Engine Pad - 1968 427-390HP Opinions

[Peter S.]

Below are pictures of an engine pad of a guest that attended today's Carolinas' Chapter Judging School event. The gentleman will be having his car judged at the CCNCRS chapter event in a few weeks, but he would also like some opinions of his engine pad, so please post your thoughts. For what it is worth, the block casting number and casting date received full credit.

[Michael J.]

Re: Engine Pad - 1968 427-390HP Opinions

That's one of the messiest pads I have seen. Seems the stamper needed a couple of shots to get it right, and I have no idea what is up with all that warping and divots taken out of the pad surface.

[Mike M.]

Re: Engine Pad - 1968 427-390HP Opinions

very suspicious.mike

[Marco H.]

Re: Engine Pad - 1968 427-390HP Opinions

It appears as the worker at St. Louis first stamped the serial number partially over the engine suffix and took a ball peen hammer to erase his mistake. After that he stamped the serial number again.
That's just my guess.

[Mike M.]

Re: Engine Pad - 1968 427-390HP Opinions

factory broach marks approaching the vin but not under it makes this pad suspicious. mike

[Kenneth B.]

Re: Engine Pad - 1968 427-390HP Opinions

factory broach marks approaching the vin but not under it makes this pad suspicious. mike

The last 2/3's of the pad has been ground & restamped. I agree that the vin was over the suffix & was smashed then restamped the vin. I bet its the "REAL DEAL"

[Tracy C.]

Re: Engine Pad - 1968 427-390HP Opinions

Only because your guest asked for opinions...I'm afraid there is nothing typical about the pad surface, the assy stamp or the VIN stamp that would merit points for these features. Factory workers made mistakes, but the "typical" way to correct was to grind them out, not hammer them in.

[Daniel Y.]

Re: Engine Pad - 1968 427-390HP Opinions

As Tracy said, grind out was the method of correcting mistakes. Someone took a hammer to it afterward. Maybe an engine rebuilder ? Either way, it's not typical

[Joe L.]

Re: Engine Pad - 1968 427-390HP Opinions

Only because your guest asked for opinions...I'm afraid there is nothing typical about the pad surface, the assy stamp or the VIN stamp that would merit points for these features. Factory workers made mistakes, but the "typical" way to correct was to grind them out, not hammer them in.

Tracy------

I think this is a grind-out and likely factory. The person that did it must have been some kind of "klutz" and got too aggressive and sloppy. Although I'm sure they were grinding out a mis-stamped VIN derivative, that person somehow ground deeply in the area at the end of the engine code which makes it appear that the area was "pounded". The VIN derivative stamping, itself, appears good and typical to me.

I'm sure that St. Louis had its share of "klutz's".

Without a doubt, this sort of thing is not typical and that's unfortunate. If it didn't receive a judging penalty, what that means is that anyone could "hash up" a stamp pad, stamp whatever they want, and claim that it was a factory job.

[Michael W.]

Re: Engine Pad - 1968 427-390HP Opinions

Quite a conundrum here- 'how would it score in judging' vs. 'is it original' vs 'is it typical of factory production'.

[Joe L.]

Re: Engine Pad - 1968 427-390HP Opinions

One more thing: as I mentioned, the VIN derivative stamping looks good to me and was definitely gang-stamped with characters identical to the type the factory used. It seems very unlikely to me that someone that would hash-up a stamp pad like this would also have available a gang stamp with factory-style characters. A guy at St. Louis that was a "klutz" would have had factory gang stamp to finish off his "handiwork".

[Terry M.]

Re: Engine Pad - 1968 427-390HP Opinions

Only because your guest asked for opinions...I'm afraid there is nothing typical about the pad surface, the assy stamp or the VIN stamp that would merit points for these features. Factory workers made mistakes, but the "typical" way to correct was to grind them out, not hammer them in.

As Tracy said, grind out was the method of correcting mistakes. Someone took a hammer to it afterward. Maybe an engine rebuilder ? Either way, it's not typical

Typical or Flint, Tonawanda or St. Louis? You have three options available to you.

[Tracy C.]

Re: Engine Pad - 1968 427-390HP Opinions

One more thing: as I mentioned, the VIN derivative stamping looks good to me and was definitely gang-stamped with characters identical to the type the factory used. It seems very unlikely to me that someone that would hash-up a stamp pad like this would also have available a gang stamp with factory-style characters. A guy at St. Louis that was a "klutz" would have had factory gang stamp to finish off his "handiwork".

Since we are just speculating here anyway. Suppose a person needs a replacement block and finds one with the wrong Assy suffix and VIN. Then obliterates the suffix and hammers out the existing VIN and then over stamps the VIN for the car the engine will go into using a gang holder. The end result could very well look like this example.

Who knows the real story but I would expect to lose the 88 pts here. Like you noted Joe, otherwise people will just mangle up a pad and expect it to pass.

[Dick W.]

Re: Engine Pad - 1968 427-390HP Opinions

One more thing: as I mentioned, the VIN derivative stamping looks good to me and was definitely gang-stamped with characters identical to the type the factory used. It seems very unlikely to me that someone that would hash-up a stamp pad like this would also have available a gang stamp with factory-style characters. A guy at St. Louis that was a "klutz" would have had factory gang stamp to finish off his "handiwork".

Many more sets of gang stamps out there today than St Louis ever had. Many have impeccable characters. I know of at least three sets within 75 miles of me. I know of several sets in your area.

[Peter S.]

Re: Engine Pad - 1968 427-390HP Opinions

Quite a conundrum here- 'how would it score in judging' vs. 'is it original' vs 'is it typical of factory production'.

Mike - exactly. Since this gentleman will be having his car judged, question #1 is the immediate inquiry, but the other two questions are important to him.

The casting number/case configuration and the casting date both looked good. The question would be is how would you score:

- Assembly Stamping
- VIN derivative
- Stamp pad surface finish