Chevelle Restoration and Authenticity Guide 1970-1972. Dale McIntosh
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of the frame decal that the author has personally only ever found on the driver-side rear axle hump. The decal has always been inverted likely due to the frame being assembled upside down. These are often obliterated by road grime or are missing altogether. If still in place, it should read XU for coupe, XV for convertible, and XX for El Camino, at least for 1970.
After a good cleaning and scraping, photograph every part of the frame and its bolt-on parts for component placement, damage, brake and fuel-line placement, the location of specific clamps, cracks, inspection marks, and stampings, just to name a few. Do an initial inspection and photograph it. Do it again when it is fully disassembled for areas that may have been missed. Not all frames were assembled the same throughout the seven different plants, so if you are reasonably sure that your frame has been unmolested, document its assembly, especially motor mount-to-frame bolt orientation, crossmember-to-frame bolt orientation, the different types of clamps used on the brake and fuel lines, etc.
With regard to VIN stampings on the frame, keep in mind, these VIN stamps were put there by assembly workers. It was a general practice and a federal mandate that they all be stamped, but for reasons unknown, not all plants or line workers did what they were supposed to. Most plants stamped the frames with VIN numbers (some at least three times), while other plants, such as the Kansas City Leeds plant, rarely did, at least not in 1970.
It is a good idea to start a separate file within your car’s main restoration file and call it something like “Frame and Chassis Components” so that you can easily track all the facts and progression of the restoration. If you are doing a concours restoration and the condition allows for it, make sure to document any component parts that have decals still attached and the type of finish that particular component may have had.
Authentication
You will also want to carefully clean and document the frame part number, assembly date stamp, manufacturing code, and VIN (if found). The VIN can usually be found on a variety of places on the rear half of the frame and usually on the top side. You may not find any, or you may find as many as three stamps. When originally stamped, they were very faint even when new; after almost 50 years of weathering, they can be difficult to find. Some plants did not follow the mandate of stamping the frame with a VIN.
Decals (such as the frame prefix code, coil spring, shock, power steering gear, rear axle, and many others) should be documented for future replacement. The color and part number on the decal and location should also be noted. This is also a good time to do a preliminary documentation of the colored-paint inspection marks commonly found throughout the front suspension and rear differential components. These are vitally important to replicate on a highly valuable collector car to bring the degree of the restoration to a higher level. A more in-depth documentation can be done during the individual-parts-cleaning process as well, which will be covered later in the reassembly part of this chapter.
You will always find the manufacturer’s information on the driver-side rear framerail aft of the rear tire. This information provides the manufacturer (in this case Parish for Parish Pressed Steel), the part number 3960733 (a coupe), the date code (4 14 70 or April 14, 1970), and the shift (in this example, second shift).
This particular Atlanta Chevelle had the frame stamped with its VIN in three different locations. One was in the conventional location on the top side of the driver-side rear rail; two additional stamps were on the top side of the passenger-side rear rail. Make sure to look everywhere for the possible VIN stamp, but do not be alarmed if one is not found.
An example of one of the many decals that might still be on your chassis is shown. It may be found with careful disassembly. This particular rear coil spring decal is actually from a 1969 Chevelle for example purposes and denotes code GV and part number 3952817. It can be found under a variety of Chevelles.
Once you have documented everything that you can, very carefully try and remove all of the decals. You will likely not be able to save them, but you can use them later as a reference and replace them with decals that closely resemble the ones you removed and documented. If you are only doing a driver-quality restoration, you may not be concerned with these items, so use your own judgment.
Save all the decals you can from the car and chassis as you find them. This is just a small selection of decals you might find on your Chevelle during your restoration. They can be helpful in replicating them and also confirming and documenting what your car was originally.
Inspection Markings
You may also find many paint or grease pencil markings throughout your chassis and even in places on the body. These were placed there for a variety of reasons. Most of the time, it helped the assembly line pick the part that went on that particular car based on color markings. Other times, the independent supplier marked the items as they were being manufactured or assembled to denote things such as bolts that had been tightened to spec, if heat treating was performed, that machining was completed, the placement of welds, inspections that were done, etc. In a lot of cases, such as front-suspension paint markings, there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to their application, and seldom are any two alike in either color or placement.
Your best bet is to replace what you found exactly as you found it, backing it up with photo documentation of where and how it looked. Restoring one of these cars is much like what an archeologist goes through when unearthing a treasure. The utmost care and patience needs to be used to preserve and document everything that was found to help solidify your car’s roots and provenance.
Just one example of the many paint or grease pencil markings you might find on your Chevelle is shown. These particular yellow paint markings are commonly found on Chevelle 12-bolt differentials as well as others to denote the placement of the pocket welds that held the axle tubes into the center carrier. These were done before the welding took place, evidenced by the burned paint around the weld.
Keep all old parts in a separate tote during the restoration, even if they are not salvageable. There are many small pieces off these components that can be reused if the replacement component parts are not to your liking or don’t fit. You can also use the original parts for comparison to the replacement ones. If you are restoring a car for a customer, let them decide what gets thrown away and what they may want to keep.
Save Those Old Parts
As with most areas of the restoration and with rare exception, save all old parts that you know you will not be using in separate marked bins. This way, you can refer back to them if you are having fitment, function, finish, or design issues with replacement parts. Sometimes comparing the new to the old will solve a problem. Just as importantly, you can sometimes take pieces off your old parts and use them along with the new parts. Even completely unsalvageable parts such as weatherstripping can provide you with little things like the small white push pins if you come up short or they went missing from the new weatherstripping package.
If you are restoring a Chevelle for a customer, it is a good idea to keep all of their parts until the car is ready for delivery, thereby allowing them to make the final decision to throw parts away or to keep them. In the case of a highly valuable collector car, these original parts can also add to the sale and story of the car if or when it comes time to sell it. Broken parts—such as a transmission case or exploded differential housing—can round out the picture in a story of how the transmission came apart just as you slammed second gear while being a car length in front