Hi Jim,
The first thing you will want to look at is the engine. Find the stamping pad whick is right by the passenger side "arm" of the water pump. You should see something like, T0402QA or QB (T= tonnawanda plant, 0402= when the engine was assembled, in this instance its 04=April 02= second day of the month, QA =380hp, QB= 409hp).
Next set of numbers will be the VIN stamping. It will start with a letter and the rest will be numbers. This SHOULD match the last part of the VIN in the driver side door jamb. But if it doesn't then it could still be a 409 car but with a replacement engine.
Also make sure it has a 3/8" fuel line. It should be routed under the upper control arm on the passenger side. Look closely at how the line is secured. There should be a clip under the upper control arm. It will be rivited to the outside of the spring pocket. Only the 409 cars had this clip because those cars were the only ones that had the fuel line in there. If someone put in the line to clone the car, chances are they didn't put in this clip. Its hard to get to and hard to do right.
It should of course have a 3/8" sender in the fuel tank.
It should have a ballast resitor on the firewall.
If the car still has its original bushings in the suspension, go arround back and look at the bushings in the lower, rear control arms. There should be some little triangular cut outs on the outter flange. Those marks indicated a heavy duty bushing. Small block cars don't have them. I have an original 63 409 car and it has these bushings. Fellow members, please correct me on this if I am wrong.
62 409 cars will not have powerglides, or factory air conditioning. No 340hp engines either. They CAN have 3 speed transmissions.
Please post your findings! There is lots of good information here. All you have to do is ask! Good Luck!!!
Ross
