[NickeyChevelle]

There's a beautiful Black 1969 Chevelle on my local Craig's List (the car is supposed to be located in a Milwaukee suburb). The lead photo in the advert has been doctored to remove the SS396 fender emblems -- none of the other photos show SS396 fender emblems either (they've been doctored out), The advert says it's not a real SS396 (the advert says the car has a SBC mill).

Anyway, a google image search shows the car was sold at Mecam (in 2015) for 125K and as a real L89 SS396 car with SS396 emblems.

1969 Chevelle - cars & trucks - by owner - vehicle automotive sale (craigslist.org)

1969 Chevrolet Chevelle L89 | S125 | Indy 2015 (mecum.com)

IDK, maybe it's legit, but forewarned is forearmed, eh?

 

[Capt Casey]

Should be mandatory to have the vin numbers in the ads.

 

[MALIB8TR]

Here you go.... VIN 136379A331470

-Joe

 

[NickeyChevelle]

Here you go.... VIN 136379A331470

-Joe View attachment 710701

So if the VIN Joe posted is correct, the "numbers matching" L89 / M-21 (as advertised at mecum) used to be an L35 / TH400. I guess it's actually not even a factory SS396. Somebody got screwed big time.

 

[Shane 69 Hugger]

You would think someone spending $125k would do some better research. I mean, people here figured it out quickly and for free.

Good job once again guys.

 

[69SS454]

That is a beautiful car.

 

[lucifershammer]

My $0.02 - I think they are possibly different cars, and the craigslist seller just "borrowed" a photograph from the Mecum auction of a car that looked just like his.

If they are the same car, at a minimum, the big block has been pulled out and a small block put in place, and the front and rear bumpers have been changed (the ones at Mecum didn't have bumperettes, the one in the Craigslist ad does, and even in the first picture on the Craigslist ad (which is the borrowed one), the front bumperttes are missing.)

Edit: The exhaust where it comes out under the bumper looks different to me as well - the one in the Craiglist ad has what looks like clamp bolts hanging down where the tips are bolted on, the one from Mecum looks to have resonaters and welded tips and tucked up tighter and not sticking as far out from the bumper.)

Or, as the OP said - there is some sort of real scam going on here...

 

[TerryAT]

Im thinking the C/L ad just used the Mecum picture for his cover picture only. Study the red stripes in both ads.. The Mecum car stripes go almost the total length of the car, and the stripe sits just above the side markers. The C/L cars' stripe is much shorter and theres a larger space between the stripe and side marker.
Thanks,...
Barnaby Jones.

 

[Leadhead]

It looks like the seller just "borrowed" the first picture from the Mecum car. The rest of the pictures look like a different car.

 

[NickeyChevelle]

It looks like the seller just "borrowed" the first picture from the Mecum car. The rest of the pictures look like a different car.

So why black out the SS396 emblems on the photos of "car 2?"

He could be having problems with uploading pictures of his real car, or any number of other legtimate possibilities... or not.

The point is watch out when buying, use more than due diligence: you never know what you may be getting into...