We are wanting to authenticate a 1968 triple black convertible with a 427/435 with a 4 speed, we were told that it was the last triple black convertible that came off the assembly line in 1968. Is there any way of researching it to find out if this is true? This car still has original paint,etc. (survivor). Please help with anything you can....Thanks.

 

Hi r,
Welcome!!!
It sounds like you have a pretty nice car.
Certainly the build sheet that was on top of the gas tank would be an indication of what engine and transmission your car had when it left St.Louis. Do you have the sheet?
The exterior and interior colors will be indicated on the Trim Tag attached to the driver's side lock pillar. The tag also is stamped with a code for the car's approximate build date (generally with in a day or 2 of when it left the line in St.Louis). The last 5 digits of the vin sequence will tell how close to the end of the model year the car was built.
Sadly there are no records of car colors with build dates so there's really no way for sure to know if it was the last black,black, black, 435 convertible.
So maybe it would be wise to say "one of the last" or the "last known" rather than "the last".
Under any circumstance a SPECIAL car!
Regards,
Alan

And some pictures are on the way! Right!!

 

The last '68 S/N produced in June, 1968 was 423978; the last S/N produced in August, 1968 was 428566.

If you car has a S/N of 428000 or higher, the story you have been told has a decent chance of being correct.

There were nearly 2900 cars with 427/435. That was about 10% of the total Corvette production for 1968. And there were twice as many convertibles produced compared to coupes. So, in the last 500 cars produced (last few days of production), there would have been about 35 C3 convertibles built with 427/435 engine. Only about 4% of '68 production were black cars; that indicates that only 1-3 such cars would have been like yours in the last 500 built. The 'triple-black' combo is no help as a very high percentage of black convertibles would have had that combo.

As Alan71 said, there are no actual production build and/or shipping records available from the St. Louis plant, so you will never know for sure. But, if you're car was built in the last few days of production, it is very possibly the last built with that configuration.

 

Post the time built date off the trim tag. As for the "last" triple black, take that with a grain of salt. There is no factory documentation available to prove the claim. Date codes could possibly put the car in the "maybe" category.

 

If you want to, post the VIN here and you may get some definitive answers. I was surprised how much information could be tracked down on some of these cars. A pic of the trim tag and engine stamp pad would be even better. I'd be little weary of a seller who makes definitive statements that just can't be verified. Either they are ignorant to the facts or, worse, they are trying to mislead buyers into believing something that can't be known.

 

 

...the absolute way of ever knowing the answer to your question would be to know what options & color combos came on every '68 after yours. Let's say your car's VIN # was 28500, you'd have to see the tank stickers(or original trim tags)for the 66 cars that came after yours. I was at Bloomington Gold many years ago and a guy having his stunning 1968 Black, Red interior, white convertible top there being judged. He had a show placard claiming it to be "1 of 3" Black, Red, White convertibles built. I asked where he got his number and he said "Corvette Mike" has only see two others. I nearly fainted from laughing so hard. I said, "So Corvette Mike saw every '68 convertible built OR saw all the records of every '68 color combo built?" I said without that knowledge, more like several hundred were built like yours. People(mainly always the owners)get too caught up in this "1 of 123", first C5 delivered, last C4 built, blah, blah, blah....realistically doesn't really mean a thing. People just want to think it adds all kinds of value to their car. Now if you have a '67 L-88 or L-89, '71 LS6,...cars with known numbers, then that's a little different. Your car still sounds nice though & depending upon the VIN #, it may be "one of the last" 1968 427/435hp cars.

 

This thread is 2 1/2 years old.
Also the transmission numbers will not help much unless it was an automatic. The 4sp manual transmissions (m20, m21) were available with both the 350 and 427. No special code the differentiates which engine it goes behind. L88 had the M22. But the M40 auto was a different prefix code as it used HD parts. The rears for all 427 used the HD code so all that can tell you was it was a big block rear but nothing about if it came with the 435.