Early or Late 63?

[James J.]

Re: Early or Late 63?

I may have missed something here, but wouldn't the question of a March 18, 1963 birthday being early or late be answered by how far into the prodution year it came off of the line and not what parts are on the car.

[Harry S.]

Re: Early or Late 63?

James, normally yes. But there were so many running changes on the 63 that when restoring the car you need the build date to see if you had an early or late part. Early parts were used, in some cases, into April and May of 63 where some early parts were changes in December of 62.

[James J.]

Re: Early or Late 63?

Harry,
How does the build date help you find out if early or late parts were installed.

[Harry S.]

Re: Early or Late 63?

I probably should have said VIN Number instead of date but the date works also. For example around VIN 11700 was the change from AM radio to AM/FM as the standard radio. When restoring or judging a 63 to find an AM/FM radio in VIN 2000 is probably not possible. On the gas door somewhere around VIN 15000 the change went from early to late. Having an early gas door on car 20000 is probably not possible. The ashtray, radio side panels, gas door bezel, glove box lock, dash skin texture, hood block, etc are all VIN/Date dependent. So you can have a 63 with both early and late parts. Oh, the interior heater box in another example.

[Sydney G.]

Re: Early or Late 63?

Hi Harry,

Interesting about the two designs for the ashtray. I do not recall seeing that difference before.
My mid May (15th) coupe has the later 2 tab ashtray like yours after I checked it last night.
My car also has the earlier roller type gas door and the later glove box lock. The hood wedges are as the JM describes for this vin period and so is the routing of the harness. My car has the rare heat deflector in back of the radio but I forget the difference between the heater boxes??

As is the case with many of these cars, my seatbelts are long gone but I did determine 5-7 years ago that they should have the overlapping stitched X's. I determined this by comparing belts from 2 known original cars built before mine. Now to find original Saddle Tan belts for a '63 is another thing!

I'm still trying to verify if the car should indeed have a Muncie. It currently has a BW trans but I've never seen a serial number on it.
From another car built close to mine, I was told the number seen on the side of the tranny was: 3831704 with Patent Pending GM Corp.
Would this indicate a Borg Warner or a Muncie?

Syd

[Harry S.]

Re: Early or Late 63?

Syd, there were 3 heater boxes for 63 as I recall. The first two designs had that crazy hookup to move the internal flappers. The last design had the single swivel on the outside, (same as 64 to 67), for moving the internal flappers. The first two designs never sealed properly and let hot air into the interior.

The latest VIN I've seen with a verified BW T10 is 14, 39X.

Cheers

[John H.]

Re: Early or Late 63?

I'm still trying to verify if the car should indeed have a Muncie. It currently has a BW trans but I've never seen a serial number on it.
From another car built close to mine, I was told the number seen on the side of the tranny was: 3831704 with Patent Pending GM Corp.
Would this indicate a Borg Warner or a Muncie?

Syd

Syd -

3831704 is the casting number for the '63-only Muncie main case with the small-diameter front bearing retainer.

[Bill H.]

Re: Early or Late 63?

Could be wrong but 63 early included a tray area under the seats, late was flat like all other 64-67 cars

[Sydney G.]

Re: Early or Late 63?

Thanks John!

Guess that finally puts to rest in my mind that my coupe was originally built with a Muncie.
Somewhere down the road, I'll replace my transmission with the correct type rather than repairing the BW that currently sits in my car.

Correct on the earlier tool storage trays under the seats. We just judged an early coupe at our Quebec chapter meet 2 weeks ago with the trays and also painted center dash.

Just curious, when the chrome finish wears off with age on the '63 wheelcovers, is it a Frosted finish underneath?

Syd

[Rob M.]

Re: Early or Late 63?

Correct on the earlier tool storage trays under the seats.

I've pretty good evidence (copy of an original drawing handed to me by Chris Howard) that this was an area to house the needed pistons for a power seats setup originally foreseen for the mid years...

The problem is the drawing is so big that I don't know how to reduce it, I'm planning to write a little Restorer article on this...

regards,
Rob.

[Stuart F.]

Re: Early or Late 63?

Syd;

Me thinks the frosted finish would be the one to wear off with Stainless Steel beneath.

Interesting Thread. I like to sit back and watch the early 63'ers debate. Guess my July 9 build finally had all the latest iterations from the General making it more like a 64. Wow! I didn't know my Muncie Tranny was so rare (63 only).

Stu Fox

[James J.]

Re: Early or Late 63?

Don't be to sure someone didn't find an early, left over part in the bottom of a bin and install it on your late 63

[Stuart F.]

Re: Early or Late 63?

James;

Did I ever tell ya mine was delivered with a white shift ball? True. Now do you suppose that came from the factory that way or there was someone stealing shift balls at the dealers? I didn't think anything about it as I always thought Vettes had white shift balls in previous years.

Stu fox

[James J.]

Re: Early or Late 63?

Stuart,
That's perhaps the rarest speacial order ever. Very curious.
Really though was it just a plain white ball or did it have the shift pattern.

[Michael H.]

Re: Early or Late 63?

Syd;


Guess my July 9 build finally had all the latest iterations from the General making it more like a 64. Wow! I didn't know my Muncie Tranny was so rare (63 only).

Stu Fox

While the bulk of changes seemed to occur between mid Nov 62 and early January 63, there were still changes occuring near the end of 63 production. It went on all through the model year.

Another good example would be the 1st design and last design instrument panel compartment. (glove box) As I remember, not even one part of that entire 1st design assembly, including the door, frame, lock, lock retainer, striker, box or lamp assy was the same at the end of the 63 model.

Almost the entire dash panel and inst housing too, including many of attaching parts and components.

How about the "completely black painted" hood lock assembly on the firewall for early cars?

Or the complete lack of any chrome components on the engines for the first several months of production?