You’ve found it: a numbers-matching 1966 Chevelle SS 396, the car that made muscle-car legends and the one you’ve been chasing for years. There’s just one problem. A documented, original SS 396 can command tens of thousands of dollars more than an identical-looking Chevelle Malibu hiding a small-block under the hood, and that price gap has turned clone-building into a decades-old cottage industry. Somebody with a die stamp, a donor 396, and a few weekends of shop time can turn a modest Malibu into a badge-and-stripe “SS 396” — and unless you know exactly where to look, you’ll hand over a five-figure premium for a car that isn’t what the seller says it is. The good news is that the tells are there if you know what you’re looking at: stamped numbers in places clone-builders routinely forget, fuel line diameters that don’t lie, and factory details that are nearly impossible to fake all at once. This guide walks through what a recent deep-dive video gets right about spotting the difference, backs it up with the car’s federal recall history, and gives you the exact spots to check before you put down a deposit.