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Messages - rsms

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1
General Discussion / Re: My story and why to not give up looking.
« on: January 29, 2024, 06:36:42 PM »
That's a much-needed cool story and very similar to mine although mine hasn't had the happy ending yet.  Back when I bought my 68Z in 1985, you could run a "body file" thru the DMV and even at my young high school age I knew to do this.  I had the original owner's name but could never get a current address or ph#.  I knew the car was originally from Mac Mulkin Chevy, I knew who the 3rd owner was (more on the original owner later).  I was able to track down the 3rd owner, but he would never answer the phone or even the door when I made the trip to his house.  I later found out he was very sick and had passed away during the time frame I was attempting to contact him one day when his son answered the phone.  The son had many memories of the car when he was very young and told me his dad towed it down from NY with a blown engine (the original which I received with the car).  As a child he would sit in the car and pretend to drive it behind his house.  He only had memories to share.  I learned the 2nd owner drag raced it in the early to mid 70's till it dropped a valve and parked it.  Unfortunately, the 2nd owner's name and address on the body file paperwork was not definitive due to bad microfiche copies thru out the years and left me many possible variations of both.  As of today, I still have not had any luck with him.  The worse part of my journey is with the original owner, I know his name and have a his facebook profile although it's not used, I've attempted to contact him countless times with every way imaginable except either myself or someone else knocking on his door.  He absolutely has not responded.  I've reached out to numerous relatives and had no luck until one day his son reached out to me.  I was thrilled after a couple conversations with him.  I learned he was actually driven home from the hospital in the car, what his dad did for a living, that his mom at the same time drove a 67 Chevelle SS (sounds like an awesome car family) and that the mother and father had divorced, he spoke with his mother, and she still had several pictures from when it was new and many stories she would share.  He also agreed to try and get his father to reach out to me.  I told him how appreciative I was and that I would love to speak to either or both of them thru any way they felt comfortable with including with me flying to the Northeast to do so in person over dinner.  We left off with him saying he would be in touch but since that conversation he has not responded back to me.  I get it that some people are just not "people persons" per say but at the same time I don't get that they wouldn't like to help preserve the part of history they were involved in. I believe anyone who bought a 67 or very early 68 Z28 did so because they knew how special the program was and would definitely be a big gearhead.  I really like the idea of using craigslist that you mentioned, I think I'm going to try that and hope for a car guy friend of this obvious car guy owner would help in my quest.  It is frustrating to be so close but just not being able to get there and I have really slowed in my persistence, but your story has made me want to (and I will) keep up the fight, thanks for sharing

2
Research Topics & Reports / Re: Pics to finish up the hood report
« on: January 17, 2024, 12:34:57 AM »
I have a believed original 67 SS hood that I will try and dig out in the next couple of days and get pictures, could you PM an email address to send them to or would you rather me just post them on the forum? 

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General Discussion / Re: 1968 Camaro Z/28 on Hemmings
« on: January 17, 2024, 12:28:59 AM »
My 68 Z28 still has original paint but somewhere along it's life one of the previous owners added roof stripes along with tail pan stripes, plus RS tail lights (mines a non RS car).  This was prior to 1976, it's been off the road since then.  It looks like a Shelby, only much cooler.    It definitely did happen. 

4
Decoding/Numbers / Re: 1969 03d clarification needed
« on: January 15, 2024, 04:34:21 PM »
I believe that everything does make sense now.  The car is a 03D with a vin 6232XX and both the block and trans are dated 3/18 (maybe odd or maybe not not, but all stamps look legit in my opinion) and all bolt on components found in boxes such as distributor and alternator look legit and fall into a good date range.  Any concerns on block and trans dates I mentioned?  I feel pretty confident in its originality as of now and I will be traveling back out to the car soon and hope to get a deal finalized and will share details and pictures once I do.  thanks for the input William and Byron

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Decoding/Numbers / Re: 1969 03d clarification needed
« on: January 15, 2024, 03:15:25 PM »
Thank you, this clarifies my concerns substantially!

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Decoding/Numbers / Re: 1969 03d clarification needed
« on: January 15, 2024, 05:46:06 AM »
What I'm trying to determine is, would a March 1 date that occured on a Saturday be considered 03A or did they wait until March 3rd which was the 1st Monday of the month to use the 03A.  If the car I'm trying to buy is a 03D would there be an additional 3 weeks of production in March or 2?  The last week of production for March was only 1 day (March 31 was a Monday).  The reason for my questions is, could or would a 03D car be within the last 350ish cars produced for March per the VIN sequences as noted in the CRG documents.  I'm questioning this because it seems like there should be a greater number of cars produced every week.  Hope that makes sense. Does any one have a 03D car that would care to share the last 4 of your VIN.  This would need to be a Norwood car.  I dont own the car in question yet and dont want to post the exact VIN till it's a finalized deal.

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Decoding/Numbers / Re: What is the earliest known 68 Z28?
« on: January 15, 2024, 02:15:39 AM »
Has Chick's list been updated and I'm missing it or have any other 67 built 1968's been found.  I see there are only 4 cars still on the list that are earlier than cars built the week of mine, 12D?  I still find this a little hard to believe but I haven't seen any others documented anywhere. 

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Decoding/Numbers / 1969 03d clarification needed
« on: January 15, 2024, 02:10:29 AM »
I'm curious as to what would be believed to be the correct VIN sequence for a 1969 03D car.  Looking at the 1969 calendar, March had 6 weeks with the 1st week starting on a Saturday.  Would that be represented as O3A or would 03A be the week that started on 3/3/69.  I'm trying to buy an 03D pace car right now and it's VIN sequence looks to be in the roughly last 350 cars produced in March.  It's a Norwood car.  All of the stamps and component dates jive and look to be original but I would think there would be more cars produced in the remaining week or weeks.  Would there be 6 weeks as in A,B,C,D,E,F for March? or ?  This is the only thing I've questioned, everything else falls right into line with original casting and stamp dates.

9
General Discussion / Re: Looking for opinions on a survivor car
« on: September 02, 2022, 01:59:02 AM »
Thanks for all of the opinions.... I've been playing around with a custom tint on the paint and still haven't been able to bring myself to paint it even if the color is getting really close to what I think it should be. 

10
General Discussion / Re: Looking for opinions on a survivor car
« on: August 22, 2022, 02:31:40 PM »
Darrel, I just emailed you a couple of pictures of the Marlin.  VT, unfortunately I've tried several methods to remove the orange paint and the only places I've had any luck is where the original paint was missing.  The only thing I haven't tried was dry ice blasting, I just don't think the results would justify the expense seeing how the original paint has flaked off in numerous places under the orange. 

11
General Discussion / Re: Looking for opinions on a survivor car
« on: August 21, 2022, 03:02:01 PM »
I've decided to pull all of the bolt-ons off the engine and re-seal the front cover and oil pan and then re-paint it.  My rationale is, either way it's not original so I might as well make it proper.  I will play around with tinting the paint to try and achieve a weathered look the best i can and just go with it.  I've been experimenting with the decals, and I will have to replace them as they were previously taped when the engine was spray bombed, leaving a buildup on the edges and the tape removal must have damaged them.  Has anyone ever had luck "aging" decals??     I've never owned a Marlin and have only seen one other in the wild before, I came across this while looking for an AMX to park next to my 68Z.  AMC seemed to use a hodge podge parts from the others, the plug wires are from Packard, the coil and distributor cap and rotor are Delco.  The 65 was a Rambler Marlin, the 66 was a Marlin and in 67 they also called it a Marlin only, but I think the base for it was more on the lines of an Ambassador, they became a little bigger and bulkier looking.  It was a low production 3 year only run so they are pretty uncommon, most everyone that sees it thinks it a version of an early Charger.  Thanks for your tips and suggestions

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General Discussion / Looking for opinions on a survivor car
« on: August 20, 2022, 02:34:52 AM »
Although 67 & 68 Camaros are my main passion, I just recently bought a low mileage and always a garaged, special occasion only 1966 Marlin that is the most assembly line correct & original car I think I have ever seen.  My delima is, the owner in the early 80's tried to brighten up the engine a little bit and spray painted the engine.  Originally the engine is a shade of red that has a little orange in it, and he used what looks to be a chevy orange to re-paint it.  The original decals are still on the on the engine, but you can see light over spray on it.  Even though the car shows extremely well, if I re-paint the engine and change the decal it will be nicer than original.  If I leave it, it is also still not assembly line correct, but it would at least look more vintage and will show a little oil seepage.  The engine currently has the worst finish/appearance by far of any area on the car, every other finish under the hood is very nice and totally original down to belts, hoses and ignition components.  One more tidbit, I had to rebuild the original water pump, it will have to be painted as it was boiled.   I'm curious as to what others' opinions would be as to how it would score higher if it was to be judged.  Is it better to look old and incorrect or look fresh and correct?  I wanted to ask this in a non-AMC forum to get a different perspective. 

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General Discussion / Re: My photobucket restored
« on: January 19, 2020, 04:09:46 PM »
Awesome!!!   Glad you have it fixed.  This is one of the best reads ever, once again thanks for your efforts in documenting the process.   

14
Decoding/Numbers / Re: Thoughts about the date stamp
« on: January 16, 2020, 02:29:04 PM »
ZLP955.....  good thread, I hadn't seen that one before.    After looking at the thread over at the yenko forum and now looking at the OP's picture it does possibly look like their is also a shadow numeral under the 4053.  I would hate to say for sure with only looking at the picture.  Big money parts (relatively speaking) sure do invite the fraudsters to get involved, gotta be on your toes all the time.

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Decoding/Numbers / Re: Thoughts about the date stamp
« on: January 15, 2020, 07:51:08 PM »
LOL,  I wasn't trying to jump in line, just showing an interest.  I also was interested in the correlation of build date to carb date on early Z's.  Everything I've read seemed to point to the carbs being produced in batches and with mine being an early car I don't know if the time frames might be different compared to a later 68 or a 69 Z when they started to produce them more regularly.   PM heading your way shortly cook_dw

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