Took the car to my mechanic who is going to rebuild the engine and transmission completely from the ground up. Here are some pic’s
You can see the casting date of the engine – 10/28/68 – which would make it a correct date for the car, plus the casting number is the correct number for this model car. I wont know if this is a number matching engine and tranny until I can inspect the vin that was stamped onto it.
On a side note….In the last week I’ve won a correct Intake Manifold – Cast number 2806178 with date cast 1-31-68, plus the correct two Exhaust Manifolds – Cast number 2843992 with cast date 11-15-67 and cast number 2806900 with date cast 4-11-67 on EBAY. I also just started bidding on the correct carburetor – Model 4618S….As you can tell, those parts were not correct on the engine when I received the car. Just figured out that the front seats are not correct either, different vinyl pattern plus this car came out of the factory with no headrests, they were not federally mandated to have headrests until the middle of 1970 and this car had no headrest option on the buildsheet nor the fender tag.
Also the front seat upholstery has been changed sometime during its history
The correct one looks like the rear seats:
The correct design is 6 individually pleated rectangles in the cushion and the seatback. The inserts were covered in Ascot grain while the skirts were done in Coachman grain, in red of course. For some reason the past owners somewhere along the line put new front seats in, the rear look original.