Restoration of burnish brown RS COPO

[bergy]

That's a long story! When the whole world knows that you are restoring a valuable car - "original" parts seem to come out of the woodwork! Several people have contacted me about the original trans. I got what I believe to be the original from the same guy that had the rear. I don't believe that it's a restamp. Also,The 660 case die cast date code is perfect for my car. I've attached a photo for all of the gurus.

[Kurt S]

Looks like the real deal.

Interesting. The trans that was on ebay had your VIN, but a different date code. I never saw a pic of it, but it was 2 years before your car hit the radar....
Weird. Wonder if it was misread of the # or a misstamp.

[bergy]

Yeah - Steve (the guy who sold me the car) gave me the email address of the guy who said that he had that transmission, but when I emailed him - he wouldn't send me photos of the stamping! I know (now) that at least a few people have known about the car for a long time. It was in storage and the owner wouldn't sell. Steve's a great guy and was a good friend of the owner. He was familiar with the car for about 20 years. He attested to the car having the sportscar package and also said that it had a factory am/fm. The original owner remembers just an am radio (with rear speaker) - so I'm not sure which radio to put in it during resto? Anyway - the poor long time owner is now in a nursing home and his family sold the car to Steve.

Thanks for your input Kurt.

[ANDY M]

This car's VIN is 691 behind mine, and the BE 0519 stamp is identical to mine. Is this an 05D build? It could have been made the same day as mine.

[bergy]

Mine is an 05E build Andy. They were probably made fairly close together. Check your build sequence number - mine is 302060. Yours probably has an earlier build sequence then mine. My understanding is that build sequence numbers were assigned sequentially at the start of the process. The cars did not necessarily get finished sequentially though - some cars would be pulled off of the line if there was a problem or if options weren't available for build completion. I remember working at the St Louis assembly plant and eating lunch every day for two weeks in an L88 Corvette that we built for the export in 1968 - it got pulled off line and just sat waiting for parts. Norwood was probably the same. What is your trans build date (if 4 speed)?

[Jerry@CHP]

Bruce,

I have compaired this to hundreds that I have in my photo data base. You should call me when you have a minute. I do not like the space in between the 2 and the 5. The B is larger than the other characters and there are issues with the vin stamp. Just giving my best professional advise.

Jerry

[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!

[brent396]

HEY GUY LOOK AT THIS EBAY AD LOOK AT THE TRANS NUMBER EBAY#260309277501

[ANDY M]

[ QUOTE ]
Mine is an 05E build Andy. They were probably made fairly close together. Check your build sequence number - mine is 302060. Yours probably has an earlier build sequence then mine. My understanding is that build sequence numbers were assigned sequentially at the start of the process. The cars did not necessarily get finished sequentially though - some cars would be pulled off of the line if there was a problem or if options weren't available for build completion. I remember working at the St Louis assembly plant and eating lunch every day for two weeks in an L88 Corvette that we built for the export in 1968 - it got pulled off line and just sat waiting for parts. Norwood was probably the same. What is your trans build date (if 4 speed)?

[/ QUOTE ]

Best guess from looking at the old calender is that my car was built on Friday, the 23rd, and yours was built on the following Monday.
http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/...&country=1
May was a 5 week month in '69, but 05E was only 4 days, with Friday off for the Memorial Day weekend.
BTW, my car has the M40. (Look under the Berger logo).

Here is the stamp on my rear end:

[bergy]

Thanks Andy - Brent, quit yelling!