1965 Convertible 42,000 miles 411 rear-end,Muncie 4 speed 6500 rpm red line 80 psi oil. Trying to figure out what motor it might have had from the factory. It has a big block hood. The frame on it looks like original and is as clean as the outside
I forgot to add that the car has factory disk brakes front and back

 

Dennis - Welcome to the Corvette Forum. Cool looking 65, congrats. I love the 65/66 Bigblock hood too. I bought my 65 300 horse coupe back in 1985 and it already had a 66 Bigblock hood on it. There are a few things you can look for to help try and figure out which engine it originally came with. And, keep in mind, all the 'tell-tale' signs could have been owner-changed along the way from when it rolled out of the showroom floor but the first thing to look at is the tachometer. Either post a pic of it or tell us the 'start' of the yellow/redlines.
Mike T - Prescott AZ

 

From one Dennis to another, Welcome to the CF! That is one cool looking '65. I like the mods that make a personal statement even thou you didn't make them. Enjoy the miles and you'll get the smiles. Dennis

 

Cool 65, Congrats

 

Welcome to the CF, and that's a cool 65. Show us a photo of the bottom of the rear end, in the space between the strut rod bracket, and the leaf spring dog bone shaped mount plate. If original, there should be a two letter code, followed by a date. If you show us your vin and trim tags, we can compare your car mfg date with the date on the rear end, and make a guess if the rear is original to the car. Can't know for sure, but it's one of the clues to how the car might have been built.

 

Very nice-Looks like fun! Keep those rear flairs....(-;

 

Welcome to the Forum. Way cool! . . . any idea who did the "flames"?

 

Congrats on a '65 and welcome to the forum Dennis.

 

I like it. Make the car yours, right now it is someone elses vision.
Drive it, dont look at it.
You might get lucky and find your answer on the C2 Registry
Good luck

 

Great looking car, maybe an original 396/425 HP car? Fill out your profile so we have some idea what part of the country you are from.
Welcome aboard.

Mark

 

Killer C2, Dennis! Welcome to the forum.

You would not believe how many hours are in that custom paint job. At todays labor rate, perhaps more than you paid for the car! Any more pictures?

 

 

So far, so good. Looks like your column is falling down from the cluster. There is a bracket underneath held by two nuts. They might be loose.
Check it.

 

 

It looks like you have the important objects for maintaining the Vette....garage and lift, nice! Dennis

 

Dennis - If that is the original dash cluster and tach, your 65 either started out as a 365 Horse 327 or a 425 Horse 396. Quite a few ways to determine if it was a bigblock but one thing to look at is...where is the battery located?
They decided that when the 65 Bigblock arrived, around March of 1965, the battery would be placed on the drivers side and accessible via a removable panel on the back end of the drivers inner wheel well. The only other 65 Vette that got that battery relocation was the Air Conditioned cars. Then in 66 and in 67, for Bigblocks they figured out there 'was' enough room to put the battery where 'all' non A/C cars had them mounted, on the passenger side.
One other quick thing to look at is the underside of the hood. The Bigblock Hoods look identical on the outside for 65 and 66 Bigblocks but in 66, all hoods got a hood emblem on the drivers front corner and to access the speed nuts for that emblem, there are holes in the underside of the hood...for 66 models. No hood emblem on 65's so no need for those access holes.
Let us know what you find and post up more pics of your 65.
Mike T - Prescott AZ

 

Mike - Thank you very much for the info. The battery is on the drivers side. I am trying to learn as much as i can about these C2's.Being that i am 59 years old i am getting a late start on them.I have always had 67 Camaro,s and Chevy trucks. I have one 67 Camaro RS that i have had for 40 years now.I also have a 1968 Chevrolet K10 that is all original. Have always dreamed of having a C2. Finally got one

 

That is one wicked cool C2! Loving it! Post more pics when you can. Engine, underbody, etc. We love pics on this forum.

As a relatively new C2 owner myself, my advice is drive it as much as you can and only touch what has to be fixed to make it safe and drivable. Once you are feeling really familiar and comfortable with the car, that's when I'd start messing with it. You might find it is great as-is.

Patrick

 

Dennis - That's good news about the battery being located on the drivers side. Of course, with all the years that have passed since these cars were new, lotsa stuff could have been changed, including adding an inner wheel well from a midyear AC car but not overly likely. So, let's move on to some other things such as the only 65 Corvettes to receive a rear sway bar. Can you post up a pic of the back end of your trailing arms? I bought a 65 396 roadster two years ago (and still working on it) but I and a friend from this Forum and the NCRS have been compiling a list of 65 L78's and our lists are up over 300 now out of the original build number of 2157. Since the 65 Bigblocks did now arrive till around late 12K VIN number, a VIN earlier than that would be a sign that the car was 'put together' and not a factory 65 396 Corvette. Gary Cowans is the friend I'm talking about and he's got an xls spreadsheet available over on the NCRS site and when we dig up another 65 Bigblock to add to the list, he also adds them to the public lists on C2Registry.org.
So, what is your VIN and if you are uneasy about posting it, you could tell us it's #15XXX or #21XXX and that will at least tell us is in the running to be one of the original 2157 made.
Back to what to look for, as I mentioned, there are quite a few things including the tachometer face, hood, rear sway bar and here's another one...look at the frame mounted fuel pipe. On a Bigblock, once it came forward on top of the frame, the pipe had a very noticeable 90-degree turn to head to the fuel pump, the smallblocks are different. Also, do you have Transistorized Ignition? It was a requirement when ordering the Bigblock and on a 65, it was mounted on the passenger side core support, there are three holes present for the mounting.
Oh, and on the rear end, right where the half shafts connect to the center pumpkin...tell us (or post a pic if you can) about the attachment, is the U-joint secured with a U-bolt or steel caps...steel caps were used on Bigblocks.
Mike T - Prescott AZ

 

Mike is this what you are talking about