KLASSIK1

saint i dont know about that , but thanks , i dont have all the lower line codes but i know some of them , working on a 70 1/2 z28 and z28 is on the lower line , also canadian cars will have all the rpo codes on the bottom line Evil Saint Leo

not exactly true , the bottom line are plant codes , some folks have knowledge of these codes , for example the letter L on Kansas built cars designates big block , i am currently working on a 72 for a customer on the firewall 553 is written by a line worker that is also on the bottom line of the trim tag and ids the transmission used , most of the lower line codes are a mystery but believe me they did have a meaning as each plant had a different method , on mid sixties cars w2lr means a 4 speed , i have figured out some of the codes from having so many cars to look at Leo

well i do believe we have something here , to my understanding all 454Chevelles built at Kansas City had the letter L , now i have seen at least 5 71ss montes that have that L = 454 , now does anyone have a small block Kansas car with the letter L the ones i have here do not , leading me to believe that this means 454 engine installed = ss454 , if so i would add this to the 454 tech info section but i want to be sure Leo

would you please look and see if the letter L is on the lower bottom of the cowl trim tag , it is my belief that all 71SS cars built at Kansas city will have this on the cowl tag , i have 2 but was not able to confirm this with anyone else thanks Leo

Jared i have never had any luck selling dented pieces , i just have a ton of these from a liftime of collecting most of my dented trim goes to the scrapper to build Toyotas Leo

thats a tough question , i will sell a dent free hand picked set for 150.00 , now depending on the piece and how much work it needs is the question you can spend 150.00 real quick getting mouldings straightened , now if the piece is rare i would say have it done but at this time i dont feel the vinyl top pieces are rare Leo

you know Sam what i like about you , well there are a lot of reasons i like you to many to list , but whenever i have a question you are one of the first i turn to , been there done it kind of guy Leo

Steve well said i agree 100% , thanks Vaughn and Pete , i was working on these cars as far back as the summer of 77 and have seen a lot of truely unrestored cars and there are a few still left,way before faking a car was even considered so i know a real car when i see one build sheet or not , but it has become a great document to find, also remember if your us built car was sold in Canada you can get build info from gm of Canada Leo

Greg is right , a 350 will last years BUT gm did build the 400 for a reason it was a HEAVY DUTY trans and i do run them behind my big blocks that is my preferance , but the 350 is not a junk trans and neither is the powerglide , most trans failures i have had have been due to poor rebuild workmanship or lack of maintenance Leo

when i was young i used to get rollin about 30 in reverse and drop it into drive good clean fun only grenaded 1 350 turbo but it was actually the tailshaft that came off , the 350 is a bolt in replacement for the powerglide commonly used in the 60's , what about a 375 turbo most never even heard of it but it did exist Leo

monte god thanks Steve , dont get me wrong i was joking more than serious , as i stated i have seen them and can tell original equipment from modified , i have been collecting montes for 29 years i have 4 montes here with lh sport mirror and have only seen a couple over this period that had the rh sport mirror Leo

that or i am a liar Leo

ive seen them and even held them in my hand , they have a base that only fits a monte door so i had a pair in my hands and both gaskets read monte carlo Leo

the sport mirrors were listed as an option in 71 but i have never seen on , i have 2 71ss cars with build sheets listing dual sport mirrors but they were never on the cars , my 2 cents is they were planned to have them but they ran into a production issue and were not available in 71 even when ordered , and yes they were used on the 72 custom so there are some out there , note also i have 2 72 customs without the rh mirror so all customs did not have both mirrors Leo

i believe the seat belt warning was the option , or possible a late year addition as a safety gaget , in 1974 they actually made it impossible to start your car without buckling up in some gm cars i had a 74 monte equipped that way Leo

plastic large gm style was used on all 3 years . like Bills picture , in 70-71 you could get the stainless deluxe , in 72 the seat belt warning system style used a small diecast metal this was in cars equipped with a seat belt light in the dash Leo

Sam , i promised myself for the past 5 years i would go to the track , but since i dont have enough brains to take a weekend off , i have no time slip , but i would be glad to run you side by side this year at Lapeer with my itty bitty trailor King ( no queens here ) want to rent the track for a day ???????? takers????????? Leo

how about you guys give Nate a good welcome as new Moderator , he will be an asset to this club , there will be many more frequent changes and additions to the SS454 tech forum ,if you have additions that you do not see or ideas to make it better just give Nate an email , also Nate will be working on a build sheet database , this position as Moderator also requires technical expertise and time to keep tech up to date and current and Nate is the guy that can do it !! Leo

each assembly plant was its own world and still is today , they can build the same car or sister models in different plants using the same parts and completly different assemble process ,that being said anything goes , i have parted several hundred montes impalas chevelles and other gm products over the last 30 years, i have seen several different locations for vin numbers the impala has a vin under the sill plate drivers side , to this point i have not seen a vin on any monte frame but i have on chevelles ??? as ozzy would say everyone is looking for answers dont ask me i dont know Leo

i have 1 70SS non air and 2 71SS non air cars but i did look for them and bought them because of this , i am one of those die hard no accessories guys the more MUSCLE the better 90% of my collection is non air manual steering cars,much harder to find a Monte without air than a mid sixties chevelle or nova ,impala but there were still plenty of non air Montes Leo

there are a couple shots under the tech info ss454 id section Leo

i no longer own the 71 ss from Canada it was recently sold but it did have z20 on the cowl tag there is a picture on the ss id page under canadian built cars , i have not seen another mentioned here but over the years have talked to 2 other folks with canadian ss cars only 147 built in 71 very rare , and as far as the 72 gm models all motor info is in the vin small or big block , to bad this practice was not started in 1962 Leo

well seems shipping info is not all that bad , the documentation i spoke of above was from gm about 4 years ago it lists a column with a header stating ( serial number options and extra equipment ) listed are the following: 1 monte carlo coupe 2 special paint 3 positraction axle 4 engine block heater 5 300-hp turbo-fire 350 6 4-speed transmission 7 dual exhaust system 8 power steering 9 G78x15 belted white st 10 heavy duty battery 11 specail instrumentation 12 am push button radio 13 rear seat speaker 14 rally wheels 15 blue cloth interior it contains a ton of other info and tells a lot about the car , now maybe there are no build sheets left at gm or this document came from gm a lot longer ago than i was believe , but if this is the same info PHS has it seems better than a build sheet Leo

George i purchased a 70 350 4spd from a fellow club member now moved on , it has the factory protecto plate numbers motor and trans rear etc , with it came the retail order form with all ordered options , 3732.30 new ordered 11-10-69 now heres is the neat part , the owner worked for gm this was about 4 years ago , he was able to obtain a copy of a document with options like an invoice with all options listed plus rail delivery info etc , so there are still documents at gm to this day and i believe lots of them Leo

no George please dont get me wrong sorry i post the way i do , i come across better in person , i just like a debate i guess, i just feel sort of bad that i told the owner of the 71 ss car that i would not discuss or post about his car until he was sure and came forth himself , now his car has been the topic of a debate, i tried to call him and to this date he has not called me back or returned my emails so i feel like i may have insulted him even though i did not start this post , and i feel bad as it is not the car you own but the person that owns the car that makes it specail ,that being said George i assure you that i can pick up from your posts that you are extremly knowledgable and i enjoy reading your opinions and please keep them coming , believe me i love a documented car build sheet , protecto plate , dealer invoice , car from Canada as much as any other collector , i just want to make sure we do not jump to hastily on this car not being real , or at least the build sheet if it is a fake or tampered build sheet is is by far the best example i have ever seen and i would question the originality of any build sheet , and George what have you heard about these gm records being released and when as this would be in my opinion the most earth shaking event to slam this hobby in years and i welcome it , as bad as the ss cars i parted were i would have saved them if there were any possible way to authenticate them other than my word sincerely Leo