It only took me three years to get to this point and the thread is very old, but just wanted to comment on it. The car was sold as a JL8 car at the Mecum auction in 2013 for a princely sum of around $114K; it came out of the Buddy Herin collection and even had personalized JL8 plates on it, which Buddy's family kept. I ran across the car in Ft. Worth a couple of years ago at a consignment lot after I'd seen it advertised online. Indeed, it was presented as an original JL8 car with "date correct drive train", and also a rather nebulous story about Jerry M looking at it but not certifying it.
After buying Jerry's book and doing a huge amount of research, I found the following:
- JL8 was only an RPO item from March to July of 1969 and this car was built first week of September. Master cylinder also does not match a JL8 factory installation, but in fact it does have an Oct date code QX (3:73 posi) rear disk brake axle. Not the JL8 option, but actually the stronger (straight tube) HD Service package over-the-counter GM performance part. Coding is the same as a JL8, but JL8 axle tube is tapered whereas the HD axle is not, allowing for bigger bearings. So, Jerry would not certify this as a JL8 car because it simply wasn't one of the 206 JL8-equipped cars.
- I had to pull the engine and to my surprise found the partial VIN (in the rough cast, not so easy to fake) matched the car, and date casting is August 30, well aligned with an early September build. M22 tranny carries the same partial VIN.
- As for a rebody/restamp, this one was not letting me sleep so I just pulled the passenger fender to access the heater cover and cowl to have a look at the body partial VINs - both match the dash VIN with no evidence of cut/weld, as verified by a concourse car restorer.
- Cowl tag looks original, rivets don't look to be faked and all coding matches a Tuxedo Black car with black (vinyl) roof, Norwood X33 car.
- Car has a cross-ram setup, with carbs and winters aluminum intake also date stamped in the same time frame. Not an RPO factory option, but still available as an over-the-counter performance part from the GM dealer.
So, even without Jerry's blessing, I have torn this thing apart looking for any evidence of fakeness and find no reason to believe it's not the real deal, with all date coding between late Aug and early Oct and all VIN's matching. If it's a fake, somebody went to a huge amount of time and effort to make things match, well over the value of the car (which luckily I got for well under what the guy paid at auction).
Just my two-cent's worth...
