russo and steel chop job camaro copo

[JayR]

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If you have proof (GM of Canada) like this car had that your car was a real COPO you could get a cert. with out it being inspected.. aleast thats what Ive always been told. Maybe other can Chime in??

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I believe far too much reliance is placed on GM Canada documentation in proving a car 'is what it is.' Up until, the mid 90's, part of the documentation package included the 'vehicles shipped' microfiche which showed your car in it's build sequence with up to 50 others. I have one of these sheets with 15 L79 Chevy IIs on it! Every detail is shown including the VIN, engine suffix code, options, color, even the key codes. The chances of more than a couple of these L79's still existing is remote.

To prove how easy it is to replicate one of these cars, I guy I know took a VIN from one of the L79's on the sheet and sent it to GM Canada for documentation, which they did. He then bought a six cylinder Chevy II in the U.S. and started to build a car exactly to the specs on the documentation. Having proved his point about how easy it would be to build a phoney documented Canadian L79, he changed a number of things so the car couldn't become 'what it isn't' in the future. It also maintains it's U.S. VIN and cowl tag. The bottom line is, GM Canada documented cars can be built from the info on these microfiche copies. There are untold numbers of these sheets still out there with all kinds of rare cars on them. Bottom line, just because a car has GM Canada documentation doesn't mean it's real.

Bob