The VIN on my vette says its a 1979, L48. About 30K in a 52k run. However, everthing on this car says its a 1980. It has the 1980 front and rear body style. It has a 85 mph speedo with a L82 tach. The L82 emblem is on the sides. I replaced the exhaust and it too is 1980. What gives? Anybody ever seen this before? The paint matches the code inside the door and as far as I can tell it's the original paint.

|UPDATED|10/3/2004 7:31:56 PM (AZT)|/UPDATED|


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What is your VIN?
What does the emission tag say under the hood?
It should say somewhere in the last couple line that "this vehicle is in compliance with 1979 or 1980 emission standards." What is the build date on the drivers door sticker? Does the front and rear end and side vents look like mine in the sig pic?
Sarge

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GEN III 5.7L "LS6" Engine swap
TKO500 5 spd.

The label on the drivers side door should have the date of manufacture.My 78 was built Nov 77.
Steve

Looks like yours. Identical except red and different wheels.1z8789s430946. No door sticker, just the paint and trim code. Where under hood would emmisions sticker be?

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Relayer44 said: Where under hood would emmisions sticker be?

Under the hood....literally
Sarge

According to your VIN, your car is an L-48 car. Someone may have added the L-82 tach and emblems. Are the L-82 emblems located just about the side fender vents? And do they look similar to the lettering style of the "corvette" on the rear bumper?

|UPDATED|10/1/2004 7:17:09 PM (AZT)|/UPDATED|


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GEN III 5.7L "LS6" Engine swap
TKO500 5 spd.

You say you replaced the exhaust. Did the pipe(single?) go through a hole in the trans. crossmember or under a "hump"? Under the hump would be 80. Sounds like too many 1980 items on your Vette. You may not WANT to find out what the real story is with the car. Check the VIN on the motor. On the frame.
I see a lot of ebay 78/79s with the 80 style front and rear with no explanation. Probably collision repair or maybe just updated by a previous owner.
85 mph speedo would be possible with the VIN you state, but unlikely til a little later production. My 79 was built in the last 3 weeks of production and it has the 85 mph speedo. But why the L82 tach?
How many storage compartments behind the seats? 80 has 2,was phased in late,late 79.But again my late 79 has the 3.
Is the rear differential housing and crossmember aluminum(80) or cast iron and steel(79)?
Some of the color codes for 79 and 80 are the same but 79 red is code 72, 80 red is code 83.
Mike

|UPDATED|10/1/2004 9:32:17 PM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

While you mentioned the hole in the cross member,it got me to thinking my 78 has true dual exhaust,no Cat,and it passes through 2 holes in the cross member.whenever I look at catalogs for 78 exhaust systems,they all have only 1 hole in the cross member,whats up with that ?

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C3VR Lifetime Member #93

'78s all had two holes in the frame. It wasn't until later ('79 or '80) that was changed and only one hole was there for the exhaust to run through.

My 79 is an early car...regular 140 mph speedometer, 3 storange compartments, 2 hols n the crossmember yada yada...

In 1980 The Corvette went on a diet and many cast iron parts (brackets etc) were made with aluminum... If you still have not figured out the correct year etc.you may want to just
take some steel wool and rub on the bracket that holds your power steering pump etc..or another hard to see bracket..if you find that the black comes off and you can shine it like a piece of chrome..then your car just may be an 80...nobody is going to go as far as install different brackets to creat a fake 80...

I am at the Corvette Weekend at Ocean City Md so I am not at home (and as luck would have it it is raining)..So I can not check the vin on my 79 nor look for the tags under the hood etc... (driving mr "rain" Corvette (95) ..lol)

Bob Griffiths

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Bob
64,72 & 98 Corvette Ragtops
76 & 79 & qa 88 ANC Corvette Coupes

Click on any image for larger view!

Relayer and I were IM'ing each other last night. And we came to the conclusion that he has an '80 L-48 car. His rear differential is an all aluminum "batwing" structure that holds it in and is unique to the 80-82 vettes. The transmission crossmember has 1 hump on the passenger side. And the exhaust system crosses over to the passenger side unlike the previous sharks w/2 holes for the exhaust to pass through.
Now we need to see a pic of his ride!
Sarge

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GEN III 5.7L "LS6" Engine swap
TKO500 5 spd.

But what's up with the 79 VIN?
Mike

Good question Mike.
Maybe it's stolen, and they put a '79 VIN tag on an '80 vette. lol
I'm not sure. But after Relayer described the rear diff.(looks like a bridge structure)and it's all aluminum. And he had to return a '79 dual exhaust system for the '80 system. And the body (nose, tail, side vents) is identical to mine. I doubt that someone went through all the trouble to change the frame, nose, tail, tach and add '80 style L82 emblems.
Sarge

|UPDATED|10/2/2004 5:13:17 PM (AZT)|/UPDATED|


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GEN III 5.7L "LS6" Engine swap
TKO500 5 spd.

Hi,
Maybe running the VIN through Carfax would shed some light on this mystery?
Cheers,
Tom

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Just tried that.
It tells me '81 to present. Go figure.
Anyone else want to take a guess?
Thanks for the idea Tom.
Sarge

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GEN III 5.7L "LS6" Engine swap
TKO500 5 spd.

Did he get that VIN off the Vette itself or from the title? Did he just buy it recently? Maybe got the wrong title. Or quite possibly someone DID put a 79 VIN plate on it.
Mike

Where on the frame is the VIN located. Mike is probably right saying I realy don't want to know. Bought it locally from a gut who owned it for 10 years and only put 5k miles on it. I don't think he was tuned in to the 79/80 stuff.

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Is the VIN you stated above from the windshield pillar?The number on the frame is on the side of the drivers side rearmost rail near the power antenna. That according to the shop manual for 79. Not sure tho, never needed to find it. But I know it is very hard to see with the body on. Some years I think it is more in the wheel opening. I'm sure someone will chime in.
Original motor? Check that number, little easier to see. Down at the front of the engine BLOCK kind of below the AC compressor on the passenger side on a flat spot. Facing up. Just forward of the head. There is also a number on the pass. side of the transmisson.If you find a number in either of those places, check to see if that's an 80 VIN if it doesen't match what you have. You definitely have an 80. Hope everything is OK with it.
Mike

Some other clues to look for:

According to the corvette black book 85MPH speedo's were phased in late 79. Your Vin is 30946

80 only auto transmissions were made. I didn't see what trans your car has.

Engine block codes: 79 and 80 used 3970010 however, late 79's also used 14016379

Engine suffix codes were unique in each year.
79 ZAA ZAB ZAC ZAD ZBA ZBB
80 ZAK ZAM ZBC ZBD ZCA


http://www.1vehicleidentificationnumber.com/chevrolet_engine_numbers.html

Rear end codes were also unique to each year
79 OM OH OJ
80 DANA

My two cents is if all this other stuff on your car points to an 80, something happened with the vin tag.

Is the build sheet still on the tank? This will nail it for you totally if it is readable.

I'd be looking for a number on the frame! Something isn't jiving here!

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I hate to bring this up...

but I keep thinking that an 80 with a 79 VIN sounds like a stolen 80 with a junkyard vin..

I would bet good money that your engine, trans, and frame numbers have been ground off..

I believe the 80 L82 valve covers were also different. The L82 were finned black with the tips sanded to look silver.

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My 1979 L82 has black valve covers with the ribs silver
on the top... They were on the car when I purchased in in 1987 but I believe them to be original..

Bob G.

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Bob
64,72 & 98 Corvette Ragtops
76 & 79 & qa 88 ANC Corvette Coupes

Click on any image for larger view!

What is the code on your trim tag? This should be a letter followed by 2 numbers after the CHEVROLET stamped at the top of the trim tag.

The car with your VIN was produced on April 12, 1979 so your stamped dates on the Trim tag should be capital letter I, (represents April build date), followed by 2 numbers, (build day of the month), probably between 09 and 12, as the date on the trim tag is actually the date that the body was painted and at this point the body was not yet mated to the frame. The trim tag was installed with 2 aluminum pop rivets and if they show any sign of damage it would indicate removal from another vehicle.