late 63 Corvette question

[John D.]

Do you think it is possible that a 21,200 plus FI car could come from St. Louis with a 64 core support, a 64 master cyl. and a 64 shifter??? Not my car. Just a phone call I got today from a fellow asking those questions. I gave him my uneducated opinion. I said most likely it wouldn't fly on the judging field. What do you think? Thanks

[Art A.]

Re: late 63 Corvette question

It may not fly in the judging field, but it sure was possible. Early and late MY substituations were were not only possible, they were done on a regular basis. As long as it didn't effect fit or function it COULD/WOULD have been done.

Art

[Jack H.]

The real problem...

is club judging rules. We judge based on 'typical factory production' and unless the JG book makes specific notice of known original cars having model year parts substitution(s), the burden of proof falls on the owner.

Now, there are MANY places in the various JG books where such reference IS made regarding both early and late production vehicles in a given model year. But, it's the owner's responsibility to do the research and decide how best to restore/maintain his/her car...

[William C.]

Re: late 63 Corvette question

If there was a shortage, there would have been another 250+ cars out there with the '64 shifter and '64 master cyl and you would think we would have heard from at least 20 owners with a similar issue by now???

[Tom H.]

Re: late 63 Corvette question

I agree with Bill. In my opinion................ Impossible, No, but very highly suspect.

Now, being a late car like it is, I can see a customer buying a late 63 and then seeing a 64 a couple of months later. Buy a fuel unit, change the shifter and console, swap out the wheel covers and remove the split in the rear window and he'd have had an instant 64 !! As horrific as it sounds, I'm sure it happened. I remember when I was a kit running around at swap meets and occasionally seeing the "split" that was removed from a 63 coupe !

[Mike M.]

Re: late 63 Corvette question

there was a 63 split window in morgantown wva in the late 60's/early 70's. owner took it to the local vette body shop and had the split removed. i got the stainless trim from the shop owner. mike

[John D.]

Re: late 63 Corvette question

Bill, Absolutely my thoughts for sure. The car owner will have a tough time getting the team leader to buy that one for sure. Or 99% of the judges.
Too many key parts are incorrect. The 63 was the first year for a brand new model. Surely there were enough parts to go around since it was the Cadillac of the Chevrolets. A very popular car in its days. I can still remember seeing a 63 in the early summer of 62 at the GM Training center. It was a silver coupe. Had silver wheels with no wheel covers and was up on a hoist in the Chev classroom next door to the United Motors class room. I was taking all those UM courses for credits for a local college. Anyhow one day during lunch 3 of us took turns guarding the door and the hall way while the others took a sneak peak at this awesome Corvette with rear wheels hanging down like a VW. Blew my mind and I said that someday I would own a car like that. John

[John D.]

Re: late 63 Corvette question

Dr. Mikey, That was a really nice story. Must be the beast in you as it didn't really have a thing to do with my nice post.
Seriously the dealer that kept your buddy Dr. Donald Blatchley's Grady car on the track had a serious body shop. Grabiak Chevrolet-still in business. In the office of the body shop hanging on one wall was a large stack of split window dividers-the glass T so to speak. Old Floyd Grabiak-Timmy's father collected those things and had a large assortment of colors. He also had a huge stock of 63 hoods with the fak grilles on them. Had a for sale sign on these hood-20 bucks each. No one wanted them. Clem do you remember this??? Floyd finally threw the hoods outside for the garbage man. I was too dumb to get any. IN the midyear era no one wanted the 63 crap that we so dearly love today. How much for the stainless? John

[Chris Patrick]

Re: late 63 Corvette question

In the 29 years that '63s have been allowed in NCRS, maybe someone "restored" them with the "correct" parts. This would be why you see no other examples.

Enough of them would have been wrecked, hot rodded, modified, and restored to NCRS specs that of the 250, it would be easy to see only one left untouched.

I'm not saying it happened, but that the lack of other examples doesn't mean it didn't.

I'd think it was probably changed, personally. Too many "original" cars out there that are "100% correct" but you notice there is a '64 MC on them or a '64 up shifter inside.

[Art A.]

Re: late 63 Corvette question

Bill, No disrespect,but I don't agree with your premise of assuming that ALL of the last 250.......or for that matter the starting 250......vehicles had a part or parts from another MY.

A releasing engineer could and did take, or have parts shipped, to the plant that he wanted to "tryout" which were not ready or missed the pilot line. Maybe one, five, 10 or 50. So it is very possible that not all 250 "last" or first vehicles were effected.
And of course, there was the supplier of a NON form, fit, or finish type of part that was given the authorization by the releasing engineer to substitute the "other" MY part. This usually was documented in a NPC, Notice of Production Change, so that the plants knew what was coming down the pipeline.

There was also a CAN'T BUILD condition that the plant ran into during start-up and HAD to resort to "last" MY parts.......if they were available. Again, this condition had to conform to fit,finish, and function. Don't forget, the most important item was to keep the assembly line moving so that vehicle didn't get hit by the next vehicle in line.

Obviously, the 63 split rear windows would fall into the form,fit, and function category and therefore would PROBABLY not fall into the above scenario and not have happened.I don't know why the split window was even brought up in this thread, because it wasn't one of the parts that the original poster asked about.

IMHO
Art

[Tom H.]

Re: late 63 Corvette question

Art, the split rear window was brought up by me only as a valid part of history. Cars were changed. That was the point of the post. This was just an expanded example of what went on in the 60's. Most likely exactly what happened to the car in the original post. Sorry if my interest in this post offended you.

[Art A.]

Re: late 63 Corvette question

Tom , I'm not offended, I am just trying to keep the thread real and answer the guys question..................for historical purposes. You know apples to apples not apples to oranges. The question was how did it come out of St. Louis, not could it have happened after.

Art