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Looks rather carelessly done. Like it was done by an hourly employee in St. Louis where it never occurred to him somebody might be grading his work after he retired. Restamps are either bad. Or too perfect.
'68 Corvette 427/390 HP. Hard to say much from the picture.
Not passing judgement on that stamp, and no expert here - Look at some other big block assembly date/suffix stamps to compare. VIN derivatives can be frequently at an angle on BB or SB but I have not seen a lot of legit BB assembly date/suffix stamps at an angle. The screw in plug on the head can get in the way if it has been stamped later. Someone here is sure to have seen more of these than me.
paint on the pad usually means the engine has been out and repainted.
not unreasonable for a 50 year old engine..but increased chance of hanky panky.
if it is a restamp, then they restamped it with the heads off, and used correct fonts, so it is a higher quality stamp whether factory or not.
I don’t agree that paint on a pad necessarily means anything. People have been “spray can” restoring and globbing orange paint on their engines to make them look “better” as long as I can remember. It’s possible that someone is trying to use paint to hide something but it’s just one of many reasons people paint their engines, in and out of the car.
Thanks for the replies. The car is being represented as a matching number car but two previous owners did the restoration without a tremendous amount of documentation. Car is a 68 BB I know not a big collector item but with the volume of restamps i wanted some additional eyes. Thank you very much
Just a question.So were the numbers stamped on the pad with the heads off?Or were they stamped with the heads on? At what point in the assembly process was the stamping done?
The stamping procedure and locations changed over time. During this particular blocks time frame, the block assembly date and suffix code was stamped before the heads were installed. The VIN derivative was stamped later when the engine and car were on the assembly line about to be installed.
Bulldog, With your picture enlarged, the 4 in the first set of numbers clearly shows a ghost 4 stamped beneath it. The 7 and 2 in the second set of numbers appear to be misaligned. I think the gang holder would have prevented that. Try holding a straight edge along the top or bottom of the numbers to check their alignment. Again, this would be easier with the rest of the paint removed.
Restamping is not an issue for me. I have seen them done on all engine levels, regardless of horsepower. I have restamped base small blocks as well as big blocks. It is an accepted part of the restoration process provided one doesn't change apples to oranges. I have also restamped engines that have been mistakenly decked by machine shops. Absolutely nothing wrong with that as far as I'm concerned and that could be exactly what I'm seeing in your picture. Others may feel differently. I still think too much importance is placed on the whole matching/not matching issue. Restamps are rampant on the C2s. There's simply too much money involved for it not to happen.
Thanks for all of the help. Looks like it was definitely stamped twice but the thing that puzzles me is it looks new stamp is over the top of the original with same numbers. If it is a restamp why would someone go to trouble and then do such a poor job
bulldog, I agree with stingr. It's probably just a bounce. And with the rest of the paint removed, the second set of numbers look straight to me. I'd say it's all good.
Engine Block Stamp Opinion
