Gents: Since rejoining NCRS and getting another Vette, I have been reading lots of Corvette books and databases (e.g., Black book, historical source books, NCRS Forum archives, etc.). Although, I have gotten a lot of information on my vehicle, how can I accurately determine what it left the St. Louis line equipped with (i.e., rear-end, transmission type, are the side pipes and the KOs original to the vehicle, etc.)? When I was in the process of securing the deal, I mentioned the VIN number to a buddy in NY (who is an NCRS Judge) he said "yeah, that was a late one, built on Friday, June 17, 1966. It was the second to last unit built that day." How did he know that so quickly?Any thoughts or direction on decoding this vehicle would be great. It'd be nice to know for sure. BTW, is it cool to state my VIN on the NCRS Forum or should I not do so; not sure if this is proper etiquette with the Forum or not. Thanks in advance for all your ongoing kind guidance.
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Re: The Mysteries Around Decoding a 1966 Corvette Roadster
Alvin Colman "corvette by the numbers ". Will tell you all
jack -
Re: The Mysteries Around Decoding a 1966 Corvette Roadster
You can try to locate original or previous owners and they can provide a lot of valuable information and may ever have some original documentation for the car. In a 66 there is no certain way to know how the car left the factory so your only option is to do some detective work. Many of the parts on your car have dates and by looking for this information you can make a guess as to whether the part is original. Alternator, starter, voltage regulator, engine, intake manifold, water pump, exhaust manifold, rear differential, transmission and other parts have part numbers and dates on them. You can down load an app for you phone (Corvette birthday calender) which will tell you the date your car was built based on the year and serial number of the car I think it is free.Comment
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Re: The Mysteries Around Decoding a 1966 Corvette Roadster
I think the fellow that specified the time of day your car was built was having a laugh. No exact data other than last car built each month exists. Everything else is an educated guesstimate.
There is a simple check list to see if the side pipes are factory or not. One of the regular C2 guys will post it.Comment
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Re: The Mysteries Around Decoding a 1966 Corvette Roadster
All:
Thanks. Ordered a used copy of Corvette By The Numbers. Will call Hank and give him an ear full.Comment
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Re: The Mysteries Around Decoding a 1966 Corvette Roadster
I was referring to the extrapolated numbers in my comment above. Those are freely available en mass on many websites or books and are frequently presumed to be 'fact' rather than estimate.
The shipping reports, only available at present on an individual basis, is a different animal. I don't think the person in question had all the appropriate reports in front of him to be able to make such a statement.Comment
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Re: The Mysteries Around Decoding a 1966 Corvette Roadster
[QUOTE=Michael Ward (29001);743045] No exact data other than last car built each month exists. .
This has been discussed in this forum and IIRC those end of month VIN's are not "written in stone" also. LarryLarry
LT1 in a 1LE -- One of 134Comment
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Re: The Mysteries Around Decoding a 1966 Corvette Roadster
[QUOTE=Larry Evoskis (16324);743109]I can't say for 1966 model year, but here's what Chevrolet Central Office did for 1965:
To all zone service managers, they sent a letter, dated October 11, 1965 with subject "Last 1965 model Serial Numbers, built each month - (RESTRICTED INFORMATION)"
For the St. Louis Corvette production line, they list the numbers we '65 owners are all familiar with. There's a few notes ( * = strike period - no vehicles built), (# = Note: all month of production figures have been reviewed and revised as indicated). They apparently revised end-of-month for Sept thru May, except Oct. as there was no production to be revised.
However, I just noticed that their revised figure for May is VIN 118753, and NOT 118573, which repeats on about 5 tables in the '65 TIM&JG. Must be a typo, as the NCRS pocket guide shows it correctly. Somebody should run it through a birthday calculator to see what ...573 gives (
).
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Re: The Mysteries Around Decoding a 1966 Corvette Roadster
On mine the shipping report and birthday calculator matched to the day. It was later in the month thought the January 25th I believe. 2:23PM...Just kidding about that part.
MikeComment
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