Does anybody from Texas remember this green '69 427 coupe?

[SolidLifters]

I've had this car since the '80s and would still like to know the history and solve a mystery or 2.

The car was originally Fathom Green with Saddle leather, speed warning and turbo 400. When I bought it it was painted a dark burgundy color, had the big block hood gone, along with the wiper door and a one piece hood like came on the '73's. It was running with a smallblock. Title history showed it coming from Texas, and I chased it as far as a used car lot there, but they weren't much help. I did all this over 20 yrs ago.

Here're the screwy parts. It has NO build sheet, but rather the tank had a shipping label on it to some address in Arkansas. Why would an undamaged '69 Corvette have had a tank replacement long enough by mid 80's that it was already nasty enough to look original to the car except for the label? I think it was a Chevy dealer's shipping address, but can't remember for sure. The engine plaque on the console showed 427/400 HP, BUT........... something didn't add up. It had transistor ignition. Sure, that COULD HAVE been ordered on a 400, but of course would have been mandatory on SHP or HD engines. ALSO it had the 6500 RPM redline on the tach which would NOT have been installed on a 400 AND ALSO the high shift point turbo 400 (YC if my memory serves) that is serial numbered to the car. It also has a 3.36 HD rear, which according to the books was only availble with the 435's and L88's and the casting date on it falls in line with other numbers on the car, and based on the dirt and grime underneath at the time I bought it, I don't think it had ever been out of the car.

So, where'd it come from, what was it, who's was it, and why was it wearing a 400 HP badge on the console. Somebody, somewhere MUST remember this car.

 

[SolidLifters]

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[Toms007]

Quite an interesting dilemma. Hopefully someone out there can shed some light on it for you.

 

[Vettehead Mikey]

I've been going through my books trying to figure out an explanation but so far :confused

 

[SolidLifters]

I don't think there's much explanation to be found in the books. The only REAL part that doesn't fit is the 400HP plaque on the console. Since the rear end, tach and transmission define it as 435HP or L88 assuming they haven't been altered or changed, and I'm absolutely positive the transmission is original to the car because of the serial number, combined with the nastyness and the fact that it would be impossible to believe that somebody would have gone to the trouble to restamp a VIN number in a transmission for a car that had a small block replacing the original big block, and then go find a correctly dated HD rear to go with the whole thing. I'm thinking the console tag is either the result of a production line mistake which seems unlikely and probably would have been corrected by the selling dealer OR more probably someone trying to fool someone, like a kid fooling dad or somebody fooling an insurance agent.

What I'd REALLY like to know is if the car was a factory L89 car. After owning other L89's (2 other documented ones presently, also owned since '80s) my experience has been that the L89's tend to be more uniquely optioned. With this car having speed warning and leather, yet NO side exhaust looks like somebody's special order rather than just dealer inventory.

I hoped in the beginning that it could have been one of the L88's with turbo 400 in '69, but the fact that there're no components on the car indicating J56 brakes and the antenna hole in the rear deck looks factory cut instead of hand drilled I don't think that's a possibility. With the L88 off the table, the transmission and rear define it absolutely as a 435, it just becomes a question of which one.

 

[SVO]

Does the car have a brass or aluminum radiator? Does the car have a brass or aluminum expansion tank? Brass = 400/427, aluminum = 435/427. No expansion tank and brass radiator = 400/427 with a/c.

 

[SolidLifters]

Does the car have a brass or aluminum radiator? Does the car have a brass or aluminum expansion tank? Brass = 400/427, aluminum = 435/427. No expansion tank and brass radiator = 400/427 with a/c.

I'm familiar with the radiators/core supports and expansion tanks. Of my 5 '69's, one is an L88 that was new here originally and was at Earthquake '88 in Bloomington in 1988 and one of only 2 of the '69 L88's in attendance that year to be judged (96+%) also 2 NCRS Top Flights and PV, L88/M22, so alum. radiator of course. Another is an original engine L89, Bloomington Gold in 1989 & multiple NCRS Top Flight, another, a very documented locally bought new L89 with the original block gone, also a 427/400 4 sp. with factory air, and the Green turbo 400 car that this thread is about.

Back to the Green car here, it has the brass radiator. ALL big block/automatic cars had brass radiators, whether 390, 400, 435, or 430. I'd guess that the 69 smallblock auto cars had brass also for the trans cooler, but just guessin' since I've never been interested in the SB '69s.

I've owned 5 or 6 other 69's over the years and don't recall the expansion tank configurations outside of my L88 and L89's. I would have thought that my '69 400 horse A/C 4 speed car had a brass expansion tank if I was gonna' guess, but don't remember for sure off the top of my head since I haven't taken it apart and it's basically just been in the back of my warehouse untouched and collecting dust for about 20 yrs and not being SHP or HD isn't particularly high on my interest list. I will try to remember to look at it tomorrow. It too was sold new by the local Chevy dealer and is well documented and unmodified.

Details really interest me on these old cars, but unfortunately my memory fades as years past and I can't remember some of the details. Still enjoy the discussions though.

I'm really hopin' that somebody somewhere will have some memory of this particular car.

 

[SolidLifters]

Just checked and the 69 400 hp factory air 4 speed does in fact have the brass tank just as I thought.

 

[geopar]

'69 cp.

What year did you buy it?
Where?
Are you positive that it never had sidepipes?
I may know this car.
G.

 

[SolidLifters]

What year did you buy it?
Where?
Are you positive that it never had sidepipes?
I may know this car.
G.

I bought it in about 1986 or 1987. I'll go look again, but I'm fairly certain it wasn't a side exhaust car (based on my poor memory). It's bare glass now and the rocker mouldings are off the car, so it'd be easy to tell. The taped on shipping label on the gas tank shows a dealer in Arkansas, so it at least had some work done on it there. The tank was dirty enough to have been in the car for a long time when I got it in the '80's, so it's been part of the mystery as to why a car that new that was undamaged would have required a gas tank replacement already.