Restamped Hipo Distributor

[BGlover67]

I recently picked up a FoMOCo Hipo distributor off of eBay. I thought I got a pretty good deal paying $575 for it, considering it's been fully restored. I'm posting it here so hopefully members of this Forum can learn something, just as I have in the last 48 hours.

When I showed this part to a well known expert on this Forum, he tactfully explain to me that it was actually a restamped distributor. Talk about a let down. I'm still trying to wrap my head around why somebody would go through so much trouble to make so little money on it. I had noticed that The 'C5OF' marking looked unusual, but I figured it was just a funky stamping from the factory. What I should have noticed, but didn't, is the date code. I have two other hypo distributors which display the correct date code. That is a number for the year, followed by a letter for the month, with the third character being either in A, B, C or D. This of course corresponds with the week of the month that the item was manufactured it.

This distributor has a date code of 6A28, and I can only assume it must have been a more common 1965 date code, which had been transformed into a more desirable 1966 date.

I'm hoping that other people on this forum can be enlightened by this, and not be fooled as I have been. In all fairness, it still is a hypo distributor, but it's just not what the seller claimed it was.  Is this a common practice?  The seller claims it was restored years ago, before he purchased it.  He still claims it is correct, and I have asked for eBay to refund my money.

[TJinSA]

I cannot attest to how common this is encountered, but the stamping characteristics are... something I would have a hard time understanding just how they filled the original stamping...

Was the original so faint , buffing obscured them?  Did they use one of the low temp alloy rods to fill original stamping (I'd  wonder if an acid swipe would reveal the different material reactions)?  IF original. Definitely an outlier of any stamping I've had experience with

[Sfm6sxxx]

If you bought it from a guy in York PA that has the handle Sunshine302 or Grabber302 or theblue302, you can be pretty sure you got scammed.  He mainly faked Boss 302 parts, but branched out to 289 Hipo.

[Sfm6sxxx]

If you bought it from a guy in York PA that has the handle Sunshine302 or Grabber302 or theblue302, you can be pretty sure you got scammed.  He mainly faked Boss 302 parts, but branched out to 289 Hipo.

I looked up the ad and sure enough you were stung by Michael Gehley from York, PA.  You will never get him to admit that he restamped it or have any remorse.  The good news is you didn't get stung for a fake Boss distributor that is much more expensive.  He also fakes Boss snorkels and timing pointers.

[Greg]

Thanks for the education Brian, I am however sorry you got took.  I hope it works out for you.

[Sfm6sxxx]

If you do a search on the name Gehley on the Boss site, you will see no less than 10 posts going back to 2011 where he is discussed.  I also forgot about the restamped  Boss 302 & 428 Carter X fuel pumps he was creating.

[Coralsnake]

Unfortunately very common with distributors

[BGlover67]

If you bought it from a guy in York PA that has the handle Sunshine302 or Grabber302 or theblue302, you can be pretty sure you got scammed.  He mainly faked Boss 302 parts, but branched out to 289 Hipo.

Ha!  Sunshine 302.  He still swears that it's legit.  He also tried to sell me a 3939S Carter X fuel pump claiming that all '65 Hipo pumps were without button tops. 

[Shelby_r_b]

What a jerk. Sorry Brian!

[Dizzy]

He has been doing that for years. Put a hold on payment ASAP and file claim thru Ebay. Be sure to jump through all the "hoops" to get you money back. Good luck! Ebay has become a whorehouse

[1690]

I agree, tell PayPal ASAP. They will start an invest and freeze his account.

[pmustang]

In my experience you should be able to return it without argument and his account will be hit for the amount maybe even before it gets back to him. Ebay/paypal sides with the buyer almost 100%. Sellers have to rights as far as I am concerned which in your case is perfect. Hope you get sorted. Sorry this happened.

I buy a fair amount of used parts and get bent over. Recently bought "an excellent car" paint falling off the rear haunches (yes, falling off) and a completely dead cyl. Piston looked like it tumbled the length of the Delaware rivers meeting a grinder and vice on its travels

[gt350hr]

   Brian,
       What you have is (IMHO and personal experience)  a "partial" restamp. Over the years several FoMoCo casting HiPo distributors have been found with a C8OF part number in very narrow stamping. Often they are faint. I personally have seen around ten of them and am not sure how they came about. The "OF" letters look to be those thin stamps and all of the others are "added" by "someone" LOL . Pookie either gets them from this douchebag or copies his work. If not for this anomaly there would be no reason to restamp a FoMoCo casting as it would already have the C5OF stamping unless it was an early '67 with the C7ZF stamp and FoMoCo casting. I would file a claim with epay.
    Randy

[Bobby Crumpley]

I can certainly see this happening with some distributors as well as other parts.  While some have clear stamping that would be very difficult to alter, others, such as the one in the photo, have a very faint part number prefix. 

[TJinSA]

The red flags for me were the front and overlapping numerals...^^^^ that first pic is.... WOW!