Bobtam

I am helping in the restoration of a 67 roadster. I owned the car in the sixties ,I bought it in 69. I was a 427/400 with power brakes. The driver side valve cover was hammered with a ball peen hammer at the factory to give it clearance for the power brake unit. It has been verified by the restorers that this did happen on early models. The valve covers on this car not only were hammered but were chromed. They also had stickers on them which said Chevy Tonawanda the number one team. I found this sticker in a catalog but it states it was for 1968 models. I have never seen another 427 with chrome valve covers and the restorers say they can't verify that any were ever built.
Has anyone out there ever seen an origional chrome valve cover or know of their production?

JohnZ

I've been judging 67's for many years, and there's no such thing as ball-peen-hammered valve covers from the factory - the triangular depression for booster clearance was stamped at the rear of ALL driver's side BB valve covers, whether they had power brakes or not, and all '67 BB valve covers were painted engine orange (except those on the sixteen L-89's).

Fawndeuce

I don' know who you are Bobtam, but if John says it, you can pretty much bet the ranch on it.



Paul

BLee

What someone did was take a set of chrome BB covers off a Camaro, Chevelle, etc. and give them the Ray Charles treatment with a hammer, also referred to as being Bubba'ed or in the aviation field we used to call it beat-it-to-fit, paint-it-to-match.

BL

drlou

LOL, I can see it now, so much precision and care going into putting a special car together, bodies rail shipped to assembly plant, etc., and then some bubba says "let me fix that valve cover, I'll make this stuff fit" and starts flailing with a ball peen! No factory picture of that John???

BLee

Or if you absolutely have to have incorrect chrome valve covers on a non-L-89 67 BB you can get a very nice set from Noah Performance on ebabe, complete with the correctly formed corner. Much easier to spend around $80 there than to bang the snot out of a set with a hammer and ruin 'em.

BL

Bobtam

The guys at the restoration place say they have verified that there were hammered valve covers from the factory. I don't own the car anymore just trying to help out the new owner in his restoration.

BarryK

than they are either referring to the designed in depression area John already described to you or they have no clue what they are talking about

FASTZ

and exactly how early is this early'67 car? because the '66 model year also had the triangular depression for booster clearance and they too were all painted

1-2-b-67L89

As mentioned earlier JohnZ knows his stuff and its good as gold if he states it. But this is very common knowledge especially at restoration shops. I would be heavily concerned if a place doing resto work was trying to convey the above message to me or one of my friends. Your friend can purchase repop valve covers that have the depression and they are not either.
Good luck to your friends 67,

a560156

Barry, as a 67 BB owner, I'll go with this option.

BarryK

yeah, I was going that way myself but figured I'd still allow for the possibility of miscommunication

LT1driver

JohnZ is the man, believe him and tell your friend the same

JohnZ

No, it's not - at least not at restoration shops that have a clue about what they're doing, and this one obviously doesn't. Kinda makes you wonder about what "internet legend" story they'll come up with next.

Bobtam

Well John Z here is another one for your for your book on valve covers.
All these posts made me more and more curious about the valve covers. You might notice I have been getting ripped up bad about previous posts about the documents for the car but that's another story.
The car has been in this area of Connecticut since I owned it and I still had the origional bill of sale from who I bought it from and decided to see if I could find him on the web.
I found him and gave him a call to ask about the valve covers ,since he took delivery of the car.
Yes the car did come with a hammered valve cover on the drivers side to clear the power brakes. The valve covers were painted. After owing the car for a while the paint started to chip off the drivers side valve cover. Guess what, there was chrome under the paint. He stripped off the paint and had a chrome cover. The passanger side was painted with no chrome so he went out and got a valve cover from a BB chevelle of camaro to match. Thats how the car got chrome valve covers. He also said that GM was on strike at the time and most likely they were running out of parts and used what they could find and hammer it to fit.
Looks like I was 1/2 right. Talk about a rare car.
Also found out he still has the Protecto plate and origional sales invoice. I,m going to give the new owner this info.

67's

Is that the 1970 Strike you are refering to, you might check John's profile since he was an engineer in the Corvette factory at the time.

Tom M

bb62

Bobtam,

Please don't make a fool of yourself. The owner prior to you doesn't have a clue either if he remembers what you are saying he remembers. Please consider the following:

1. The 67 Big block cars are probably THE most researched cars on the planet.
2. It's not just one guy but hundreds of NCRS guys who over the years have documented ever possible combination and/or error from the St. Louis facility and the Tonawanda facility (where the big blocks were manufactured). Your "error" has never been documented. There are (and I have) dozens of books that have much the same information - information independently verified by many in the Corvette hobby.
3. Both the NCRS and Bloomington Gold have awards for original cars with their original equipment. No such original car has ever been found.
4. Consider that JohnZ was an engineer at the St. Louis Corvette facility in 1967 and is well familiar with the contents and production procedures of the vehicle. Perhaps you should read some of the THOUSANDS of his posts (at this and many other Corvette related sites) that help people with production techniques and what was available at the time. His contemporaneous picture archive alone would take days to sift through.
5. I have owned a Sting Ray (one or another) since 1981 (when I also joined the NCRS). I have also owned a tri-power 67 coupe (albeit a 435) since 1995 and have looked at perhaps hundreds of 67 big blocks cars in my nearly 30 years in the hobby. Not one has ever been restored or presented in original form as you suggest.
6. From a paint perspective, chrome would never be used as the basis for a painted surface because the adherance properties of chrome are not good.
7. There was no strike at Tonawanda in 1967 to support such a story.
8. I believe your contact either can't remember what he had done with his car over the years or is not telling you the truth to cover up his selling you a cobbled up car. Also, the protecto plate and invoice will not tell you what valve covers came on the cars. I also have the same documentation - and lots more.
9. If you want to see what an original valve cover looks like see the following pictures of my unrestored engine compartment. While not entirely clear, you can see the depression in the driver side valve cover to clear the brake master cylinder.

JohnZ

The guy is feeding you a line, and doesn't remember squat. The "strike" in October of 1966 was a LOCAL strike at St. Louis that didn't affect ANY other GM facilities; "GM" was not on strike. The car came originally with painted valve covers, and the driver's side cover had a neatly-stamped depression to clear the booster.

BLee

Now I could believe someone at Fomoco taking a hammer and beating something to fit, plus using a little baling wire on it to boot.

Hi MikeM....

BL

BrettG

How funny is it that a unconfirmed story of a factory worker beating a valve cover with a ball peen hammer gives us such enjoyment??