OK here goes my buddy just called me and he has found a car. an arlington built 70 ss 396 4 speed with all the ss stuff, cept for just a plain domed hood no pins or flapper, buckets no console, no tach, malibu door panels, no air. ok now here is the question is the build sheet. IS IT still there, i told him where it shoud be and the owner swears its a real ss down to the born with motor tranny and 12 bolt, the guy wants 17 for it. i told my buddy that if the build sheet is there. that it is. the car only has a little rust in right side lower fender and quarter. the car has been painted once back in 85, the guy had a stroke and cant drive stick very good anymore. so that is the only reason to sell. the guy also said that he can jack it up and check whatever he wants. cuz it is what he said it is. am i way off track. i hope not. but the car is only missing original intake, and exhaust and prob. carb. too. hopefully the only build sheet, will still be there since it has the original carpet./////// buckets with out console gets me though. how odd. WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK. lay it on me.:yes::noway::confused:

I have an Arlington 1970 SS and it was made in the first week of April. It came with all of the standard SS package including the door panels and console. I did not find a buildsheet with this car under the carpet or sound proofing material in either side of the car. I do have the protecto-plate for it however. good luck, arlington built build sheets are fairly rare from what I have experienced.
This car sounds alot like the car Ranier acquired a while back, although as memory serves it wasn't a 1970 model, but it was quite rare.

Rich

Several things to check to get you a little closer.
1. Check trim tag. Could have been a bench car originally and no console installed.
2. Is it a SS dash or Malibu. No tach is suspect.
3. Malibu door panels.
4. If the interior is any color other than white or black the steering wheel and column will be the interior color if it is a Malibu.
5. Get # off front tab of motor. It should ID the motor, show the vin, and have a MFG date reasonably close to car build date. It will be 3 character starting with C.
6. Reach under the front of the driver fender and see if you can feel any Malibu trim holes filled with bondo.

These should get you started. Keep in mind that without build sheet anything is possible.

I have an Arlington built SS 396 4spd and I found the buildsheet under the tar paper/sound deadner by the drivers front floor near the high beam switch.

I dont mean to hijack the thread but I also have an Arlington car and was wondering were any of you may have found the build sheets on these cars. I would like to know if they had a tendency of throwing them in a certain place.

OK here goes my buddy just called me and he has found a car. an arlington built 70 ss 396 4 speed with all the ss stuff, cept for just a plain domed hood no pins or flapper, buckets no console, no tach, malibu door panels, no air.
1. Plain, domed hood with no pins and no 'flapper' was standard on the SS. Cowl induction hood (RPO ZL2) got the flapper and hood pins.
2. Buckets did not require a console but ordering a console required buckets.
3. Tach was not standard equipment on the SS, it was optional.
4. A/C was optional as well and not uncommon to not order it with the SS.
5. Should have SS on the door panels however on the 396


ok now here is the question is the build sheet. IS IT still there, i told him where it shoud be and the owner swears its a real ss down to the born with motor tranny and 12 bolt, the guy wants 17 for it. i told my buddy that if the build sheet is there. that it is. the car only has a little rust in right side lower fender and quarter. the car has been painted once back in 85, the guy had a stroke and cant drive stick very good anymore. so that is the only reason to sell. the guy also said that he can jack it up and check whatever he wants. cuz it is what he said it is. am i way off track. i hope not. but the car is only missing original intake, and exhaust and prob. carb. too. hopefully the only build sheet, will still be there since it has the original carpet./////// buckets with out console gets me though. how odd. WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK. lay it on me.:yes::noway::confused:

Check the engine pad for the CON VIN. If it's there and the sequence number matches the VIN, it's probably the original engine and would verify it was born with the SS option. Some Arlington sheets have been found under the carpet and padding but like others said, it's not real common. Workers there seem to have done a better job of picking up after themselves.

I've always heard that if it has the SS dash (3 round pod guages) and did not have the tach, then it was a strong indication of an SS, as you could only get that dash with an SS, as opposed to the SS dash with tach could be ordered on a Malibu with the optional guage package, no? Anyone else on this?
Several things to check to get you a little closer.
1. Check trim tag. Could have been a bench car originally and no console installed.
2. Is it a SS dash or Malibu. No tach is suspect.
3. Malibu door panels.
4. If the interior is any color other than white or black the steering wheel and column will be the interior color if it is a Malibu.
5. Get # off front tab of motor. It should ID the motor, show the vin, and have a MFG date reasonably close to car build date. It will be 3 character starting with C.
6. Reach under the front of the driver fender and see if you can feel any Malibu trim holes filled with bondo.

These should get you started. Keep in mind that without build sheet anything is possible.

Was it the 396 cars that had SS on the door panels and 454 cars had Mailbu? I know someone with a '70 SS with a 396 his has SS and the one here is a 454 and it has Malibu. Or was it just random?

It really doesn't mean anything if it doesn't have a tach in it. It would have just been the fuel gauge. At least I'm pretty sure. Or were you talking about the standard dashes that were in all the Malibu's?

I have not heard from him, he was all pumped up about it and hasn't called me so that must mean that he is sick cuz the deal did not happen i will let you all know as soon as i find out. thanks guys.

My 70 SS was a buckets no console auto on the column car, no flapper I thought it was weird and wouldnt have believed it was the real deal except that I bought it from the originla owner.

All this talk about questioning the validity of an SS by no door on the hood. The whole cowl induction system wasn't standard on the Super Sports, it was a special order option. It was the bulge in the hood that was standard on the Super Sports, which as far as I know was just called the SS hood.

That brings me to my next question. What is the actual definition of cowl induction? I always thought it was the system with the door on the hood, the lower intake, and the different air cleaner.

Is it just the fact that the cowl is covered up? Im confused. :confused:

The 'flapper' on the cowl hood was suppose to draw cooler air under pressure from the cowl (lower windshield area) area of the body. You see the same thing on NASCAR vehicles where a plenum air system draws air from this area as opposed to ram-type scoop on current NHRA Pro Stock cars. FWIW, a few years ago in a Q&A session with Warren and Kurt Johnson during a promo visit to Van Chevrolet in KC, Warren said wind tunnel tests (back then) showed it took 60hp just to overcome the tall scoop they were forced to run and wanted to run F.I. systems to elimiate it.

Whether GMs answer with the Cowl Induction hood and relatively small inlet area of the flapper actually worked in terms of horsepower gain is probably questionable but its sex appeal sure did sell units. Watching the little door open and close showed something (anything) was going on. And, as indicated, it was just an option (RPO ZL2) over and above the SS option and available on both the 396 and the 454.

well my buddy finaly called me to let me know the scoop, he goes to guys house and tells the guy that he will pay 17,000 but wants to look it over first. as he was checking the car up, down, and inside out he came to the conclusion that it was mostlikley an ss, but not sure still yet. i told him to look and see if the braces were there for the upper rear control arms stuff like that. all the numbers matched the date on back of block corrosponded with build date along with matching vin. and the tranny was right also. so the only thing left to check was under the tar paper for build sheet. the owner was all excited too. right before they got to getting the carpet out the owner told him no sell i cant sell it. i am sorry. my buddy was just pee'd off something terrible. he has been sick to his stomach since, he made another offer and the guy still says no. i havn't seen car but it is sitting in backyard about 5 miles from me so now i must go and inspect it. it just might have the build sheet still there and it be readable. he says the only rust is just bubbles in passenger quarter panel and right front fender. the floors and everything else look awsome.

That's what I always figured cowl induction meant. I always figured the rest of the hoods were just the plain SS type hoods.