L78 VIN stamp photos

[Denis]

Sure Ed. Clean the pad best you can and take 6-10 photos from all angles with the macro setting and mail the uncompressed unedited pics to my gmail account: [email protected]. I had the exhaust manifolds off when I took my pics -- maybe if you can get the car up in the air, it'd be easier to get the photos.

[Zedder]

Can any of the '69 gurus answer my questions on stampings like this? Where they gang stamped? Did they match the tranny stampings exactly? Where both hand stamped (hard to believe that might be the case, but I have no idea)? If they are gang stamped, how can they get so skewed and is that common? I am considering buying a '69 Camaro in the Spring and would love to have this knowledge before I start looking for a car

[Jeff H]

I think he has the '7' highlighted wrong. The top of the '7' is lower than where he highlighted and then that makes the numbers line up pretty good. But it also lookslike that area was sanded down a little in the attempt to read the numbers and that actually made it worse to read.

[Lynn]

I amy be way off on this, and you would need for John Z. Kurt S. or Mark C. to chime in, because of their specialized knowledge, but I believe that by this time, yes they were gang stamped. However the gang holder seems to have been pretty worn out by the time this one was stamped. Seems like the individual stamps could kind of wiggle up or down. It also seems to me (and again, I haven't seen nearly as many as the aformentioned guys) that on many of the Norwood stamps I have looked at, the second to the last digit appears to be higher than the others.

[Denis]

Here's another closer look.

Appears to me the "19N" part of the stamp is a slightly larger font but still top-aligned with the rest of the stamp. The "603675" is all aligned except for the "7" (second to last digit)

[Pacecarjeff]

Yes, they used a gang stamp.
The trans and engine were stamped at the same time.
Both those VIN stamps should be the same.

They where not always lined up perfectly, there was a little bit of play.
When they are stamped perfectly straight - I sometimes become suspicious.

John Z. had posted a picture of the gang stamper they used, way back. It is an interesting thing to see.

[Rixls6]

Here's a thread on Team Chevelle that shows some other VIN stamps on 69 big blocks.

http://www.chevelles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=122053

[Tommy_Mathison]

Are you sure the trans and engine were always stamped with the same gang stamp? I have seen more then one example of legit vin stamps where the fonts (6's and 9's) on the block and transmission were different. Can this be explained?

[kwhizz]

[ QUOTE ]
I think he has the '7' highlighted wrong. The top of the '7' is lower than where he highlighted and then that makes the numbers line up pretty good. But it also lookslike that area was sanded down a little in the attempt to read the numbers and that actually made it worse to read.

[/ QUOTE ]

What do you Expect from a "Middle Age White Guy"......EH!!!!


Ken

[Denis]