Tank Sticker

[Dean B]

I am looking at a 67 coupe with very low miles (documented) and the owner faxed me a copy of the build sheet on the gas tank and a copy of the Bloomington Gold certificate. It lists the trim, engine type, a/c, rear axle, transmission, tires, radio, and tinted glass. The car also has power steering and side exhaust, but these two items are not on the build sheet. Could this be possible, or are these two items "add ons" by the owner?

 

[KTM]

Dean,

you can buy side exhausta and P/S as kit from many part dealers. I think these are owner installed items in that car. In those papers should be every factory installed option.

KTM

 

[JohnZ]

Dean -

It's easy to tell if the sidepipes are original or not; look inboard and above the pipes along the sill reinforcement, where the "U"-nuts are that the six outer cover screws thread into. There should be a notch about 1/4" deep by 1" long in the short horizontal flange on the body sill reinforcement at each of the six screw locations, and there should be no indication that there were ever six vertical sheet metal "legs" welded to that reinforcement that were the standard attaching supports for the non-sidepipe lower rocker molding screws. If there are no notches, or there is any trace of the six supports, the sidepipes were added after the car was built (St. Louis cut the six notches on factory sidepipe cars for clearance to insert the "U"-nuts on the sill).

Another clue is between the transmission mount and the frame crossmember; non-sidepipe cars had a "U"-shaped bracket there that supported the exhaust pipes with "U"-bolts - factory sidepipe cars just had a 1/8"-thick spacer in that same location, as there were no pipes to support.

Another clue is the holes in the bottom of the trans crossmember on each side for the radio ground straps for the non-sidepipe exhaust cars - cars with factory sidepipes will have the holes, but no threads in them, as they had no straps; if the holes have self-tapping thread impressions in them, that says the car originally had under-car exhaust with ground straps (assuming it has a radio).

There are other clues as well, but these will tell the tale.