Acid etch Vin recovery.

[Brandan]

I was looking over the site and found a technique of recovering the vin number from the engine block using acid etching.  Has anyone tried this and how did it come out?  What did you use and were you able to recover some of the data?


http://www.camaros.org/public/acidetch.txt

Brandan-

[ccargo]

I've tried it on an 03D 69 L35/M20 with limited results. It went from nothing to a scant impression of TO313JB if you look at it in the right light and hold your breath Luckily this time frame of production at Norwood included the partial VIN at the rough casting near the oil filter. Make sure you have good ventilation and you most likely will have to repeat the process a couple times. This decking was very light to begin with.

[Jerry@CHP]

Has never worked for us.  I have also had a friend FBI agent and secret service agent investigate this and 98% of the time it does not work.  Wish I had better news to report. 

Jerry

[Brandan]

will post here what the results are.........

you never know but I have my doubts

[KurtS]

If it is lightly decked, it can work. I know of at least three people who contacted us and said that it went from nothing to something visible. It's not magic, it is a known metallurgical process. But it's gonna be closer to Pat's results than a crystal clear stamp, that's for sure.

[Brandan]

going to try it next week sometime, i will post the results either way.  I don't think that I am going to have great results due to the way it was decked.  but none the less I will post something. 

fingers crossed!!!

[68 Ragtop]

Make sure you do it correctly. The first attempt is supposed to yield the best result.
I remember reading about the technique and some important things are surface finish (polished), apply battery current to the area, use the proper acid solution, and have a camera ready to capture any image.
Do a thorough web search for more information, most of it will be on gun serial number recovery for crime labs.

[Brandan]

hey thanks...will attempt to recover the data after the holidays...