joewill

69 had an extended run from september 68 thru december 69 an 'O' would be 15th month of production = November 69.. I may be off a month..

Mike Ward

October, since this car is a '69

RPOL68

Here is a correct one from an Oct 04, 1968 build date 1969 Big Block. Small block should be similar.

September 24, 1969 would be correct for this production year beginning in Aug 68 (A) and ending Dec 69 (R). The letter "I" is not used in the production date code.

wer2xu

even that one has ghost under the 6 , L and Q

Mike Ward

Small block pads are NOT similar to big block: different engine plant, different stamp positions etc etc.

Also, the pad in your picture may not be the best example to go by- it appears (at a minimum) to have been decked.

RPOL68

By similar I mean the font and size. SB will begin with a "V" for the plant code and the S/N and engine code are reversed left and right.

The crosshatch appearance comes from using a sanding board to clean the gasket surface during a rebuild. The stamping is original. Ghosting is common and not an indication of a restamp.

jr9170

wer2xu

what does the tool used to stamp the pads look like?

vettebuyer6369

The "crosshatch" seems more pronounced around the numbers, and not so much elsewhere in that picture though, doesn't it? Very deep stamps, too.

I think I'd use a different pad for an example reference.

69MA

I'm thinking that i agree with Alan in the beggining of the thread i don't know how anyone can tell a good stamp from a bad stamp. Or maybe i should say a restamp as opposed to a stamp put on at the factory, especially from a picture on the internet. i think that something like this should be labeled (using Alan's words) not typical of prduction. Meaning further investigating is needed. If i remember these stamps were all put on by hand and they had some kind of jig or something that they held to put the numbers on the pad. I can see how these numbers could get messed up, some new guy filling in for someone on vacation and this happens to be one of the first ones he's done. They wouldn't scrap the block because the numbers didn't look right, they would just send it down the line for assembly. This number is just a small piece of the puzzle. All of the other numbers need to be checked and verified if the intention is to buy as a numbers matching car. I could see if it were a big dollar car, which by the description i don't think this is, someone restamping it. Just doesn't make sense for this particular car.

Mike Ward

Well, here's part of it

vettebuyer6369

This is the part I disagree with. While it does not have the same impact that a big block would have on value, to say that there's no sense in restamping a small block (or in this case, a 350 hp SB) is just overlooking an awful lot. Compare the market price of an NOM 350 to a numbers-matching 350 horse... you don't think its worth it? I disagree.

And while Alan is correct that its very tough to discern good vs bad pads, there is enough info out there to often make some pretty educated guesses, especially in the case of the pad that started THIS thread, which is hideous.

wer2xu

The reason I ask is because in the ref. photo, all of the numbers form a straight line as if they were all part of a single die, but the last three digits are the only ones with a ghost...and the ghost appears to be in a nice straight line. So were the dies in sets of three, single, or everything at once.

400hp427vette

I have since cleaned my pad with thinner and it looks just fine, here is a picture with some paint on the pad.

69MA

OK I'll concead this is more than likely some type of number tampering. So say this is not the original block and this goes back to my statement is it worth it. To pull this off you would need to locate a block with a casting date that falls in line with the assembly date of the car. Not sure what this would cost between time spent possible shipping and cost of the block. Next you would need to have it prepped and decked, more money spent. Now do you spend more money locating the correct heads and intake? Lets just say the intake because those numbers can be seen, more money and time, oh yea we need to stamp the block, don't do any homework and totally blow it. And of course we need to assemble it and drop it in.
Next example suppose we have the original 300hp engine. So now i don't need a block because i got the right casting numbers, but still need to get the numbers off. I think this can be done without taking the heads off, but broach mark direction is a dead give away, also i don't think you can do this in you garage (more money). And again totally blowing the restamp. In this case what's the differance in cost of an original 300hp car, which in this example we started with and an original 350hp car. Although I havent seen this car as described doesn't appear to be more than just a driver. You know more about what the differance in the two cars would be, but if I had to guess for two cars in ths condition with the different hp ratings, 5K can't be more than 6K. So i think after time, money, chances of being exposed especially airing your dirty laundry on the internet for the world to see. I just don't see how it is worth it.

Budman68

Help me out on this.

Why does one stamp have cross hatching and really deep stamps, the other an almost smooth deck with lite stamping. Which one is original?

Mike Ward

Ruh roh.

vettebuyer6369

I can understand why you would feel that way. However, I think that your explanation/description of the steps taken to restamp a motor is more expensive and difficult than mine would be.

I think I could find a correct casting number/cast dated motor for most of these cars in about 15 minutes. There's blocks available from vendors all over the place. Next, prepping a block is not all that different than prepping for a stock motor rebuild. Finding additional missing parts such as intakes are not that hard, and not that expensive. Plus, if the bottom line goal is to end up with a "numbers-matching" block, the peripheral parts don't have to be correct anyway. The entire heart of the value is in the block.

Stampers are not hard to find, they are pretty good and their broaches aren't bad either in many cases. Certainly if someone failed to do their homework and blew it in issues like accuracy, design, etc, well... that's on them. And, airing "your dirty laundry" is yet another choice that someone makes that I don't understand.

My personal opinion is, I can fully understand why someone would go to the effort of restamping even a low-interest, small block Corvette and why they would find it worth it. I also understand why others would disagree.

vettebuyer6369

I'm done commenting on that one.

Frogday