1959 270hp Engine Stamp Pad - legit or an imposture?

[Mark S.]

Greetings Forum members. Would appreciate feedback regarding the legitimacy of the attached 1959 270hp Engine Stamp Pad? Many thanks in advance.

[James O.]

Re: 1959 270hp Engine Stamp Pad - legit or an imposture?

mark-looks good to me. dec 10,flint, and correct suffix for 270 hp,4- speed. broach marks and character fonts appear good. no body serial number on pad is correct for 1959. double check the casting code on back of block near distributor to be sure it begins with letter L,K, or J and ends in 9. jim o

[Rick G.]

Re: 1959 270hp Engine Stamp Pad - legit or an imposture?

Hi Jim,

If this block is for a 1959 shouldn't the casting code end in an 8?

Rick

mark-looks good to me. dec 10,flint, and correct suffix for 270 hp,4- speed. broach marks and character fonts appear good. no body serial number on pad is correct for 1959. double check the casting code on back of block near distributor to be sure it begins with letter L,K, or J and ends in 9. jim o

[Garry B.]

Re: 1959 270hp Engine Stamp Pad - legit or an imposture?

Tried to post a picture and not successful. I will try to private message you a photo of a '59 block I had. In a nutshell, you will see that mine looks just like yours. Looks good to me.

[Garry B.]

Re: 1959 270hp Engine Stamp Pad - legit or an imposture?



I figured it out.

[James O.]

Re: 1959 270hp Engine Stamp Pad - legit or an imposture?

Hi Jim,

If this block is for a 1959 shouldn't the casting code end in an 8?

Rick

hi rick- the stamped number shows when the engine was assembled. in your case, dec of 1959. i believe the casting code will start with a letter signifying the month it was cast (L meaning december) and then 1 or 2 digits for the day of the month, and then 9 to signify 1959. if there was an 8 instead of 9, then it means the block was cast at least whole year before it was assembled. there are always exceptions so i guess that is possible but usually the blocks were cast a few weeks before assembly. jim

[Jim D.]

Re: 1959 270hp Engine Stamp Pad - legit or an imposture?

hi rick- the stamped number shows when the engine was assembled. in your case, dec of 1959. i believe the casting code will start with a letter signifying the month it was cast (L meaning december) and then 1 or 2 digits for the day of the month, and then 9 to signify 1959. if there was an 8 instead of 9, then it means the block was cast at least whole year before it was assembled. there are always exceptions so i guess that is possible but usually the blocks were cast a few weeks before assembly. jim

The pad shows the engine was assembled Dec.10. If it is original to the 59 Corvette (most likely built the end of Dec. 58 or Jan. 59), it would have been cast in 1958.

[Leif A.]

Re: 1959 270hp Engine Stamp Pad - legit or an imposture?

As Rick asked in post #3...if this block is for a 1959 Corvette built in December then the last digit of the casting date should be an 8. A Dec 9 date would be for a 1960 model. Production of 1959 Corvettes began September of 1958.

[Bob R.]

Re: 1959 270hp Engine Stamp Pad - legit or an imposture?

Gary,
The stamp looks fine on your photo but there are no broach marks and it looks like the surface was media blasted.

[Garry B.]

Re: 1959 270hp Engine Stamp Pad - legit or an imposture?

Bob, maybe you will like this angle a little better. The first one was after the block had been cleaned, but pad was entirely protected during the process. You will find that many pads have very slight if not almost undetectable broach marks. Guys trying to duplicate broach marks seem to think they all have to be detectable to the naked eye....not necessarily so.

[Bob R.]

Re: 1959 270hp Engine Stamp Pad - legit or an imposture?

This photo looks good

[James O.]

Re: 1959 270hp Engine Stamp Pad - legit or an imposture?

As Rick asked in post #3...if this block is for a 1959 Corvette built in December then the last digit of the casting date should be an 8. A Dec 9 date would be for a 1960 model. Production of 1959 Corvettes began September of 1958.

you are right. my bad. i forget that the new model year started production in the fall of the prior year. i should remember because we used go to to the dealerships the first week back to school to see the new models. my 59 is a june car so casting is E19 so i got confused. jim o

[Edward M.]

Re: 1959 270hp Engine Stamp Pad - legit or an imposture?

I can't call it suspect, but the U appears to be a bit darker / deeper than the other letters. Just an observation.

[Garry B.]

Re: 1959 270hp Engine Stamp Pad - legit or an imposture?

Ed, could this be similar to the '56 stamp where the gang only held five or six digits (can't remember) leaving the last letter to be struck individually? All of the suffix codes in '59 were two digits CQ, DG, CT, DJ, CR, DH, CU and CS which might explain the simplicity of striking the last letter separately in all cases where the first letter was C.

[Edward M.]

Re: 1959 270hp Engine Stamp Pad - legit or an imposture?

Ed, could this be similar to the '56 stamp where the gang only held five or six digits (can't remember) leaving the last letter to be struck individually? All of the suffix codes in '59 were two digits CQ, DG, CT, DJ, CR, DH, CU and CS which might explain the simplicity of striking the last letter separately in all cases where the first letter was C.

Definitely a possibility. I don't know if that was true for 1959. Anyone?