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Check out the engine pad stamp on this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&sspagename=ADME%3AB%3ASS%3AUS%3A1123&viewitem=&item=260209129759

Beautiful car.  Always fun to see PTB stamps on a Van Nuys car.

Coming soon to a Barrett-Jackson near you:  4 more "original" Z/28's

My DZ engine db has 2 04B cars with that date.

I'm sorry sir, I'm not sure what you're trying to convay. 

I had asked earlier if it was possible that a car built in the 2nd week of April (04B) could have an engine with an assembly date of March 18 (0318).  William is stating that there are 2 cars in his database that have the same dates indicating that not only is it possible, it's fairly common.  From what Kurt is saying, I would guess that yours is going to be the third.  Did you get some Hi-Res pictures of the engine pad sent to him?

My DZ engine db has 2 04B cars with that date.

Detfox, you may be a winner!

That's awesome, I would have looked at that stamping and said "no way"!

Thanks for the input.  I emailed this to Jerry and he indicated that the DZ stamp looks legit.  Since my car has an 04B build code and the VIN is 9L529276, it could possibly be that the factory tried to re-stamp over an error.  Also, it is very hard to be sure exactly what the numbers are under the larger font.  The numbers I indicated were suggested by the previous owner (probably best guess). Besides that, as you can see there is an extra digit.  There is still the question of the missing 9 between the '1' and the 'L'

Is an 04B car with a 0318 engine possible? (I don't know, I'm asking).  Seems like a long time for an engine to be sitting around.

This is interesting, I love a good mystery.

Hmmm.  Engine was built on my birthday (I ain't saying which one though  ).

VIN can't be L539977, the highest known VIN is L531163.  The L53XXXX cars began in 4D (also see previous post) so I don't see how the second digit could be a 3.  L51XXXX cars pre-date your engine so the second digit can't be a 1.

Assuming the DZ stamp is legit, I would think the VIN should have been somewhere between L527000 and L529000. But that doesn't make sense, if the original VIN was L52XXXX they wouldn't have needed to overstamp the second digit with a "2".

What's the VIN on that one Jonesy?

I think it might be related to the transfer of the Van Nuys Fischer Body plant to the General Motors Assembly Division (GMAD).  According to official GM history 6 plants were transferred that year:

"1968 - Six passenger car and truck assembly plants previously operated by Fisher Body and Chevrolet Motor Division are transferred to the management of GM Assembly Division."

The local newspaper noted the change on November 7 and November 12, 1968:

[Nov 7, 1968] The Chevrolet and Fisher Body plants in Van Nuys were transferred to the General Motors Assembly Division, which also operates the GMAD plants at Fremont and South Gate. Similar transfers were made at GM assembly complexes in Georgia, Maryland, Missouri, New York and Wisconsin....
From The Valley News (Newspaper) - November 7, 1968,...

[Nov 12, 1968] Under the new structure, the separate Chevrolet and Fisher Body assembly plants on Van Nuys Blvd. now are combined as a GM Assembly Division Plant. Managed Body Plant Frank J. Fessenden of Sherman Oaks, who had been manager of the Chev-rolet plant, has been named assistant to the newly ap- ...
From The Valley News (Newspaper) - November 12, 1968,... 

John Z probably could tell us more.

I agree, I would rather have the original engine than tranny (although I'd like to have at least one of them for mine).  Mine is a manual top as well.

The Tach is wrong, CRG reports that only the Z/28 came with that one.  Check it out here:

http://www.camaros.org/diffs69.shtml

Thought so.  I'm learning.

I believe that a couple of trim tags that I've seen recently may help pin down the date that 1969 Camaro Van Nuys trim tags changed from the LOS prefix to the VN prefix.  The first is tag # LOS176071 and the second is tag # VN208927.  The VINs on these two vehicles are L512168 and L512317, only 149 apart.  These are both 12B tags, the second week of December.  The scheduling codes are G417 and H411 respectively, indicating subsequent production days, right?  G = day 7 and H = day 8.  The 1st day of December 1968 was on a Sunday, and I think I read in one of John's reports that they were only working 5 days a week.  That would put the changover day (i.e. the first day with VN tags) on Wednesday, December 11, 1968.

I'm not sure how the changeover would have happened, there may have been some mixing of old and new over a period of several days.  My database doesn't have any earlier VN tags, does anyone have the tags of any cars between these?  What do you guys think?   



The second is VN208927:

Just trying to further my education a bit.  The pad looks almost polished to me, don't they usually have some machining marks on them?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&sspagename=ADME%3AB%3ASS%3AUS%3A1123&viewitem=&item=160198745389#ebayphotohosting

"12437L521407"

Missing a digit here should be 123479L521407

"ST69 12437 VN257389 BDY
TR  711         72  B      PNT
0 or 1 2A             C057
The rivet is covering the first digit on the date code above."

The covered digit is a 0 for sure.

Love those LA cars!

Well if you disregard what Jerry, Steve, and I say, you could assume that.

Now that's funny, I don't care who you are.

Those look different to me.  I can't see the cowl induction hole on hihorses pic.