I was checking #'s on the 71 I bought on Wednesday and while at the back of the car I reached up on top of the gas tank and felt part of the tank sheet up there!! It was loose so I pulled it down and was excited to be able to read some of it making out the axle, engine, paint AC and trim codes. But the top left corner of the sheet was all full of grime and difficult to read. I can feel the rest of the sheet up there but it is attached. Not sure if I should be messing with it but glad I got the top half of it before it blew off and was gone forever! Why were there handwritten #'s on the top right of the sheet?

Can anyone point me to the exact location of the #'s on the rear differential? Tranny and engine match but still tring to determine the rear.

Thanks,

Scott

 

have a perfect built sheet on my 77 which was found under the drivers seat. The rearend ratio will be found on the lower portion of the sheet where it says customer order. My rearend is a 3.08 and the code for mine is GU4. None of the blocks on the top portions of the sheet show any gear ratio. The top left of the sheet shows job sequence number and scheduled no date. Each block is numbered. Do you know which block numbers you are missing?

 

The rear end numbers should be on the passenger's side near the pinion yoke.

 

I still haven't looked for mine. I was too scared of spiders to reach up there.

 

 

Don't laugh! I am too...

 

As my car sits awaiting for the motor, i found black widows under the tank........

 

I had one near my radiator once. I scared it up closer to the engine and I think it fried. Stupid bish better not be making webs under my car!

 

Scott,regarding those hand written #'s on tank sticker,do they match the last 3 #'s of the cars VIN #???

 

See, I'm not crazy.

 

The body shop used numbers from 1 to 500 to track all the body parts for a given body assembly...remember these were nearly custom made. Several copies were printed and distributed to the various assembly lines like body, trim, chassis, etc. One copy of the build sheet would follow the assembly as it made its way through the body shop and to keep up with the various panels one of those numbers were assigned to this particular Corvette order copy (your tank sticker). The tank sticker was applied as the chassis completed assembly but I believe before suspension and engine assembly. This would instruct the worker what engine and suspension wee ordered.

If the underneath is still pretty original and in good shape, you may be able to find the number scrawled on the tank sticker scribbled onto various body panels. Its not an uncommon find but rather part of the assembly process.

Also, the 77 build sheet is different than the 71 in many ways. In 73, GM upgraded its data processing and used the landscape style from 73 through 82 which included all those numbered boxes. Your 71 is actually the Corvette Order Copy generated by the dealer but still documents the configuration originally ordered.

I've included a link to an article published in the Corvette Restorer that offers some insights into Corvette Build sheets.
C3 Build Sheets

 

No, the handwritten #'s do not match the VIN. Looks like they added 1, 55 and 247 to come up with 303 and circled it. Then they wrote 2 more #'s at the bottom (82 and 48). Some of the sheet is still up there so am I better off leaving it? I think I have about half of the sheet.

I'm still trying to see if it's the original rear but can't seem to locate those #'s. Are they cast right into the housing? I found the letters GM on the passenger side. Am I to be looking where the driveshaft comes in or where the axle on the passenger side comes out? Looks like there is a few letter/numbers cast on the driver's side but can't make them out to well. Maybe A711. Hard to tell. Does having the tank sticker help in value since it's kind of authentic now? Sorry for all the questions but truly a rookie here.

Added: Another member PM'd me and pointed me to the #'s on the rear. He had to take me by the hand but greatly appreciated. I studied them from all angles and looks like AW W 22 E 2 which I'm not sure what it decodes to.