I'm going to look at a 69 SS chevelle, It is an original 396 car, NOM, it supposedly has the original 4 spd, and 12 bolt. I want to check the #'s on these to see if they match the VIN. I am going to look at it tomorrow, and was wondering where abouts I would find these #'s stamped on the transmission and rearend. The car is an original bench seat, 4spd, with no power steering. Is it possible it could be an L-78 car? The whole interior is out of the car, and it has had new quarters put on it. It needs a pass fender, a few dents here and there, comes with an extra 12 bolt, and needs a complete paint job. In your opinions, what is this car worth??????? The floors are supposedly all solid, no rot. Thanks

Originally posted by tireburner396:
I'm going to look at a 69 SS chevelle, It is an original 396 car, NOM, it supposedly has the original 4 spd, and 12 bolt. I want to check the #'s on these to see if they match the VIN. I am going to look at it tomorrow, and was wondering where abouts I would find these #'s stamped on the transmission and rearend. The car is an original bench seat, 4spd, with no power steering. Is it possible it could be an L-78 car? The whole interior is out of the car, and it has had new quarters put on it. It needs a pass fender, a few dents here and there, comes with an extra 12 bolt, and needs a complete paint job. In your opinions, what is this car worth??????? The floors are supposedly all solid, no rot. Thanks As for the 12 bolt, look at the trim tag first, look at the bottom left hand corner for the build time.... for example, mine was 12B which is the second week of Decemeber 1968. Now, back to the rear end.... if you are looking at the 12 bolt cover.... look to the bottom right of it. There is a concave "web" there with letters and numbers. Most of the time they are full of grease.... rears do not have vins stamped, so this is where the trim tag comes in. Look inside that webbed area, and get the numbers and letters. Mine for example was k138 which was november 13 68 which would make it the correct casting date to be original to my car. A lot of the time on 69 engines the partial vin was stamped by the oil filter. My car is an L78 4 speed and it has man steering, and a bench. Oh also look for the single 3/8 fuel line which denotes an l78.

the things i would look for are the single 3/8" fuel line(for 375hp) or 3/8" with small vapor return(325-350hpcars). check for a big block steering shaft. if the car has a factory tach check for 6K redline for L-78 or 5,500K for lower hp. the front marker lights have chrome trim around them also. if the paint code is monaco orange or daytona yellow they were only available for ss models. the car would be required to have front disk brakes also to be an ss. remember that without documentation its tough to prove if it was an ss much less a L-78. a build sheet would be nice. good luck mike

I looked at this car about 2 weeks ago, it does have the big block column. The thing that got me thinking about it again, was the lack of power steering. I know alot of the high horsepower cars were ordered without creature comforts just to go fast. Did it come with an M-22? What codes would be on the transmission? thanks.......Tom

to the best of my knowledge it could have come without power steering but power brakes were mandatory. i also don't believe that a M-22 was mandatory with the l-78. the only way to be certain would be to open it up and check for the gear angle. there should be no grooves on the input shaft. mike

Originally posted by ratuned:
to the best of my knowledge it could have come without power steering but power brakes were mandatory. i also don't believe that a M-22 was mandatory with the l-78. the only way to be certain would be to open it up and check for the gear angle. there should be no grooves on the input shaft. mike My L78 came with an M21.

what is the asking price? does it have any documentation? what parts come with it? does it have a correct but non original motor with it? how about all the deep groove pulleys? my best guess based on your description would be in the 3K-5K range. i am sure some would pay more. add up all the little parts you will need to buy and you could still be into it for quite a bit. good luck and let us know how you make out. mike

Ok Mike, He started out wanting $10,500. I looked at it 2 weeks ago but decided that was too much. I bumped into him again on sunday, and he said everything for $8500. It comes with an extra 12 bolt, from what I am told the motor is all rebuilt. It needs to have the interior all put back in, needs a passenger fender, few rust repairs here and there. I don't know what this is worth really, I've seen far crappier cars go for 3-5k on ebay. This car is fairly solid, with new rear quaters. I'm sure you can easily dump another 10k into it with no problem, especially with body and paint. I was just thinking if it were an L78 car it would be worth getting, even if I were to sit on it a few years and turn around and sell it, if the market continues going crazy like it is. I wish there was a build sheet to verify things

is he representing it as a L-78 car? it seems as if so many of these cars have had so many different owners over the years its hard to find out anything. also remember that if the car was built or sold in canada i think you can get quite a bit of info. also if the motor is a properly rebuilt and complete with the right pulleys and accessories and is a L-78 i feel that would justify his price. if you are serious you might want to have a body man look at how the quarters were done and get a somewhat accurate of how much $ it would take to cherry out the body. a buddy is doing a tubbed out nova with what appeared to have the body work done. i can't believe how much the paint bill was and he had to redo more than he thought. i'm not trying to scare you but keep both eyes wide open and be realistic. i would love to own a L-78 car but its not gonna happen with 1 wife and 2 kids in college. IMHO a documented L-78 even without the original motor but a correct one will still have good value. look at how much it costs to build even a good clone. good luck mike

on another note as to value,
a buddy looked at a 69 chevelle non ss but with a brand new deluxe 502-502 and T-400 with 12 bolt with highway gears. the body is all done and painted a beautiful shade of gold. decent underneath but dirty. motor not started or broken in yet. he was told he could buy it for 10K. mike

wow, 10k sounds cheap with all that work. I went and looked, the rear in the car has KF0701B stamped in the axle. It also has F169 cast on the lower web. The other 12 bolt has CF1125B on the axle and K88 on the web. The transmission has P8A29 stamped, then 38E1365538. The casting #'s on the tranny are 3857584 for the tailcasing, and 3925660 for the housing. The motor has stamped on the pass side pad behind the alternator T1109JA, and the casting # for the block was 3955272. It was hard to see the casting #, but I am pretty sure that was it. If anyone can help with those #'s that would be great. the paint code is 69 69. Is this cortez silver? It is currently orange, but you can also see red at one point. 755 was the trim code. It had two fuel lines, one was bigger could have been 3/8, the other was smaller, probably the return, maybe 1/4 inch. It has had a patch put in the floor at one point. All in all, it seems fairly solid. Everything for $8500.00. I know if I wanted to I could sell one of the 12 bolts for at least $750. It also comes with another set of cylinder heads (not sure of the casting #'s on those, they were all wrapped up in plastic. I'm not even sure what heads are on the car. The motor does sound good. Hotchkins lower bars. N.A.D.A. book for 2001 lists 69ss396 in low condition for over 9k. I know their low is better than what this car is, as the whole interior has to be put back together. I don't know, it's still alot of money for a car needing the work. What are your opinions?????

the car most likely is a 325 hp 396 ss chevelle. the info i get seems as if it was cortez silver with a black bench seat. i think it was a M-20 wide ratio muncie. were there 2 grooves on the input shaft? how was the engine rebuilt? what does he have for receipts? the rear end codes I get are KF 3.55 posi and cf 3.31 posi. has the trans or rear been rebuilt? what does it need for parts? in my opinion it would be a real cool car in that color combo. as to what its worth, man thats anyones guess. i'd go with 6-7K but thats just me. where is the car located? if your really hot for a 69 try low balling him with cash in hand and see what he does. its personally a car i would like to own but would'nt have the resources to do properly. how much of the work can you do yourself? good luck whichever way you go. mike

Mike, thanks for all your help. I like the 69's, i think I am going to see if he will take 8k. He already said he will not go lower than the 8500, but I will see. I think it will be a good investment, as it is pretty solid. I will let you know how I make out. I've looked at junk, where they want 5-6k. We got lucky with the two 70's we own, we bought them before the prices started going crazy. I don't know how much of it I can do myself, mechanically, no problem, but bodywork is another thing. Right now, my son is taking body work at his vocational high, so maybe when he gets more experience we can tackle it. I know I could easily dump another 10k into the car to finish it, but it does not have to be done overnight. And any nicely done SS is easily fetching in the 20k range nowadays. Thanks again, I will let you know how I make out.......Tom

did the car belong to mechanic who worked at a gas station on route 6 in somerset. i recall looking at a similar car years ago that seems to fit this description. the car had bucket seats at the time and the interior was pretty trashed then. might be the same car. mike

I'm not sure where this car came from Mike, right now the interior is out, but the seats are in excellent shape. It is going to need a rug, door panels are not the greatest, the headliner does not look overly bad, and the dash is decent. I wish it was a tach dash but it is not. I ended up buying the car. Hopefully the market will not crash and the cars will hold their value. I think if I take my time and do most of the work myself, I can keep the car in the 20k range. For a restored SS that is not bad money. The motor is done, I will need a fender the doors close nice and solid, I have a dent in the quarter that will have to be pulled. I definetly have my work cut out. When I get the car, I will take some pics and post them. Do you ever make it to Seekonk? They have a good show out there on Sunday nights. Usually a couple hundred cars.

good score,
the thing to me is that they are not making these cars any more. it seems as if you did pretty good. what town did you purchase this car in? the one i'm thinking about was at a gas station in somerset across from the stop and shop on route 6. it was a shade of orange or red and a mechanic who worked there owned it and had rebuilt the engine. i remember it had an old edelbrock torker/tarantula type intake on it. also was a 4 speed. the car was a dirty mess but had some great potential. i think the fender you need might still be available thru GM. i generally don't get down to seekonk. this year once I get the house squared away I plan on redoing the suspension and running 4.11 or 3.73 gears. 4.88's are too much for long drives. i have been to that shown and know it is a good one. hopefully i can catch up to ya once i get my crap together. good luck with your new ride. mike

I hope I did ok, the way that I look at it, is that I feel the prices will only go up. I bought it about 15-20 min away from Somerset, it is possible it could be the same car. The seats look to be in excellent shape, so they could have been recently recovered. I'm not sure, but I think it has an offenhauser manifold on it. I think it had ladder bars on it at one time also, looked like a bracket welded under there. It's gonna be a slow project, thats for sure. It would be great if I could find a build sheet somewhere. Where was a common place there were put on 69's? The car is an Alanta built car. If you do ever go to Sam's, give me a shout first so we can hook up. Do they still do the one at the star drive in near you?

Congrats on the buy! Sounds like a fun project.
Any pics?

No pics yet, I am getting the car tomorrow night. I will post some pics when I get the car home and everything

i missed what you sail about his representing the car as a L78? if he does, can he prove it? i'm not sure if that would show up on the vin tag, i don't think so. i own a 69 and the vin only shows 2 door sport coupe. does he have the interior for the car? my bench seat had a partial build sheet under it. might be worth looking. i go along with the eailer post, give him a low ball offer. good luck...

I did buy the car, and i don't think he has the original bench seat anymore. There are a set of buckets with it. He never tried to say it was an L78 car, it was just me thinking it might be, because of the lack of options. Do you know where else they may have put the build sheet? The car is an atlanta built car....Thanks.....Tom

Got the car delivered tonight, was so worried about getting it in the garage I forgot to take some pics. I will roll the car out on Sat and take some. Anyone got any ideas of where to look for a build sheet. It is an Atlanta built car, 69 SS

hi tom,
i would check under the bottom cushion of the back seat first. some other places are in the door panels, under the dash, on top of the gas tank. i can't say specifically as i have a baltimore car and haven't found a build sheet. it must be the same car. i think you did good and would not sweat it. i looked it over about 4 years ago when he wasn't interested in selling it. sorry to say the star no longer has the cruise even though it has been renovated. still held at the berkely vfw and not as nice. once i'm up and runnin hope to run into you. mike

I looked under the bottome seat, as the only thing in the interior is the drivers seat, headliner, and dash. It has a wood wheel, that has seen better days, it also has a tilt column that I had not noticed. Both buckets and rear seats are in excellent condition. The specs on the motor are 10.25:1 pistons, 427/425hp rect port heads. I also have the cam specs written down upstairs. I think if there is a build sheet, the only place I might find it would be either under the dash, or above the gas tank. I have no doubts it is a real SS, it just would have been cool if it were a 375 horse car. I found an old registration, the guys name was karl and he was from fall river. I bet it was the car you looked at. It was definetly red at some point. I got an extra set of heads, they are shrink wrapped, but they look to be oval ports (probably the original heads from the motor in the car) Supposedly the motor and tranny came from a 69 396 chevelle. They are supposed to have the same vin on them. Someday when I pull the motor I will have to check the vin. Where were they stamped in 69? Above the oil filter? I'm going to take some pics tomorrow.

i believe he owned that car for quite a few years. i think he mentioned that he also had a vette.

Yes, from what I understand he did own it for years. I don't know, but I guess either his wife or girlfriend smashed all the glass in the car, I'm wondering if that is where one of the dents in the rear quarter came from. All the glass has been replaced with the exception of the drivers glass, I need to get one of those. I don't know if he was getting divorced or anything, but the guy I bought the car from said the guy was very upset about parting with the car. I know the guy I bought it from made some money on the deal. I don't know how much. I just have to keep all receipts on what I spend on the car.

Mike, here is a pic of the car. The other side is the worst, I need a pass fender on that side, I'm not sure how to downsize these, so I can't fill my showroom to much....Tom

http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/tireburner396/69chevelledriverssiderear.jpg

hi tom,
that sure looks like the car. once you said the name carl the more i thought about it the more it came back to me. that car just sat at that gas station for years. i mean off to the side and not out back. i might have even spoke to him twice. i might be going back 12-15 years. each time he didn't mind talking about the car but seemed to have no real interest in selling. I actually ran the codes many years ago and believed it was a ss 396 non matching numbers. i remember the interior needing almost everything. i also remember something funky about the intake. even back then he said he had rebuilt the motor but it didn't look as it had fresh gaskets and all the other tell tale signs of being freshened. but i don't ever remember going by the station and the car not being there. i remember the quarters being real solid though. not that i went by there all the time(maybe 10-12 times a year). i think you did real well by picking this up. i happen to get real excited about NO option musclecars built for 1 purpose. i think it would make an awesome L-78 or L-89 clone. if the heads are 840 you could pick up a stock 3933163 hi rise and have a couple of good pieces. I wish you the best of luck with this project. what pieces do you need? let me know and i will keep my eyes out for you. good luck mike

about the numbers, the alternator should be on the passenger side of the engine. look behind it. you might have to clean off some grease or paint. look where the cylinder head meets the block. there should be a small flat spot with some numbers and letters on it. the last 5 or 6 digits should match the last 5 or 6 on your vin. mike

Mike, that is where I found the JA code, but there was no vin stamped there. I had heard that they sometimes stamp them down near the oil filter? I have some pics of the motor, I will try to post that. I also got some paperwork with the car that says the short block was rebuilt at a cost of $900. Not sure when it was done. It also said $700 for 427 rect port heads. I will have to pull a valve cover to get the casting #'s

Tom,

Yes, very common to find the VIN stamp on the rough cast surface just above the oil filter mounting boss. That's where mine is stamped. Congrats on the purchase, looks like a fairly solid car.

Thanks Bill, I hope it looks half as good as yours when it is finished!!!!!!