Messages

Thanks so much for all of the input.  The seller has not come forth with pictures of any of the secondary VINs, and given all of the things discussed here, I have decided to pass.  So I'm still waiting for the right one to come along.  Maybe third time's the charm.

I hadn't thought of the VIN being for a loaner car...it is an earlier number.  I didn't realize they did that.  I also realized that the receipt appears to be for an order, but it wasn't signed by the purchaser or the dealer.  I will have to find out if there is any other documentation. 

receipt

These are the only ones he sent me, and I had to reduce the size slightly to fit them all in one post.  I'll attach as many as I can of the original photos.

Hello all-
     I ended up looking at an advertised "SS 396", only to find out that the seller himself had been duped when he bought the car 10 years ago.  I was pretty close to buying this car, so my caution has increased with each car that I look into.  The latest is an advertised 2nd owner SS 396.  I have attached the pictures that I have questions about.

1)  something seems to be weird with the cowl tag rivets...all of the things listed on the tag do seem to match the car though.
2-4) The dash VIN, engine partial VIN, and protecto plate VIN are all the same.  My concern is, the original sales receipt has the words written on it "Serial Number", and then a valid 68 VIN that is not the same as all of the others.

Can anyone explain this?  Everything else seems to match on this car, although I am waiting to hear back about the transmission and rear axle codes.

Cheers,

Cole

Thanks for the replies.  I hadn't thought to check the transmission, but I will do that as well.  I thought it was a really good deal at first, and if it turns out to be an authentic SS it probably is, but I am assuming that the non-original VIN and missing cowl tag decrease the collector value of the car significantly...anyone have an idea by how much?  Does the story seem to convenient to take seriously?  Another tidbit I found out was that the previous seller told this guy that it was a lifetime California car, and had only one previous owner.  I found out from the motor vehicle divisions in CA that it actually had 3 owners before this guy, and was registered in New Mexico as late as 1997.  Part of me is thinking that if there are so many unanswered questions, why not just get a clone...or keep looking for that true SS and expect to pay a premium for the documentation and peace of mind.

I'm brand new to the forums, but seeing as I'm thinking about buying a 68, here we go.

I have contacted a guy about a 68 "SS".  He bought it from a dealership, and I just found out some weird stuff.  However, some of the numbers seem to check out, so I wanted to get a feel for your opinions.  Here's the story...
The current owner bought it from a dealership, and was told the following story.  A previous corvette collector had this car in California.  It was stolen and the VIN ripped off.  The car was later collected, but a California law prevents the highway patrol from reattaching a VIN tag, and so it was issued a CHP VIN.  It sounds like a pretty convenient story if you ask me, but I actually talked to the dealer who sold it 9 years ago, and he assures me that he knew the owner, and everything was as described.  Even though this seems fishy to me, I got some numbers from the owner to see if I could check it out some more.  What I got was
VIN: 124378L341669
Engine partial VIN: 18L341669
Engine Code: T0304MY

From that (as long as the numbers aren't faked), it looks like engine was assembled a couple of months before the car (engine assembled March 4, last VIN for May was 342086).
He lives far away from me, but I'll be heading there this weekend, and I'll be able to get more numbers off of the car.  Are there specific numbers I should be looking at?  Any thoughts on this?  The title is clean.  Does anyone know if there are ways to verify a police report from something like this?
Much Thanks