tuxnharley

Following on to my previous post about the body and engine build dates, here are photos of:
- stamp pad
- VIN tag
-trim tag
- carburetor air horn

Questions are as follows:
- stamp pad: opinions on authenticity? Is the second H correct? It looks "skinnier" and the bottom legs look shorter.
- VIN tag - authenticity?
- trim tag - authenticity? It is bent because the top of the tag was bent over the cross brace when I went to inspect it, rendering the body build date not visible. The current owner pulled it forward so I could see/photograph the build date. The then visible portion of the tag was pristine - except for the paint splatter - before that all occurred.
- carb air horn - model and date correctness? Looks to be a correct for 365 hp application 4th week May 1965 unit. Date appears to correspond with June 8 1965 engine build.

Thoughts/comments?

Thanks!

Easy Rhino

Those look good from here.

65silververt

Everything looks fine to me. Carb is a May of 65 build 2818

JackTripper

So, everything looks legitimate for a 65' L76 in Nassau Blue?

65silververt

It all looks legit to me. Perhaps it's a little odd that the second H is smaller than the first, but that stamp pad doesn't look like it has been messed with to me.
The VIN tag and Trim look like originals and the carb is correct for 350hp-365hp engines and is an original with a date the would work for a June built 65.

65hihp

that looks pretty much perfect. Your vin is 200 later than mine and the stampings dead nuts on. Your suffix fonts are same size, with fat and skinny H, and O and 0 used in date, same as mine. Angles of stamps and fonts all identical. Only difference in ours is my St L and your AOS trim tags. Carb is identical. You have a winner!

JackTripper

Awesome. I hope to buy this car this week. The only thing we found is that the steering and needs an adjustment which I heard is an easy fix, and the motor misses just a little which I heard can just be tuned.

Any other suggestions?

JackTripper

Powershift

Assuming a healthy engine, I would probably install a new set of AC 45 plugs and check dwell, timing, and valve lash. A few high rpm runs (6000+) might clear things up as well, but not certain you want to do that to your new car at this time.

Infrequently run engines with the big cams (30-30) like to foul plugs.

As others have said, the pics above look good.

I asked twice for the engine casting number and date, but you chose not to provide. I can't help where I can't see.

Larry

EDIT:

The carb was installed at St Louis, so its date only needs to be prior to the final CAR build date. The engine build date is not the determining factor. The engines were first fired at the engine plant on natural gas or propane and no carb was required. But carb and date are just fine.

tuxnharley

No worries, block is a 3782870. date codes on many things I have not posted here do check out!

Thanks for the input!

65hihp

She's a nice looking L76 convertible. Hope front, back, all corners of the body and frame are as nice as she looks overall.
I'll look for it at a NCRS meet sometime. Maybe Bend OR next year?

tuxnharley

Hi Larry -

I'm the guy who inspected and drove the car. As for the miss - it had a slight miss at idle, was noticeable off idle when in neutral unloaded, and had an occasional "pop"/slight backfire thru the exhaust when cruising at 65 mph/3500 rpm/4th gear with its 3.70 posi axle. It ran ok, but just wasn't as strong as I thought it should be. I'm not sure I ever felt the vacuum secondaries kick in.

OTOH, I never took it above about 5000 rpm, and didn't want to totally thrash a car I was checking out for a third party - especially when the current owner was in the passenger seat!

Here's some details about the engine rebuild that I found online by researching the VIN, from a previous recent sale.
"The Numbers matching 327-365HP engine is all newly rebuilt. Bored out .030" with Hiper flat top pistons, molly rings, clevite bearings, solid comp cam and lifters ( lift, duration), roller tip rockers, correct Holley carburator, new correct air cleaner, Aluminum finned corvette valve covers, distributor and wire metal shields."

Thoughts/comments?

Thanks for your input!

Glenn

tuxnharley

They are - but there are several details that are not NCRS correct - alternator, radiator, etc.

Paint/body is beautiful, frame is solid. Used a Centech inspection camera to look inside the frame rails and at the birdcage, looks good with only some minor surface oxidation inside one of the frame rails. Here's a pic of the kick up and rail:

Easy Rhino

Very pretty car.

Does anybody besides me think that although that frame is nice and shiny looking, that it has a look as if it had some pitting from surface rust, but was blasted and coated with thick black frame paint in the past?

65GGvert

I don't see it

Easy Rhino

Cool. I don't really want to be a wet blanket.

Powershift

I would still do the things I stated earlier. The plugs will tell you a few things about the engine health and/or carb jetting. 45 heat range plugs are the best for the street for these cars.

Miss could also be a bad plug wire. The condition of the plugs might give a hint.

The engine appears to have been rebuilt with lower compression pistons (flat top) so not certain what the final compression ratio is. Having the cam lift and duration or a Part # will help to nail down what is in there. Still, checking valve lash is a good idea on any new/unknown engine.

If miss still persists, hookup a vacuum gage and watch the needle for motion.

Larry

LSUvetteguy

And it's about 500 from mine.