[Michael Kilduff]

Junior,

I will add to what Chuck has written. It isn't possible to soley use the VIN to determine a real COPO, unless the engine is in or with the car and even then there are caveats.
I think starting in 1968 Chevrolet stamped the vin either partially or in whole on the block and the transmission on all cars produced in compliance with federal law. So, if you find a 69 camaro with a 427 engine and the vins matched up then it would be reasonable to assume the car is a COPO.

The caveat is that people can restamp blocks and create a fake. And the restampers are getting very accurate with what was factory produced. It is very difficult to ascertain what is real and what is restamped. And, of course, when a block is decked usually the original stamping is removed.

I'm not a first generation camaro expert, but I think these are some things that may be helpful in identifying a 427 COPO camaro.

With the VIN on the dash you ascertain if the car was a V-8 coupe which is essential to a COPO 427. If memory serves correct the third digit in the VIN would be a 4 and the fourth and fifth digits would be 3 and 7. The *4* identifies a 8 cylinder engine and the *37* identifies the body as a coupe. To the best of my knowledge there were no convertible 427 COPO Camaros in 1969. There are also 'hidden' partial VINS on 1969 camaros on the firewall behind the heater box and on the cowl just under the cowl panel.

During production in 1969 the Camaros built at the Norwood plant were given X codes found in the trim tag such as x-11, x-22, x-33, x-44, x-55, x-66, and x-77. cars built in Van Nuys had no X=codes. The early built Norwood cars had no X-codes. The X-codes appeared a few months into 1969 production in Norwood.

Most people think all the COPO 427 Camaros were X-44 and that is not true. There were many X-codes used for COPOs, i think the first COPO 427s were X-66. X-codes may be used to qualify that a car isn't a COPO 427 however. All X-55 1969 camaros were SS-350 for example. But not all SS-350 cars were X-55.

It should be known people are faking trim tags and swapping trim tags around as well to create clones. There is even a company called 'Trim Tags' that make such tags, and unscrupulous Ebay sellers such as 'bucket full of tags' will sell tags that came off of other cars.

A Camaro expert could help someone identify a car as possibly having been an original COPO 427. None of the COPO 427 cars came with AC for example, and all came with the ZL-2 cowl induction hood, all came with big block heater cores. These are easy things to identify, but others are much more difficult such as deciphering specific date codes and assembly dates. In identifying legit breeds of '69 Camaros such as z-28s, SS cars, and probably the 427 cars things like fuel line size, exhaust hanger brackets, sway bar diameter, multileaf rear springs, number of hood hinge coils, etc can help identify if a car is 'real' or not. But all of these things can be bought and applied to a plain jane 6 cylinder car just as well.

About the only way to actually ascertain if a car is a true COPO is to have the documentation supporting it and a chain of ownership if possible. protect-o=plates and reciepts, service records, pics for 1970 etc...

The car that was at B-J this weekend that sold for 137K that was presented as a COPO 427 has a cloud of uncertainy surrounding it that is getting darker. It was presented with GM Canada docs at auction but it is possible that someone could build a COPO around these documents with a donor 69 camaro.

Last year at B-J a certain ZL-1 COPO 69 camaro-number 27 of the original 69 I think- was sold and it is well known that the car is not originally a ZL-1, it is a recreation.

Lots of deception in the collector car market . Restamps and switching VINs runs rampant.