1974 With 'Special' Written Under Deck Lid

[Steve K.]

I noticed one evening when putting my t-tops back on my '74 that the word 'SPECIAL' is written in crayon on the underside of the decklid by the body number. As far as I can tell there is nothing special about this car. It's an L48 4-speed with no special suspension package or anything. Body date is N23.






Has anyone ever seen this? Thanks

[Mark H.]

Re: 1974 With 'Special' Written Under Deck Lid

Correct me if I'm wrong but N23 would be September?

When I got out of the Navy in November of '75 I bought a '76 Firebird Formula 400.Wanted to get a Corvette, but at almost $10,000 who could afford one of those? Anyway, one day while digging around in the trunk I found the build sheet under the trunk lining. Hand written on it were the words "Show Job". My car was yellow with black trim around the bottom with "Formula" in yellow just like the car on the front of the '76 Firebird sales brochure and the car shown in all the magazine articles at the time. Was my car the same one? We'll never know. Can't prove that it was and can't prove that it wasn't. Maybe your car was slated for one of the auto shows (Detroit, L.A., etc.) and they wanted to make sure it was done right. Just a guess.

[Mark L.]

Re: 1974 With 'Special' Written Under Deck Lid

Steve,
Nice car! You could order the Shipping Data Report and the dealer code might be an indicator of something special. If it went to a zone office or the Chevrolet Engineering Dept it could help confirm your theory.

[Kevin G.]

Re: 1974 With 'Special' Written Under Deck Lid

Steve,
Nice car! You could order the Shipping Data Report and the dealer code might be an indicator of something special. If it went to a zone office or the Chevrolet Engineering Dept it could help confirm your theory.

Mark,

Does this mean that the Corvette Shipping Data and Corvette Document Validation Services are now again available? Did I miss the announcement?

[Terry M.]

Re: 1974 With 'Special' Written Under Deck Lid

Mark,

Does this mean that the Corvette Shipping Data and Corvette Document Validation Services are now again available? Did I miss the announcement?

Kevin,
I believe The Shipping Data Report for Corvettes is a separate function from Corvette Document Validation Services. My understanding is The Corvette Shipping Data Report has been available continuously.

The rest of your question I will leave to Mark, and I request his correction to my understanding of the Shipping Data Report function.

[Mark L.]

Re: 1974 With 'Special' Written Under Deck Lid

Terry is correct. Shipping Data Reports are available. The Document Validation Service is not available at this time.

[Loren L.]

Re: 1974 With 'Special' Written Under Deck Lid

As to "Special", what's the paint code?

[Gary R.]

Re: 1974 With 'Special' Written Under Deck Lid

Well it is a nice looking car so that is special. I was in high school back then and sure would have liked to own one like that.

[Mike E.]

Re: 1974 With 'Special' Written Under Deck Lid

Oddly enough I like the way it looks with the lack of trim rings and center caps on the rallies. Other than the tires it looks like it was just unloaded off the truck.

IMO '74 was last of a breed...It would take regular leaded fuel, had the big huge gas cap & real dual exhaust without a catalytic converter.

My brother bought a '74 L-82, then later I bought a '76 L-48 when we compared the cars there was a world of difference. The '74 seem much more raw with real duals and fiberglass floor. Where the '76 was a tame boulevard cruiser.

Mike

[Dave C.]

Re: 1974 With 'Special' Written Under Deck Lid

Terry is correct. Shipping Data Reports are available. The Document Validation Service is not available at this time.

They may be available but when I requested the hard copy of mine that was ordered moths ago, they told me that it wouldn't be any time soon as they had not hired a replacement ( for Roy I assume)

[Wayne W.]

Re: 1974 With 'Special' Written Under Deck Lid

I am going to make a guess here. The `74 rear panel was the last piece of the puzzle in the change over to SMC. They were also changing formulations of SMC types. This car is very late production, and maybe there were some changes leading up to the `75 production. These could have been with the material or the configuration of the `75 panel. This may have been the first run leading up to the change over. Just a guess.

I bought the first `63-67 SMC hood surround panel that was sold by GM parts to replace the original polyester panel. It was marked up with "sample" and "pilot".