Offered '65 Fuelie Coupe - no VIN on engine pad. $$$?

[Mike E.]

Re: Offered '65 Fuelie Coupe - no VIN on engine pad. $$$?

The VIN derivative looks very shallow (light) when compared to a couple non FI cars a few thousand before and after. I would say that looks non-typical but I'm far from an expert. See what some other folks say, before I would pay nearly $100K for a car I would have an expert check it, and perhaps get some better images. To my eyes the "2" at the end of the VIN is not right either. It's nearly a 6 week gap from engine assembly to cars final production which seems on the high side too. I would be interesting to plot how much Fulie production dropped off after the big blocks came on line. My guess would be FI cars would be loaded towards in the early model year.








Mike

[Patrick H.]

Re: Offered '65 Fuelie Coupe - no VIN on engine pad. $$$?

If you look at the invoices in the ad, the last line item on the first page is to resurface the block...

1965_Corvette_Fuelie__135_.jpg

[Oliver S.]

Re: Offered '65 Fuelie Coupe - no VIN on engine pad. $$$?

According to the seller the numbers on the engine pad weren't restamped. The serial no. of the FI unit would fit well in the range used in '65 together with the cars VIN. Furthermore this unit has the partial VIN stamped on it.
Here are some more pics from the FI Unit and the (chalked) engine pad.
Engine pad 1.jpg

engine pad 2.jpg

VIN on fuel injection passenger side 1.jpg

engine pad 3.jpg

[Oliver S.]

Re: Offered '65 Fuelie Coupe - no VIN on engine pad. $$$?

...

Fuelie serial number 3.JPG

[Dan H.]

Re: Offered '65 Fuelie Coupe - no VIN on engine pad. $$$?

Not an original FI tag, as JD points out, the 8 needs an additional tick mark to the upper RH corner.

[Mike E.]

Re: Offered '65 Fuelie Coupe - no VIN on engine pad. $$$?

If you look at the invoices in the ad, the last line item on the first page is to resurface the block...

[ATTACH=CONFIG]50075[/ATTACH]

Would that effect points awarded if the car was to be judged?

Mike

[John D.]

Re: Offered '65 Fuelie Coupe - no VIN on engine pad. $$$?

Oliver, When you see a 65 FI vin # stamped on the plenum they typically were nothing to brag about as far as the quality of the stamp. Remember the assembly line was moving. Al Grenning used to send me pics in the old days showing just how poorly the Vin's numbers were stamped in most cases. If you see a vin number stamped dead nuts perfect you might want to research a car further. Now I am not saying the car in question is a fake as don't want to be involved.
Just stating the above for educational purposes.
More info on plenum strikes: Not unusual to see a partial vin number stamped 2 maybe 3 times. Not unusual to see the worked missed the big boss and actually hit the number on the smooth area on the plenum to the rear of the boss. Not unusual to see the number hit in several directions depending on how the worker had his wrist turned. But to see a number dead nuts is just not what one would expect.
The G on the engine pad that the good MD pointed out is neat. Wonder how he knew dat?
Last of all I tried every trick on my pc to blow up the numbers on the FI ID tag.
I used ctrl + etc. I can't make out the number 8 good enough. But the tag does appear to be an original tag. Later as enough time on this one. JD

[John S.]

Re: Offered '65 Fuelie Coupe - no VIN on engine pad. $$$?

Per JD's last post, here is a picture of the plenum stamp on my car. Note the tops of the 5s are missing as the gang stamp was held at a slight angle.

[Steve B.]

Re: Offered '65 Fuelie Coupe - no VIN on engine pad. $$$?

if one looks at the pad on this 65 375 hp block, it appears that the horizontal component of the G in the suffix(HG) is stamped DEEPER than the rest of the G. since a 65 300HP power glide chevy pass car suffix was HC, i wonder if the horizontal component of the G was added after the block left flint. mike

Mike, that's a nice catch. I have seen similar things done with 67s. For example a JF code (400hp with A.I.R.) turned into a JE code.

[John D.]

Re: Offered '65 Fuelie Coupe - no VIN on engine pad. $$$?

Per JD's last post, here is a picture of the plenum stamp on my car. Note the tops of the 5s are missing as the gang stamp was held at a slight angle.

Nice pic and info John. On another note. Notice that John's 65 FI has a bare brass vacuum advance fitting. In 64 and 65 you will see both plated and bare brass VA fittings.
Picture yourself working on an assembly line with a tool holder. Your job was to quickly stamp the plenum as the line was slowly moving.
That's why so many "sloppy" looking Vin stamps on the plenum. And that's also the reason that not all those plenums were stamped. JD

[Wayne M.]

Re: Offered '65 Fuelie Coupe - no VIN on engine pad. $$$?

For James G, and others: Do you have this window sticker info in your '63 FI data base. Took this pic at a Dover OH Corvette meet in late August 1975.

[George J.]

Re: Offered '65 Fuelie Coupe - no VIN on engine pad. $$$?

I sent Jim Gessner an email - no reply so far.


Here's some additional info:
VIN: 06852
Build Date: ~Jan 14, 1965
Engine Block Cast Date: K124 (Nov 12, 1964)
Casting Number: 3782870



If I identify the FI serial no. correctly as 1107 then it would be the lowest serial no. used in '65 when you take Noland Adam's Guide as reference. The lowest number there is 1463. Unfortunately, there is no pattern in FI serial no. assigned to Corvettes.
'65 VIN 1300 - FI serial no. 1463 (lowest FI no. listed)
'65 VIN 12320 - FI serial no. 1891 (highest VIN with 1xxx FI no.)
And #7017380 FI serial no. 1104 was used on a '64 FI car.

The car is also listed there:

http://www.usedcorvettesforsale.com/corvette-56962.html

There you can see trim and VIN plate


Oliver

Oliver,
my '65, vin 14713 has serial number 1830. The 8 has the little tail, as well.

George

[Anthony L.]

Re: Offered '65 Fuelie Coupe - no VIN on engine pad. $$$?

So , what was the final outcome of this??? Real or Maybe or Heck no?

[Oliver S.]

Re: Offered '65 Fuelie Coupe - no VIN on engine pad. $$$?

According to the owner of the Corvette with the clear engine pad there are holes from the non-FI flag emblems. So most probably no real FI car. As it appears it is currently offered on ebay - correctly described as potentially high hp SB - not necessarily FI.

Oliver

[Wayne M.]

Re: Offered '65 Fuelie Coupe - no VIN on engine pad. $$$?

Oliver, Since the car is in the 6800 range that means it's a December 64 built car. Not all Dec & Jan cars had the serial number stamped on the plenum.
I see it has an original ID tag riveted to the plenum. Can you provide that number? .....

Oliver -- FWIW, '65 VIN 06114 (an original Canadian-delivered car) has the stamped plenum and the Rochester tag shows a "380" unit with stamped number 2642.