I don't think this is going to end well.....getting my subscription in now

 

Okay so here is an update on everything. I went to check it out today, its parked at my grandmas, and the VIN on the A-pillar was still there. I wrote it all out and looked it up online, but the site I went to is probably for newer cars, and no results came up. I did a quick check and I couldn't believe what I found!

1z37t3s405968

According to a VIN decoder it should be a 73 L48!?!?!??!

I don't understand, and believe me I know my chrome bumpers from a 73, and the blue decal in the driver door says its a 72. I can't go back today but I'll go back and try reading the VIN on the trans and hopefully that one was original. Also I checked on the engine. and I have a strong feeling that its a late model 350 probably either 77 or 87.

3970010 is the casting on the engine and I can't read it to well but I think the date is H 20 7
August 20, 67' 77' 87'?

I also checked for the VIN on the engine and it didn't match at all, but at the time I didn't bother even writing it down.

I know not to invest in the car just yet, and the guy I bought it from had it on craigslist as a parts car.

I have a daily driver, a nice 2000 Silverado to get my around, and I don't plan on having this going for a couple years.

I have done a lot of research myself to working on cars, and I have learned a lot plus have taken a few classes.

My actual plan for the drive train is to pull the 350 and take a rebuilding class. They let you bring in your own engine, and Mr. Norris, our master teacher, would help us step by step rebuild it. Get a nice balanced stroker kit, and deck and bore the block myself. Of coarse with loads of help from the prof. Doing the machining myself would save a lot. I also found a trans guy locally, who would build me a T-5 for 500 dollars, and i would get a new cross member and a few more parts to finish that end up. The rear end is 3.30 gears I believe, I need to check again, and the suspension is looking realllllllly nice. It sits very well. All the wiring is there, and the body is straight. It needs new rear fiberglass, just the upper portion, that I can buy for 150 bucks. It also needs that front piece of fiberglass below the chrome where the grill goes, but it has both headlight complete assemblies fully installed. It has instrument bezel and all gauges along with am/fm and cassette player. No seats though or any interior, and the dash is completely destroyed, but still there. The cargo area is nice though. It needs a new windshield as this one is cracked. I found a couple of nice looking light weight racing seats on craigslist, for a couple hundred bucks for a pair.

I guess it's a lot of plans that require a lot of money, but I have a minimum wage job, and my only bills are insurance and gas for my truck.

You guys have helped me so much, and I can't thank you enough, for helping me with my baby.

Hopefully I'll finish off this registration thing and get to the body.

I want to rebuild the q-jet up top and see if I can get the engine to turn over and even run. I'd like to drive it a bit before I go crazy with the whole 383 setup.

Thanks again, and if someone knows how or where I can run those numbers, the info would be great help.

 

From your description, you will have to spend a ton of money to get that car where it is reliable and useable, even if you ignore how it looks. With your "minimum wage job", you are just setting yourself up for a heartache. Suggestion: part it out. Take it apart and sell the pieces on Ebay. You'll get a lot more than $500. Then take that money and invest it in a reasonable car (cheap but only 15 years or so old, and probably not a corvette) that you can play with and learn something and then sell it for a profit.

 

I have a daily and trust worthy car.

I have nothing else to spend money on. I also have support from grandparents who have money in their pockets. I've been searching for a chrome bumper vette since i was 14 or so, and I don't want to give this one up just like that. I plan on pushing to get this under my name officially. Even if I have to pay the price, its absolutely worth it.

 

Good luck man. I got my 77 when I was 18, back in 2000. It had been sitting for 7 years when I got it. The inspection sticker had 93 on it. Some fresh gas and it cranked right up. The interior was shot though. Needless to say, it is still not inspected and still sitting in the garage. Like someone else said earlier, these cars are expensive and hard to do when your young, (girls, school, sports, oh and girls get in the way). I am just now getting to mine. Now that I have my safety account built up, I hope to have this thing on the road by Thanksgiving. I did find out last month, we will be having our first kid. Better get it done before that, cause then there definitely will be no time (always seems to be something else more important to spend money on instead of the car).

Good luck, enjoy it, and make some memories.

 

hey I am not telling him anything he is not already intending to try, he is setting himself up for failure, he has already made it clear he does not intend to back out of the deal especally since he said hes already hidden.

purchasing it with no tital work is not smart, and he wont find out if its stolen unless he has the police run the vin looking online wont help. the vin on the dash is what they are going to go by. and since it dont match what year the car is suppose to be thats very suspect.

let him spend the money (grandparents money) and time to "make the car his" and then lets all sit back and watch the house of cards fall.

everyone else here has givin him the advice I would have normally gave him which is stay away.

he is 17 and has googly eyes and is not making a smart choice (knowone does at that age), a part time job and he things he is going to get this car registered and running.

sometimes people have to fail befor they wake up and smell the coffee.

all i did was give him options, its up to him. If it was me I would find the vins and go strait to the police if all is clear then id get the car, but as he has already stated numerouse times he is willing to take the risk.

I dont condon what he is doing, but if the car isnt stolen and he gets it cleared then that may be the only way he can get it registered.

I honestly think he knows nothing about cars and the VIN was in plain site the whole time.

 

He has another reliable car to drive, so why would it be a bad idea to slowly restore it as he gets the money to do so? I bought my '69 when I was 16 (19 now), and have been slowly restoring it as I get the money to do so. Learning to do everything yourself is what saves you the most money, and it seems like that is what he wants to do.

To zarifian383: Like others said, wait until you can properly register it before sinking your time and money into it. Once that is done, have fun with it. I enjoy working on my vette as much as I enjoy driving it.

 

Don't try and register until it is completely rebuilt...that way when they impound it the original owner will be very thankful for all the blood sweat and dollars your granny put into this car.

 

That VIN number decodes to a 73 but the T indicates an L-82 engine. Does the car have chrome bumpers on both the front and rear or just the rear?



Rick B.

 

1Z37T3S40598

1 = Chevrolet
Z = Corvette
37 = Coupe
T = L82
3 = 1973 (year)
S = St. Louis
405968 = Production number

http://www.vettesite.com/vin.asp

 

Hope you have a title to match the vin or at least I hope it was a title that had the smudged numbers you mentioned in your first post. The state will have a record of the last title issued for that vin.

If you don't have a title, then a lost title will have to be applied for, but can only be done by the present legal owner, if you know who that is. They would still be the legal owner.

The only other alternative is to get a sherriffs bill of sale, by putting a legal lien, such as storage charges, repair costs etc. This, in most places will usually take at least 90 days before you can apply for the bill of sale and has to be done usually by a business that legally qualifies to do it. Some will do it for a small fee. If successful, the car will retain the original vin plate and you will have a new title to match in your name. Check with your state/county for the preceedures.

Good luck.

 

really listen to what everyone here is saying, I know you wantin everyone to agree that you should ****** this car up, but there is a reason this seller is trying to get rid of it, he may have had the same idea as you had and got it cheep, only to relize there may be alot of red tape in getting it registered.

dont even attempt to get the car if the guy does not produce a title, if he says he dont have one he can apply for a lost title himself then when he has it then buy it, if he says he cant because the title is not in his name then you got problems especally if the real owners cannot be located.

go to the dmv with your own research see if they can look up the vin and see who the current owner is, locate them yourself if it is not the seller.

Also atleast check the shape of the car, if its just absolute crap then dont get it, you will spend more trying to fix it than you will if you buy a chrom bumper for about 6k that needs alot of TLC.

If your Grandparents are ganna help you with money on the car, then how about you involve them in your quest to find one.

find a non numbers matching that needs restoration and repair but main thing is make sure the frame and body and birdcage are good.

Your young and i know your drewling over the fact of having this car, just so you can say you own a vette.

you said you were willing to make it work however you had to thats why i made the sarcastic post of filing off the vins and getting a title to another one. if your willin to go to that length then you do not deserve to own one.

use your head on this one JR. befor you even trade cash for keys make sure you got a title in your hands. other than that you might as well sell it for parts.

also ask yourself why this guy is not just selling it for parts? he could make thousands on ebay and vette forums.

 

Thanks for all the input. You should know I have considered everything. I do have big eyes, but I'm definitely not blind. I knew exactly what I was getting into when I bought this car. And to clarify I have already bought it, from a young guy who said he got it as a partial trade along with some truck.

Second of all, this is my first project, and although I hate to use the word, the chrome bumper vettes are a passion of mine.

The condition is excellent and from the vette hunting I've done for this exact type of car for the past few years, I know I could get at least 6k.

I was with my dad today, and he made it clear, that unless I can clear this whole ordeal with registration, its going to be sold to get my money back. Hopefully have a enough to start with another vette that has registration.

I mean no disrespect and in my eyes everyone in this forum appears to be car veterans, but some of you guys seem to have grim eyes towards the youth, with no trust in me. Just trust me when I say I know what I'm getting into, and I came here for people like you to help me with my major dilemma.

I also made two copy's of a bill of sale that both me and the person I bought the car from that we both signed and put our information on.

As of now, its not looking to good since that VIN on the A-pillar came up completely wrong, and in response to one post, yes it has 2 chrome bumpers on it, I know. Perhaps the little stamp was traded with a 73 or the A-pillar was from a 73? Regardless I know the VIN is there somewhere, and the result will be found. I will go back and check the trans on Tuesday, and since it might not even be the original, I'll try checking again around the rear driver's side tire. The first time I checked, I removed the tire and couldn't find it, you guys know where it is specifically?

And last of all, thanks again to everyone on this, I could not have even gotten this far without your help.

And I almost forgot, what should I do about the VIN on the A-pillar, is there somewhere online I can run it?

Or should I just go to the DMV?

 

If you get a chance why not photograph the VIN located on the A-Pillar. It might trigger some further thoughts. My 1971 looks like this.
Here is a picture of my VIN plate and the label on the drivers door. Driver door labels can be duplicated and replaced as can doors, so that number may not be correct anyway. If the car has two chrome bumpers and the VIN plate says it is a 73 then something is goofy.




Looking forward to hearing and seeing more soon.

Best regards,

David Howard

 

sandblasting the windshield frame without masking the vin tag...

 

thats very true,probably what happened is this car started off as a good car with an resto in progress. and **** hit the fan when either some Dumb *** did the mentioned above or the some one misplaced the title and the above happened and the dude didnt have an clue what to do and wanted to get rid of it because of his epic screw ups and it just sat and now its getting sold fianly or it got an reasto and the vin got sandblasted and the owner drove it and all was fine then he died and the titel was lost and the person who inherited didnt want to go though all the hoops to get it registerd so her off loaded it.

 

try reading the post again. the blue paper tag on the door is the 1 that is smudged

 

73 Corvette with VIN 5968 would have been built in Oct. 72, which is why the vehicle certification decal on the drivers door has 72 on it, probably shows 10-72 in the upper right hand corner. The cert labels had the date (month and year) the car was built typed on them, not the year of the car.

It sure sounds like this is a 73 Vette, not a 72. When you say it has 2 chrome bumpers, do you mean chrome front and rear, or 2 rears (left and right)? You say that the front fiberglass is damaged, does it have a chrome front bumper now? Are you aware that 73's had a rubber front bumper and 68-72 style chrome rear bumpers. What do the fender side louvers look like, are they just an indented panel with a rectangular cut out openning or do they have cast "egg crate" appearing grilles mounted in the fenders? Does the car have hidden whindshield wipers (the wipers covered by a door that hides the wipers and opens when they're turned on), or does the hood come back all the way to the whindshied and the wipers can be seen when the hood is openned? Does the hood have a grill in it at the back edge, about 3" or 4" deep and about 18" or 20" wide and have a round air inlet openning on the underside, or is the hood smooth on the underside with no grill in it? Instead of a grill in the hood, a 72 will have a grill behind the hood that's the width of the hood and attached to the body, so that it stays in place when the hood is openned. Is the rear window removable, or fixed in place, 72's have latches over the rear window so it came be removed, the 73 window is glued in.

3970010 is the correct casting number for a 72 or 73 350 (actually all 69-80 350's). H 20 7 is most likely Aug. 20, 1977 as the 010 block didn't exist in 67 and I think was out of production, even as a over the counter block, before 1987.

I still have to ask, how does anyone in this day and age, no matter how young they are, buy a car without a title, or what responsible adult would allow a 17 year old to do that? If the seller legally owned the car, he should have been able to get a replacement title from the state DMV, whether it was a parts car, or not. Did you at least get a bill of sale from the seller? Because even if this car is not stolen (still a big IF right now), with out a bill of sale that properly describes the car and seller, I don't see how any DMV will give you a title to this car, as you'd have no proof that you aquired it legally.

 

What I am doing(here in Texas) is I am applying for a bonded title, that is what you do when no documents can be found, since when my uncle had bought the car a few years back had lost the title before he had it changed to his name, but then again the only thing that helps me is it was last registered about 10 years ago in another state, so when txdot looks up the vin nothing shows up, but also I know he bought it from a friend of his and he had at one point the title for a fact.

also sorry for the slight hijacking but if I wanted to clean the vin tag could I remove it and place it in a tumbler or would I have to just use a dremel and a wire brush

 

Correct, the block must be from 1977.