Good Morning CF,

Continuing restoration work on a 1969 Coupe. Pulled the trim piece off the rear storage compartment and found a stamped code on the underside of the tray ( USA DC 308) along with a "C" stamp on the face of the door latch. Best guess would be a Julian calendar stamp of 308 or Sunday November 3, 1968 but that would not line up with the VIN build date of October 31, 1968. Maybe the DC-308 is not a Julian date? Could DC be some reference to a Month, then 308 be 30th day of that month followed by 8 for 1968?

Any guesses on the decode of these parts and who "C" may have been for the manufacturer?

As always, thank you in advance for information and suggestions.

Kevin


1969 rear storage compartment top trim piece

Date code stamped on underside of the tray in the center storage compartment area DC-308

latch hardware for the doors, all 3 door latches have the same "C" stamped on them

 

I could be wrong but I am not sure that is a date code at all. It is in the plastic mold right? I would think if they were dated it would be some sort of ink. Just my thoughts. I think I have my originals somewhere. I will check later.

 

Hello avalonjohn,
You are correct it is plastic. So, maybe it is a tooling stamp from the manufacturer, who ever that might have been.

 

Ha! Your screws for the first latch you depicted are too long. Mine are too .. but nobody will ever know once you install the doors..

 

Hello ballen06,

Indeed, you are correct sir! Of the six screws that secure the three latches for the storage compartments, three of the screws are correct and three of the screws are incorrect when I removed the tray. Not only are the two in the center compartment too long (1/2") but they were stainless steel and both are round-head hex screws. In addition to that, the PO also put a small stainless steel flat washer between the latch and the bottom of the tray itself. I'm guessing to take up some of the space from the longer screw and prevent the screw from going all the way through the latch and the plate and hitting the backside of the latch causing some issue with the door not closing properly or not latching properly or both.

I have been able to source locally 8-32" x 1/2" stainless steel flat-head hex screws. The flat-head is the correct dimension to seat correctly into the countersink holes on the compartment tray, the thread count is correct, but they are 1/2" rather than 5/16" long. I was not able to find black phosphate screws....not yet anyway. I have already cut the screw length down from 3/8" to 5/16". The screw heads have been painted to match the color of the tray. Not much I can do about the stainless steel screw for now until I can find the correct 8-32 x 5/16" flat-head hex black phosphate screws for the latches.

I ordered the latches and the hardware kit from Corvette Central - the screws in the kit are not correct, the plates are not correct either.

Do you happen to have extras of the correct screws or know where I can source them? If "yes", send me a PM and I'll work something out with you to source the correct screws for the latches.

Thanks in advance for your note and observation.
Kevin

 

Hey There Kevin ..

I wish I could help you.. I can't find the screws except in a kit where you have to purchase all of the striker assemblies. The screw number is 9426552 per the assembly manual, I was missing 2 screws so I went to Ace hardware and bought the shortest csk 832 screw they had.. I painted the head black semi flat black.. After the frame is installed you can't really tell the difference. If you find some let me know but I'm not going to lose any sleep over this issue.

Bibb

 

Not sure if this would help or not, but I did a little poking around and found this.

https://www.corvettepacifica.com/pro...pieces-68-79e/