I just got a 1971 442. I verified the vin on 442.com as a factory 442 out of Lansing. However, I am trying to confirm it actually came as a W30. Any suggestions how? Pics to follow. Thank you.

 

There are numerous ways to prove it is a W-30 & many to prove it is not.


For example if the car has an automatic trans it will be a T400. That T400 should be coded OW. If the partial vin on the trans matched the vin for the car then you are home free.

 

Unfortunately, short of a build sheet, Fisher Body broadcast card, or original window sticker and sales documents, this is the only way to prove that a 1971 car is a W-30. Anything else that makes the car a W-30 can be bolted on, and it's safe to say that there are many more "W-30s" today than when these cars were new. Even the OW tags are being reproduced, so unless the OW tag looks as old as the car, I wouldn't trust it, either. The manual trans did not have a W-30 unique designator like the AT, so even a matching VIN derivative on one of those doesn't prove anything.

 

so, basically, if the '71 442 has all the right parts, and none of the wrong parts, and you say that it is a W30, then that's what it is.

 

Huh?...since when?

 

I would have taken the meaning as even if it had all the right parts without the documentation and/or some other kind of provenance that there is no concrete way to confirm it is a w-30, and the premium that would normally be charged for such a car MIGHT be up for negotiation? ... I think about a thread in one of the other forums where the guy is 95% sure the car is a w-30, but decided to remove some parts that were clearly w-30, and sell the remainder as "just" a 442 rather than pass it as a w-30 car without documents.

The times we live in.. we go to that whole "rebodying" issue, cars have become so high priced that some nefarious folks have made a cottage industry of providing the "stuff" to make clones, tributes or as others say fakes.