Chassis number?

NUT161 · tinkerer Joined: 30 Dec 2001 Posts: 225

i recently bought a te panelvan and the chassis number isnt where it is supposed to be?? ive looked all around the engine bay and i cant find it, ive sanded back in front of the radiator to chack if it was under the paint and it isnt there, plus all the id plates are in a funny arrangement on the front of the engine bay. there are no signs of welding anywhere and the plates look to be where they where originally so does anyone know if pannos had an alternate place for the chassis number?? the id plate also has a weight figure on it which i have never seen on a gem as they are always blank.

thanks,
danny

Ben Wight · backyard mechanic Joined: 04 Oct 2001 Posts: 946

all goods carrying vehicles should have a GVM on the compliance plate, as this is the total legal weight of the loaded vehicle.

Sorry, dont know about the VIN.

Ben

Poida · Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2003 12:02 pm Post subject: Re: Chassis number?

You will probably find you have a van thats had a new radiator support panel welded on at some stage due to crash damage destroying the original one. The original panel will have been spot welded at the factory. Look carefully at the points where it joins the other panels to see if it has been hand welded on.

I also have a TE sedan with the same issue and the original chassis ID number was cut out of the original radiator support panel and fixed to the replacement one with two screws.

I call this particular car "the Pretender" as it can be any car it likes!!

But seriously, you should have that original serial number as proof of identity. May cause some problems if the original number is not there somewhere. At some stage one would expect the car to have been inspected and this should have come to their attention. You may not be able to get this car registered if all identifing marks are not there.

Check to see all the aluminium tags relate to the car. If you are not sure how to identify each tag for originality let me know and I'll explain how each one corresponds.
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NUT161 · tinkerer Joined: 30 Dec 2001 Posts: 225

the plates all correspond, and i cant see any "home welds" anywhere plus the section in front of the radiator has absolutly no signs of ever having a number after i took it back to bare metal. i think im just gonna buy some stamps or an engraver and ut it there myself.

thanks,
danny

CuGem · backyard mechanic Joined: 07 Oct 2001 Posts: 599

CuGem once had an accident where the radiator panel was replaced. Back then the panel shop didn't stamp the new one because it wasn't a big issue. You almost certainly have a car that has been in a similar situation. You only have a problem on sale of the vehicle or reregistering it and from experience you DO NOT want to take it in for inspection etc before stamping it yourself (as I did). Does it still have the owners manual?

Cheers

Frederick Stienheld · petrol head Joined: 05 Sep 2002 Posts: 2719

yeah my mate took his in and it had the front replaced from an accident and no number... the police/DOT took his car for a couple of weeks thinking it was stolen but couldnt track it to anything stolen so gave it a new chassis number and gave it back to him

spud · petrol head Joined: 05 Apr 2002 Posts: 1106

things arent looking good for me then

CuGem · backyard mechanic Joined: 07 Oct 2001 Posts: 599

You'll just have to get a surrogate VIN issued by the coppers. Should only take a couple of hours...

spud · petrol head Joined: 05 Apr 2002 Posts: 1106

yeah i found out all about that. but it is a lot if dicking round

CrAzY · backyard mechanic Joined: 02 Apr 2003 Posts: 634

lol a couple of hours i was told by the dept. of transport that they confiscate the car, and go over it with a fine tooth brush for anythin with a serial number and then they have to decide where the car came from and decide if its stolen or not, then they will issue a new chassie number, i looked into this cos i was looking at a sedan that was perfect, no rust, but no id plates at all, its alot of fucking round, so instead i bought a coupe from spud, u should have kept her spud, the plates are all there!

Poida · Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2003 12:31 am Post subject: Re: Chassis number?

OK then

I'm pretty well 100% sure it has had a replacement panel welded in at some stage from what you describe.

FIRST thing.... DO NOT stamp in a number yourself! That's leaving yourself wide open to allegations. At inspection and when you register they are likely to notice the stamps are not original. If that happens they will want to know who stamped the new number in.

If the car has no number stamped in it's not all bad news. Before they can act they need to prove it is a stolen car. Who in their right mind would want to doctor up a car thats 20+ years old? The money is in duping new cars. Whats the maximum someone can expect back from a TE Gemini?? NOT $30,000 or more like a newish Commodore... so logic says it's not going to be a big deal. If you bought it of the gang of 14 year olds down the road you might need to worry a little.

As long as the tags and the engine number correspond to the car as per rego records it's pretty easy to suggest to them it has had a replacement front panel at some stage. It is highly likely that a car such as a Gemini could suffer damage to the radiator support panel in even a low speed frontal accident. Given that fact it is also reasonable to expect a number of these cars to have altered front panels fitted. If the Rego dudes or Police don't cop that story, tell them to chase records from GMH as to the number of such panels they have sold through their own spare parts outlets in the past.

These panels are no longer available but the sales figures should still be on record.

If you have changed the engine since it was last recorded with rego office, you may need to provide proof of the old engine (drag it along in the trailer if you have it) to speed things up. I assume you know some of the cars history. I'm hoping the person you purchased it from was the previous registered owner. You do have some old rego papers don't you??

Just don't go stamping ID numbers in yourself. That may end you in court if something goes wrong.

I can't imagine that the car will be confiscated. The only numbers of interest are the engine number, chassis number (VIN) and the series of numbers on the aluminium tags. There are no other useful identifying serial numbers on a Gemini. All these numbers are clearly visible at the time they note the missing chassis number.

Let us know how you go.
_________________
I try to tackle one day at a time, but often several days attack me at once.

(The views I present are my own and NOT necessarily of the administrators or other members of this site.)