1979 or 1980?

The VIN on my vette says its a 1979, L48. About 30K in a 52k run. However, everthing on this car says its a 1980. It has the 1980 front and rear body style. It has a 85 mph speedo with a L82 tach. The L82 emblem is on the sides. I replaced the exhaust and it too is 1980. What gives? Anybody ever seen this before? The paint matches the code inside the door and as far as I can tell it's the original paint.

|UPDATED|10/3/2004 7:31:56 PM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

What is your VIN?
What does the emission tag say under the hood?
It should say somewhere in the last couple line that "this vehicle is in compliance with 1979 or 1980 emission standards." What is the build date on the drivers door sticker? Does the front and rear end and side vents look like mine in the sig pic?
Sarge

The label on the drivers side door should have the date of manufacture.My 78 was built Nov 77.
Steve

Looks like yours. Identical except red and different wheels.1z8789s430946. No door sticker, just the paint and trim code. Where under hood would emmisions sticker be?

Relayer44 said: Where under hood would emmisions sticker be?

Under the hood....literally
Sarge

According to your VIN, your car is an L-48 car. Someone may have added the L-82 tach and emblems. Are the L-82 emblems located just about the side fender vents? And do they look similar to the lettering style of the "corvette" on the rear bumper?

|UPDATED|10/1/2004 7:17:09 PM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

You say you replaced the exhaust. Did the pipe(single?) go through a hole in the trans. crossmember or under a "hump"? Under the hump would be 80. Sounds like too many 1980 items on your Vette. You may not WANT to find out what the real story is with the car. Check the VIN on the motor. On the frame.
I see a lot of ebay 78/79s with the 80 style front and rear with no explanation. Probably collision repair or maybe just updated by a previous owner.
85 mph speedo would be possible with the VIN you state, but unlikely til a little later production. My 79 was built in the last 3 weeks of production and it has the 85 mph speedo. But why the L82 tach?
How many storage compartments behind the seats? 80 has 2,was phased in late,late 79.But again my late 79 has the 3.
Is the rear differential housing and crossmember aluminum(80) or cast iron and steel(79)?
Some of the color codes for 79 and 80 are the same but 79 red is code 72, 80 red is code 83.
Mike

|UPDATED|10/1/2004 9:32:17 PM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

While you mentioned the hole in the cross member,it got me to thinking my 78 has true dual exhaust,no Cat,and it passes through 2 holes in the cross member.whenever I look at catalogs for 78 exhaust systems,they all have only 1 hole in the cross member,whats up with that ?

'78s all had two holes in the frame. It wasn't until later ('79 or '80) that was changed and only one hole was there for the exhaust to run through.

My 79 is an early car...regular 140 mph speedometer, 3 storange compartments, 2 hols n the crossmember yada yada...

In 1980 The Corvette went on a diet and many cast iron parts (brackets etc) were made with aluminum... If you still have not figured out the correct year etc.you may want to just
take some steel wool and rub on the bracket that holds your power steering pump etc..or another hard to see bracket..if you find that the black comes off and you can shine it like a piece of chrome..then your car just may be an 80...nobody is going to go as far as install different brackets to creat a fake 80...

I am at the Corvette Weekend at Ocean City Md so I am not at home (and as luck would have it it is raining)..So I can not check the vin on my 79 nor look for the tags under the hood etc... (driving mr "rain" Corvette (95) ..lol)

Bob Griffiths

Relayer and I were IM'ing each other last night. And we came to the conclusion that he has an '80 L-48 car. His rear differential is an all aluminum "batwing" structure that holds it in and is unique to the 80-82 vettes. The transmission crossmember has 1 hump on the passenger side. And the exhaust system crosses over to the passenger side unlike the previous sharks w/2 holes for the exhaust to pass through.
Now we need to see a pic of his ride!
Sarge