don't plan on selling the car, so I just decided to live with it. Good luck!

Pat

[Jeff B.]

Re: Stamp Pad Preservation during Rebuild

Thanks for sharing your story. The one good thing that has come from this is that it's make me step back and remember why I started the project. I wanted a real nice C2 to restore, take care of, and take my wife on Sunday drives. I bought a matching number car really just becaue I thought it was a smart thing to do. Once I joined NCRS and started the complete frame off the project took on a whole new sort of goal, refinishing every correct bolt, proper rivets, NOS parts. All very worthy endeavors but not ones that necessarily go hand and hand with the Sunday drive goal. I think I will stay on track for the most accurate restoration I can do, but I need to move on quickly from this problem and consider it just one more chapter in the process. Heck, I'm already planning to do base-clear paint, which will probably cost more points than the 38 I'll loose from the botched up stamp pad. And the motor will be perfect in every other way.

[Jim R.]

Re: Stamp Pad Preservation during Rebuild

what the judges do is check the (frost-freeze-core-soft) plugs with a magnet.

[Chris E.]

Re: Stamp Pad Preservation during Rebuild

what the judges do is check the (frost-freeze-core-soft) plugs with a magnet.

What kind of point deduct do you think these frost plugs will be?

[John H.]

Re: Stamp Pad Preservation during Rebuild

I think they are core plugs. They have nothing to do with freezing and everything to do with keeping the core (the part of the mold that forms the water jacket) in place during the metal pouring (casting) process.

Correct! The photo below shows the refractory-sand cores for a small-block V-8; they're dislodged and disintegrate on the "shake-out table" after the mold (cope and drag) are separated, and all that sand has to come out of the raw block casting somewhere - that's what the "freeze-plug" openings are for - exit holes for the sand cores.