edub63vette

Well, part 2 of my saga with my 62 fuelie. As many viewed in my previous thread a few weeks ago I did verify the VIN on the frame as matching my title, however, questions remained on the VIN stamped on the engine block.
Obviously hand stamped (and matching), but I did go to my shop today and clean it up to get a better look at the numbers on the block.

The block number is 3782870 (back of block, drivers side). The date code (back of block passenger side) is A153. So if I am correct that means Jan. 15th 1963.

Here is where it gets strange,,besides the last part of the vin on the engine pad (and "RF" suffix), below there is the following;
FERFOR14??CE (the question marks are for numbers/ letters I could not make out) and the word "clinic" stamped below the FER sequence of numbers.

Has anyone ever seen such a thing? The CE is confusing as I do not think the warranty replacement designation (CE) did not start from GM until 1968.

I also heard that a warranty replacement at the dealer would result in a manual stamping of the partial VIN on the block pad as well. Could this be a warranty replacement in 1963 for this car?

Very strange,,,,,,,,,

JohnZ

Not likely. Can you post a clear close-up photo of the pad?

edub63vette

DId not have camera with me today but this is a close up prior to cleaning off, it does say "clinic' at the very bottom,,,,,,

Mike Ward

PERFORMANCE
CLINIC

http://www.performanceclinic.net/

edub63vette

Your pretty good Mike!
Car spent most of it's days in Oh,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

edub63vette

So, finally tracked down the longtime owner of my car today, who owned it from 1967-2012. Very interesting.
I first asked him what happened to the VIN on the column. He stated that when the car went through a major restoration (1980-1982) the shop
Performance Clinic in Beavercreek, OH sent the steering column out west somewhere to be restored. No VIN tag when it was returned to the shop.

I then asked him if he knew when the engine block was replaced, which shocked him as he thought it was original. The original owner had this car until 10/26/63 and it was sold to owner #2 with 19,572 mi on it(found this info on the back of the original owners manual). The second owner had it until 1967, when the guy I am talking to bought the car.

This person (who is in his 70's) seems pretty honest and spent about 30 minutes on the phone with me. I told him it is possible that the engine was replaced by owners 1 or 2, however, strange that Performance Clinic would stamp their name on the engine VIN pad. The VIN numbers are very different then the stamping for the shop name. But clearly, it is an A153 870 block. Would a shop have done this in 1980? I don't know.

My "darker side" sees a shop that has a matching block and the (lost) VIN tag,,,,would that have been desirable back in 1980????

He also shared with me that he originally wanted to have the shop take the FI off due to the time it took him to keep in running right. The shop owner convinced him otherwise and rebuilt the FI unit. Has run great ever since. I guess this wasn't that unusual back then to see people taking them off. Also interesting that the car had a little over 70k miles on it when the rebuild took place in 1980 and now has 78k miles. He told me he only put about 200 miles on it the last 20 years.

Bottom line, I have an original fuelie (pretty sure) with a not original block. Which is where the story ends,,,,,,,,,,,

Eric

wmf62

congrats... enjoy it
Bill

MCMLXI

If you plan to have it judged, find a date code correct block- build it up and add your fuelie pieces to it.

If you are not going to judge it. Then drive the crap out of it, and lift that hood every chance you get. Everyone digs a fuelie