Was reading another post about an owner trying to track down history on his 1972. I did a quick search and landed in the C3 registry.

Re-searched a few things and had a revelation!

I always knew that the last four digits of my VIN were my year of birth.
My 1972 is NOM.. however, it's a May 72 Vette engine in a May 72 built Vette.. about as good as you're going to get. After doing some homework based on the engine stampings (and comparing with other build dates) it tells me that the Corvette that the engine came out of was built ON MY BIRTHDAY.

I always knew that somehow I was destined to own this Corvette.. but that just seals it.

 

/Like



-W

 

That's pretty darn sweet,
I am 47 now when I was 17-18 I had a 72 I wonder where that car is today....

 

How did an engine from another '72 end up your car?

 

I believe we might have an interesting story there.

 

It's not surprising that there are a lot of NOM corvettes out there.
Boys will be boys and back in the 60's and 70's.. no one gave a 2nd thought about numbers matching and all that BS. You drove the car and if you blew up the motor, you either rebuilt it or replaced it.

I'm the 4th owner. 3rd owner bought the car in 84 from a female (2nd owner real corvette nut) who had the car since around 80. She had a body on restoration done in 1982.

http://www.twoplays25.com/72-restoration.php

She bought the car from the first owner who had the original engine replaced due to some unknown reason (she didn't know or remember).
The original owner was also a real Corvette guy and replaced the original engine with as close to original as he could find.

The body was a 5/23/72 build date. The motor, a 5/30/72 Corvette build date. Doesn't get much better than that. Certainly not top flight material by NCRS standards -- but it works for me. (if it was 7 days the other way that would have been better for sure).

I took it through NCRS and scored 80% (third flight); Been working through a list of items and am pretty much ready to take it back through to score 2nd flight status.

http://www.twoplays25.com/Blog.php

Just finished up putting the interior to vinyl, 80/20 and regular door panels as the 2nd owner had put in deluxe in 82.
In the pictures of the body on restoration, I can see the original vinyl !

 

Hi PS,
I think you're pretty lucky to know so much detail about your car's former life. Some owners can't find anything at all!
Scoring a 2nd Flight Award due to your efforts will be a nice accompishment.
Regards,
Alan

 

I communicate by email regularly with the 3rd owner (Dan) and the 2nd owner (Sandy). First owner is no longer with us. They love getting updates and seeing pictures. It's truly my pleasure to share with them.

Here's an example reply I got in March from the 2nd owner (female):

From: Sandra
Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2012 02:43:58 -0400
To: Scott
Subject: RE: March Corvette Update

You have a beautiful daughter and wife and I'm glad they enjoy sharing your passion and love of corvettes. Like your daughter I always loved sport cars and when I graduated from high school in 66 I bought a 1964 chevy impala convertible 409 they I had a 1966 chevelle supersport 396 with a 375hp 4speed. After that I owned a 1963 convertible 4 speed 327 365hp airconditioned which was rare then. That particular car was stolen and never recovered. I owned two 1972's which you own one. Then I bought from a person I knew who took a 1964 corvette and did a frame off restoration and I had the hardtop and convertible with knockoffs wheels and all. I was crazy and sold that car back in 1986 wish I had it today in Florida. I owned a 1981 which I wasn't crazy about. and then 1984 and my last one was my baby brother who is 45 today and it was a 1995. I miss not having a sports car but people say your too old to have one but I don't feel that way. Have you ever gone to Bloomington, Illinois swap meet? That is one of the largest shows. I also went severl times to the Carlisle, Pa swap meet years ago. It's fun reminising. Take care and keep having fun. Sandy



Alan... I seeked her out and got lucky that she was a car nut and responded. Did I mention she sent me the pictures of the 1982 body on restoration AND the Corvette Invoice Copy?

Truly truly lucky !

 

If the block casting date pre-dates the car completion date, the only deductions it would take would be for pad VIN derivative and engine assembly date. That's a piddling 50 points out of 4500, this won't keep the car out of Top Flight.

 

Agreed.. however in this case, the Body Build date is 5/23 and the Block is 5/30.. 7 days later and point-wise, not pretty.

 

I'm confused- what's the casting date of the present block? Engine ***'y date? Original car trim tag date?

They can't all be 5/30

 

its always fun to have a car built on you birthday... I bought my 74Z28 ans found the chalk marks and built sheet and it appears it was built on my birthday.

 

Sent you a PM

 

Scott
Was checking out your pics and was facinated by the similarities to my 72 even down to the Pennsylvania registration sticker in the driver's side windshield. Only diff I see is the pax side mirror that I don't have. Your story is great also similar to mine wrt to the car being destined to be mine. My VIN contains my B'day, the guy I bought from restored it back to the original 987 paint code (favourite colour), found it in Cornwall in the neighbourhood where my family grew up. I had to get a government approved appraisal for licencing and it turned out the sales manager at the local Chevy dealer was a buddy from high school who I hadn't seen in 30 years. To top it all off I'm a chopper pilot, helos hover left wing low and I've got a crooked smile to match my Vette's droopy left front grill. I really didnt have a choice, had to buy her! Yeah, some of its a bit of a stretch (all true though) but it makes for a good story I think! Keep the good times rollin'.

 

My birthday predates Corvettes by a few weeks, but it is still June 1953.

 

Got your PM.

May 30 is the engine assembly date for your present engine, not the block casting date (not provided). The car it was originally installed in had a trim tag date of approx. June 8th or 9th 1972.

Your car was built on May 23rd. 1972, so obviously the engine could not have been assembled after the car was completed, according to NCRS rules.

If your casting date (at the rear of the block) is before May 23rd, you should have been awarded the 175 points for that.

I was surprised to see the comments about broach marks- not all blocks had much to see even when new.

 

When was the first one built,my BD might be close.

 

Although I was born Feb 23rd '63, my '66 427 coupe's engine build date and the frame stencil are both 02/23.

I keep reminding my wife it's a sign I was meant to have the car...

 

Mike,

Based on your comments:

A. Casting number & case configuration, I got 350 of 350.

B. Casting Date, they deducted 175 of 175 and the comment shows the
V0530CKX. From your comment, did they confuse the date
stamped on the block pad upfront with the date the block was cast?

C. Assembly Stamping: Lost 25 of 25. No comments

D. VIN Derivative: Lost 25 of 25: Comment = Wrong VIN

E. Stamp pad and finish: Lost 38 of 38: Was told no broach marks.


Seems they confused B with C? Probably should not have lost the 175?
Also, reading the sheet, if you lose all points in B, then C & D aren't to be judged.

How SHOULD this have been scored?

 

The process for judging an engine block is done sequentially for casting number, then casting date, then the pad. Judging on the block stops and no further deductions are taken from other line items if a problem is found. Sounds like they might have confused casting date with assembly date and stopped judging too soon or possibly also double dipped with other deductions.

ASSUMING that your casting date is acceptable (you haven't stated what it is yet) there should not have been a 175 point deduct, and judging should have continued to the pad. The three elements

engine code, (25 points)
VIN derivative, (25 points)
pad surface, (38 points)

are judged individually and deductions if any are taken without affect on the others.

You already know that the first two of these cannot be correct but that would have no effect on judging the pad surface. If the pad was dirty or corroded, the judges may not have been able to see the surface properly but should have stated that specifically. Can we see a pic?


Let's say your casting date is too late. The deduction would be 175 points- but there should be no further deductions from that point on. If they also took points for your pad, that's not in accordance with the judging procedures.

Said in other words, if the casting date was OK, this engine might be eligible for the pad surface points.

If the casting date was not OK, it's a 175 point deduct but nothing additional.

Hope this helps.