This is a NOS 1969-1973 GM produced automatic frame. It was purchased in October, 1987, by a gentleman in New Jersey from Richard Fortier Corvettes, LLC; the founder of Paragon Corvette Reproductions. Richard no longer has an affiliation with Paragon but he is still alive and active in our industry and I had the opportunity to speak with him about this frame. Richard bought 27 of these in the 1986-1987 time frame as direct replacements for C-3 frames that were damaged or rotten back in 1987. This one was purchased to restore a 1973 coupe but it never made to the restoration and wound up sitting for 36 years in a barn awaiting someone like me to come along. Technically as a new, never used frame produced by GM it would be a true NOS frame. One unique attribute of this frame is the front cross member. In 1963 there were four holes placed on the front cross member use to attach the front bumper braces. The braces were eliminated in 1968 but the holes, a standard in production, remained until 1975 when they were removed with the new tooling producing the rear section changes. If you have a 1976-1982 car your frame won't have the four holes in the front cross member. This 1969-1973 frame does not have holes in the front cross member because they were produced after the tooling had been changed, and produced on original tooling in 1987. So here are a few pictures of my New 36 year old frame. I will be cleaning the surface rust off of it; weighing the frame to get a good weight as a baseline for C-3 frames; then I will internal coat it; prime it; and paint it. After that it will be available for sale. The frame pictures were taken outside but the frame is indoors now and out of the elements. I've added the original purchase receipt and the original credit card receipt with the numbers covered, so you can see the documentation.
Sometimes you just get lucky.
Let me know if you have any questions about the frame.
Best regards,
David Howard
AllC34Me

 

That's cool.

 

Nice find for sure! Too funny that there's more rust in the trailer than the frame

 

That would be a good frame to take a bunch of measurements off of for reference points. Stuff like where the lower control arm mounts are, Distance between engine mounts, etc etc etc.
M

 

would be great to have it 3D scanned for future projects.

 

Now that is an intriguing idea. I wonder how one would be able to go about doing something like that. This frame is at my buddies house and I will bring it home to my house today. I will do some dimensioning and weighing this weekend. Excited to have a base line candidate to be able to measure.
I'll let the group know what I find.
Best regards,
David Howard
AllC34Me

 

that seems pretty cheap for a frame from GM

i had bought a wrecked 75 a few years back, and it has a brand new frame from gm bought in like 1978. the owners told me they paid like $2500 for the frame back then.

 

Interesting. I suspect he paid less. I think this frame cost $900 to the dealers and they marked it up $200 plus shipping. $2,500 would have been steep in my estimation. But then again, who really knows except I have the receipt, so I will trust this one cost $1,100 in October of 1987.
Thank you sir.
David Howard
AllC34Me

 

1953-1982 Corvette Parts and Illustration Catalog dated December 1983 list the 69-74 Frame, Chassis Frame under Group 7.003, PN 12300910 with a dealer list price of $1,704.00

 

Outstanding information, thank you sir. I have the September 1976 Chassis and Body Parts Catalog listing the 1969-1973 with A.T. as part number 6258367; the 69-73 M.T. as part number 6258366; the 1974 A.T. frame as part number 339720; the 74 M.T. as 339719; the 75-77 A.T. part number 363446; and the 75-77 M.T. as part number 363445. Mine does not list pricing however.
I think Richard Fortier may have gotten a better deal as he ordered 27 of these frames from GM, but I might be wrong.
Thank you again.
David Howard
AllC34Me