[bergy]

Thanks for your input Jerry. You're a pro at this stuff and you know that I respect your expertise. I'll give you a call. If you actually put a vernier down into the charactors - the letters are all the same. Some are worn and some aren't, some are crooked and some aren't, but the crest of the indentations are nearly identical. I'm sure that the guys who actually made these parts would laugh at the way that we study their products. You know that I worked as a senior engineer and later as a superintendent of production for Chevrolet back in the late 60's and through the 70's. The only requirement for part numbers, vins, and dates was that they would be "permanently" marked. I remember having employees hand stamp parts with any 'ol stamp that was available. Al Grening has some classic examples in his archives. If a charactor fell off of a pattern or out of a gang, we'd just grab a hand stamp out of the inspection office and start whacking parts!