Early October ‘59 built 1960 Corvette with partial serial number stamped

[tom406]

Interesting engine pad I saw in a ‘57 Bel Air I looked at the other day. I was unable to verify the casting date, but did verify the casting number of 3756519, which is a ‘58-61 283. The pad is stamped F0906DG, which is a 230hp/PG Corvette engine assembled in Flint on September 6. 100483 is a 1960 Corvette serial number derivative, and was a car built in the first month of production in October 1959. Most resources you find, especially older ones, suggest that the stamping of partial serial numbers on the engine pads of 1960 model year Corvettes started several months into production, like December or January around car 1500. This engine has been in this Bel Air for what looks to be 30 years or so, and its not trying to be anything its not. I like the broach marks and the stamp, and I now believe they were stamping serial numbers on at least some of the cars almost from the get-go.

[69M22Z]

Very cool.

[tom406]

After some discussion on a Corvette Forum and some more investigation, I’m now of the thought that this is more likely an old restoration restamp that is a very good approximation of a late ‘60 build, but is not accurate for what was happening earlier in the model year for a couple of reasons. It was pointed out that Flint engine assembly wasn’t using zeros in their month stampings during calendar year 1959 (a commenter said it changed during January 1960). I found a July ‘59 283 on Ebay that shows a “7” instead of an “07” on the assembly stamping which supports that. The first hand stamped serial numbers on 1960 Corvettes appear to use a larger, more stylized font stamping as you can see on #2949. A gang stamp was later used, and I’ve been using #9668 as an example of a good stamping, since it is from a car that was said to be in the man’s family since 1962 and everyone who looked at the picture seemed to agree it was correct. As far as why a 30 year old build of a ‘57 Chevy would have a restamped block, the car also had a ‘59 Rochester FI unit on it, so whoever put it together was likely familiar with and traded in the arena of early Corvette engines and parts.