Frame Stamping

[Easy Mike]

I read an interesting article in Corvette Quarterly about the use of a pneumatic hammer to stamp the VIN into Sting Ray and Shark frames. A couple of years ago, I attended Dave Burrough's seminar at Bloomington concerning production at the St. Louis plant. Dave said by the time he was visiting the plant and documenting production (78-82) engines, transmissions, and frames were being stamped by hand by an employee on the line using a hand-held tool and a two pound hammer. Does anyone know when use of the pneumatic tool was discontinued and they reverted to hand stamping?

[JohnZ]

See my article on page 52-56 of the current (August) issue of "Corvette Enthusiast" magazine on frame stamping at St. Louis - tells and shows everything you'd ever want to know about Corvette frame stamping. Hand-stamping, which was a repair operation, was only used when the pneumatic stamping tool broke down.

[Easy Mike]

My mistake on the magazine title (too many Corvette subscriptions over the years). I read and enjoyed your article. Thanks for the information. Personally, I would much rather read an article of this nature and learn something about Corvette production/history than I would three or four pages covering someone's tubbed out and blown '63.

[JohnZ]

That's part of what I do as Vintage Technical Editor - I write a full technical article each month either on restoration/maintenance or on the original production processes, and I write a "Tech Bench" column which answers one reader's problem question each month. I leave the C4-5-6 and modified articles to others.

[C5rider]

And he does an excellent job at it too! If I might say so myself!

Andy Bolig

[Easy Mike]

Originally Posted by C5rider

And he does an excellent job at it too! If I might say so myself!

Andy Bolig

[early shark]

Amen to that! I really enjoy Johns articles too!

[gq82]

John is a great resource both here and on the NCRS board. I always read his posts and learn something new almost every time.

Thanks John.