[Lee Stewart]

According to Noland Adams in The Complete Corvette Restoration & Technical Guide, Vol. 2, requests began pouring in for 327s to be optioned with the big-block hood. All of these requests were turned down, but a select few 327s did make it off the assembly line with the big-block hood. They just weren't ordered that way.

So how did the big-block hoods make it onto the 327ci-engined Corvettes in the first place? According to Adams, in either late February or early March, a worker accidentally dropped "a screwdriver-like tool" into the small-block hood mold, ruining the mold and halting production. At first, it seemed as if Corvette production would have to be stopped altogether until the costly mold could be replaced. When the people in charge realized they had enough of a big-block hood inventory to keep the Corvettes rolling off the line, however, they simply decided to put the big-block hoods, which were more popular anyway, onto the small-blocks. These hoods were also distinguishable by the fact that there was no emblem or stripe added to the bulge as there was on other big-block hoods.

Within three to five days, the problem was solved and the hood crossover ended. Although we were unable to find exact numbers on how many 327ci '67s were produced with the big-block hood, we can estimate there were no more than 540. Based on Adams' claim that the factory averaged six Corvettes per hour, frequently ran nine hours per shift, and had two-shift days, it's possible that 108 Corvettes could have been made in a day. This would make 540 for the five-day period.