1970 engine pad anomaly

[Adam R.]

[Mark F.]

Re: 1970 engine pad anomaly

Adam,

welcome to the TDB...some body out there will have an answer for you, but...
do you have a photograph of the pad that you can upload?

[Chris H.]

Re: 1970 engine pad anomaly

Hi Adam, yes welcome, like Mark said, in situations like these, a picture is worth a thousand words. By the way, I had a '70 LS5, built A09, and both stamps (Tonawanda and VIN) were on the pad, nothing by the oil filter.

[Larry M.]

Re: 1970 engine pad anomaly

It is a fact that some (or perhaps many/all) very very early 1970 Corvettes had the VIN stamped at the ol filter and not on the normal engine pad. See archives for discussions. I also inspected a car built the first 2-3 days of production and found this same thing.

I cannot comment on what was stamped, but it should have been the proper VIN derivative.

Could it be a replacement engine from a Camaro or Chevelle or ??

Larry

[Adam R.]

Re: 1970 engine pad anomaly

I'm gonna try to upload a picture.70 vin stamp.jpg

[Chris H.]

Re: 1970 engine pad anomaly

Thanks Adam, kind of hard to tell but it doesn't look like a restamp. The "CTH" looks original which is an L46 with a 4 speed.

[Adam R.]

Re: 1970 engine pad anomaly

Yeah no indication it was a restamp. When he inherited the car the engine was stuck and he took it to someone to rebuild about 8 years ago. Was off the road since a little after 1978 where the inspection sticker had 10,494 miles recorded on it. It sat for about 35 years. Unfortunately it languished in this damp old dirty garage since then. Love to get it back on the road. I'm trying to get him to understand it's not a gold mine and although the 12K could be original miles, the neglect over the years has really devalued it. Needs quite a bit to bring it up to a daily driver even. Shame.

[Bob B.]

Re: 1970 engine pad anomaly

I guarantee you that fully and properly restoring a 1970 is a very expensive proposition

[Bill B.]

Re: 1970 engine pad anomaly

Adam, I second Bob's assessment above. I spent just under six figures on my 1970 project, although admittingly performing some customization (adding options mine never had). It was more of personal sentimental project after 45 years of ownership, and I knew going in that I would not even come close to recouping half of that cost if I ever sold it. I spent $50K alone on body work (windshield birdcage, correcting 1st owner botched body repairs, transmission tunnel mods to fit a Gear Vendors OD unit, and expensive paint. Of course, as you know, restoration costs also depend on how technically accurate you want to be (Top Flight / Concours / Survivor, daily driver, et al) using NOS, used, repro, or non GM parts. Even though it has low mileage, at the end of the day, is it worth the investment? - All depends what attributes are important to you.

Lastly, how do you know it wasn't 110,494 miles on the vehicle, with the report just indicating what was showing on the odometer at the time? Certainly possible if driven a lot for the first 15 of its years ...

[Bob B.]

Re: 1970 engine pad anomaly

I wonder how many C1 to C3's really got driven over 100k miles in their life ? I am sure there are 10% or something, but in 60's and 70's MANY MANY cars got totaled, stolen, rusted out or just got put away as worn out ? Remember in the early and mid 70's there were many
C2's that were sold for under $1,500 running nice cars. In the early 70's I paid $1200 for a 67 big block coupe, $1200 for a 63 SW coupe
and under $1,000 for a 64 Conv seems very few C2 cars made it over 60,000 miles

[Bill B.]

Re: 1970 engine pad anomaly

Not to get too off topic with this thread, but when I bought my '70 as 3rd owner in 1977, it already had 120K miles (mostly highway). I paid $3k for it. I knew the 2nd owner, and knew where he commuted to college and work with it in his 5 years of ownership. While the engine and drivetrain were in pretty good shape, the winter driving in the northeast took its toll on the rear frame areas and the windshield birdcage (he didn't have a garage). When I finally got around for recent body-off resto/mod, I ended up needing a new frame and windshield frame work all the down the birdcage behind the firewall. ($$$). In the 44 years I owned it, I accumulated 60K miles, using it as a daily driver myself (other than winters) for the first 5 years of my ownership, then drove it less and less as I started to really appreciate it and didn't want to run it into the ground.

[Bob B.]

Re: 1970 engine pad anomaly

Thermal airport is open 24/7 for av gas sometimes it is hours between private planes fueling up-
Just saying

[Paul D.]

Re: 1970 engine pad anomaly

Those "extra" numbers look odd and not aligned, possibly not gang stamped but stamped individually. If you find the correct VIN stamped near the oil filter, I would suspect the rebuilder stamped that to ID his work.