[Eh, let's speak English when we're visiting our friends from the United Kingdom of non-edible foods!!
]
The surest way, in my opinion, to know whether this car was an R/T from day one, is to sand the paint on both the R/T hood and the car shell (inside floor under the carpet for example) and find the base coat is the same color. This works only if the hood and car were never completely sanded down to bare metal for a paint job in the past.
Having torque boxes is a good indicator, but there are examples of having torque boxes on just about anything that came out of the factory (see ScottSmith's post
here) :
I have personally seen factory installed torque boxes on every E-body combo the factory built. I'm sure not all of them were intentional, chalked up as factory mistakes etc. (example /6 hard top with TB's) but it happened.
So, not a sure thing. Torque boxes would look like this :
http://www.cuda-challenger.com/cc/index ... ic=62778.0I would look the car over for any kind of collision damage repair or evidence of a rebody, because the Kentucky-issued VIN looks like a big flashing red light to me...
What could possibly be a legit motive for a VIN reissue, apart from some kind of scam, or a car that was totalled, rebodied with an innocent slant-6 plain Chally and reinspected prior to getting a new VIN ??
I would check under the seats and in the usual places for a build sheet just to make sure (if it's a rebody, there are few chances both cars would be LA-plant, so one might be Hamtramck-made)
Ape, you can find the VIN pad on the engine block on the lower passenger side, just at the junction with the oil pan.
See there :
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h269/ ... 1920_1.jpgWhat you reported earlier are foundry markings, not stampings.
With both you will know the original VIN Number of the car it was in, and the date of the engine production.
You can also check to see if there's a door decal under the paint which would look like this :
http://www.totallyautoinc.com/nashbridg ... B%2013.jpgAnd now, a little bit of French for us froggies :
Ape, tu es dans quel coin de France?
De quel couleur est ta voiture?