Okay all of you Corvette mavens out there, this is a follow-up to my original thread regarding C3 engine stampings and now I'm going to open up Pandora's box. I'm relatively new to the Corvette community and I have some serious questions and concerns that I'm hoping some of you more seasoned enthusiasts can shed some light on. Once a Corvette engine gets rebuilt, it would seem almost certain that the important broach marks and identification stampings will be obliterated by the decking process. I would guess that a very high percentage of C3 engines that have survived to this day have had at least one rebuild meaning that true "Numbers Matching" claims would be extremely difficult if not impossible to legitimately determine. I have personally examined a number of C3 small and big block engines and I'd have to say that the majority of the stampings are clearly restamps with wrong information, invalid fonts or inconsistent stampings and yet many of these cars are being claimed to be "Numbers Matching". I'm not trying to upset the apple cart here but I'm looking to buy a 68 that the owner claims is numbers matching and has all of the correct stamping information but has clearly been restamped. The best that I can determine is that the block casting number and the casting date are correct and consistent with the build date of the car. It's a very righteous car and the owner is asking top dollar. If I do buy it, how do I present this car going forward and maintain its value?

 

Any GOOD machine shop could save the stamp pad
..he can claim anything he wants to claim but if it’s restamped people will know … does it lower the value ..yes but it’s all how you feel about the car and the value to you personally … me I don’t care how good the car looks I look at a paper trail before I even start looking at a car especially if it’s high dollar
I went and looked at 20 cars before I settled on one and it took me a full year before I had it in my garage … take your time and go look at other cars that the questions are all ready answered… you will thank me in the morning 😄

 

Hello a,
Why are you so certain the pad surface / stamps are questionalble?
You need to have / hire a knowledgable person look at the pad and make a call on it.
Some pretty ludicrous pads/stamps have left St.Louis.
A knowledgable person will often want to see the pad in person before making a determination.
Regards....

 

Take a picture of the pad and post it if your not comfortable posting it give a partial as long as you can see the surface

 

As Alan said, just because a pad stamping has anomalies doesn't mean it's a restamp. Chevrolet wasn't building show cars and often a "6" was used upside down as a "9" and "1"s were often swapped with "I"s. Sometimes a stamping could have a mix of fonts, and even though the stampings were made using a gang holder that didn't prevent a digit from sometimes being slightly out of alignment or keep one digit from being stamped lighter than others. The key to determining if the anomalies are legitimate or not is being able to compare the stamping to other's done at the same time. There are members on here who have assembled libraries of photos of stamps so they can do comparisions to find fakes. Al Grenning has amased thousnads of photos of pads and for a fee will certify block stampings. Personally, I'm much more suspect of a perfect pad, than one with an anomaly like a crooked digit or an "I" being used as a "1".

A decked block that has been restamped is almost always easy to detect. The decking process always destroys the original factory broach marks, and the broach marks are near impossible to duplicate. As forman said, a good machine shop can deck a block without touching the pad. I have two shops I use for customer's engines and they've never hurt a pad. I know it used to be a common practice to deck a block any time an engine was rebuilt. Fortunately, it doesn't seem that shops are as quick to deck blocks today, and I'd get a second opinion before allowing one to do it today.

Post the casting number and date from the block of the 68 you're looking at, and a picture of the stamp pad. There are a number of members on here who can make an educated guess as to the validity of the stampings.

 

lots of questions here but how do YOU know that the block has been stamped? also what is your intent if you buy the car??? are you interested in getting it judged or are you just going to enjoy it??? I mean those are some pretty important questions... IMHO any car that has been restored unless they used NOS parts is not real... Only survivors are real and those are the cars that should demand the high dollar amounts we see today... i've judged a few BB cars in my day and some were restamps and some weren't but i found out later they got top flights at other shows... Me, I look for the paper and document trail more than anything... while i'm not a fan of al grenning or others that do this for a cost, he is very knowledgeable on this subject... Caveat Emptor my friend.. (love to see the pad if you're able to post it)

 

I suggest you contact someone from NCRS or Bloomington Gold, those judges, I can assure they can pick out a restamp from a original in a flash. Those judges look at those cars all the time. Many of those judges are hired and flown around the country to validate cars, I would reach out to those associations.

 

Hello,
There are several folks that post on this Forum that have worked very diligently for many years to document the pads they have seen in person.
If you're able to post a photo of the pad of the car you're looking at one or more of them may be willing to let you know what they're seeing.
Regards....

 

Can anyone give any expert analysis on the validity of this engine stamp?

 

The C2 big block market is much worse. Don't guess, there are two good companies out there that can be hire to give you an unbiased, experienced determination.

 

i guess for starters the vin is upside down... I have personally never seen that..

 

It's listed on the c3 registry.
https://www.c3registry.com/index.php?job=Home

 

Nor I..........???

 

That's awesome; thanks very much!!! This forum never fails!!

 

yup...some great people on here