Is it an SS or Original 396 Car?

[HuggerSS396]

I recently purchased a 69 Camaro. I only paid 3000 dollars for it. The car has SS trim with a 1972 Corvette 350 engine. It has a SS hood Power disc brakes a Th400 trans and a 12 bolt rear end. The car has a speedometer fuel gauge, column mounted tach, under dash oil batt temp gauge. Since this car does not have an X code and i could not find a broadcast sheet how can i verify that the car is an ss or even possibly a big block car.
VIN 124379N686813

ST 69 12437 NOR115132
TR 711 72B
09B

Thanks

[Jonesy]

Hmmm... looks like your cowl tag was swapped out. You should have the X code. Looks like you have a Sept 68 cowl tag on your Sept 69 built car. Your VIN falls in the third week of Sept 69. Somethings fishy here.

Maybe Kurt can confirm this.

[img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/dunno.gif[/img]

[Daves69]

Your cowl tag appears to be an early 69 tag(2nd week Sept 69 build date), which of course, did not use "X" codes. Check to heater core box....if the hoses exit in the middle of the box, chances are it was an original BB car, as the likelyhood of someone changing this from a small block car are pretty slim. Another clue would be to look for the dual exhaust plates welded to both the right and left side rear frame rails, SS cars would have dual exhaust. Hope this helps. DK

[robber6910]

Just to clear things up. The VIN number and trim tag does appear to be in line. In August of '69 the body sequence numbers were reset to 100000. I have seen late '69 build trim tags that did not have an "X" code. Remember all sort of funky things happened at the Norwood plant when these cars were being put together (the best example would have to be the Fisher trim tags stamped with the "NBR" opposed to the correct "NOR". This goes to show the assembly guys really didn't a hoot what went onto these beauties!! The best way to verify if it is a true SS car would have to be looking at the tubes coming out of the heater core (396 BB has tubes coming out of the middle of the heater, whereas SB has tubes coming out of the right side of it), the rear exhaust hanger/plate mounted on the left rear frame rail. The best obvious one would have to be trying to do a title search at the DMV. If you have any luck you might be able to get ahold one of the previous owners who can give you some insight.

[Kurt S]

Hate to say, it's a swapped tag. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]
Real close to fitting either build date (68 or 69), but it really only fits 9/68, VIN is 9/69. Does the original color match the trim tag?

Noone in the plant ever looked at the trim tag after Fisher Body was done with the car. Fisher was pretty consistent, and even their errors were normally consistent.
And in general, strange things did not happen on the production line. It was a standard process, had to be, they built 243,085 in 69. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[HuggerSS396]

The original color on the car was orange and the interior is standard black. This matches the trim tag. What would somebody gain in this case by swapping the trim tag? The heater hose comes out in the middle of the box. Before I really start to bring her back to life could I at least find out if the car had the SS option or was just a base car with fake SS emblems.
Josh

[Jeff H]

How many fuel lines are there going back to the gas tank? If it was an SS350, 396/325 or 396/350hp engine, it should have 2 fuel lines. Did you check the information on the TH400 to see if that is the original transmission?