cowl stampings???

[bkhpah]

A friend of mine just brought over the new Camaro World club magazine. In it is an article about a COPO? that was saved from a junkyard. During dissasembly twin stampings were found on the cowl, one HA and another MN for 427. I have seen plenty of cowl areas but never ever a engine suffix stamping. What do you guy's think of this? Sounds fishy to me...BKH

[COPO]

Don't tell me it's brown and from West Virginia.

[T Billigen]

I have never seen anything stamped on a cowl that would indicate the engine, possible in grease pencil, but doubtful, my camaro had 427 written in grease pencil in the fender extension. This has to be the brown one from WV! I am going to go search these junkyards a little better! Hey Brian, maybe someone will come out with cowl stamps soon!!

[bkhpah]

This car is a white one from Ohio. I saw the car at the Ohio show. I have NEVER seen engine suffixs stamped on a cowl. My 06A Yenko had the letters MO on the firewall in crayon with a big X through it. The letters were about 12" high. The car was an MN. This was the area behind the fender on drivers side only. My 01B has 427 on fender extensions...BKH

[T Billigen]

Supposedly my car had X-11 and D-80 written in grease pencil on the firewall. I can't imagine someone on a production line trying to stamp a couple of letters on a cowl for a few COPO cars, don't make sense. Maybe done at the dealership for some reason? I know in the early 60s dealerships would stamp delivery date on vin tags but this was stopped because they were breaking the tag.

[Jeff H]

I think they meant writings, not stampings. My JL8 car has the # 235 written on the firewall hidden behind the driver's side fender and that # matches the sequence # on the broadcast sheet. It also has a large 72 which is the color, Hugger Orange. I've seen the 427 on the T400 crossmember and I've seen Z11 and D80 on a Pace Car after it was stripped. In the article, it says he found it had a BE rear and when he talked to the original owner he found out it was a 427/M22 car originally. Nice find for $500.

[L89DRMR]

I parted out a 1969 L-78 a few years ago and a line worker had written X66M21 in huge letters and numbers on the right-hand firewall. The car was rusted beyond saving and this writing was also converted over the years into rust as well and you had to look hard to be able to read it. Dave

[Kurt S]

I think Jeff must be right, they really didn't mean stampings. Stampings would be too small to see.
Most of the firewall writing is actually between paint layers since the colors / option writing were for Fisher Body. They are generally only visible when the firewall is being stripped. The rotation / sequence # was on the top coat of paint since it was used in the assembly process.

[x44d80]

My car had N10 chaulked on the driver side firewall just below the X stamped part in the sheetmetal. It became visable as I was blasting off the black paint so it was on the bare metal. I've heard from someone else that a ZL-1 car had zl1 chaulked in crayon on the fender extensions. Ed could probably verify this better than me because on that my info is 2nd hand.