Help with 'funny' VIN

[911s911rs]

It seems odd to fake a car with a number outside the generally accepted range

My thoughts exactly Nick. And if someone is faking these things, and his fake is good enough to fool the experts, he would know enough to get the number right. Right?

Any way to pull the dash without removing the glass? You guys make it sound like it takes 20 minutes! I am going to pull off the knee pad and try that stamped number, the Porsche crayon will have to wait.

[JCR]

Unless you don't mind destroying your dash, removing it will require pulling the windshield, replacement of the rubber seal, potential of bending the aluminum channel trim beyond re-usability, and a "while you're in there - might as well get new glass" temptation. Totaling about $400 and a lot of swearing in the process (ask ME how I know).

If someone went to the unlikely trouble of changing the stamped factory production number behind the knee pad - I'm sure the wax numbers would be changed as well - or gone altogether. They should get you to the next step (and hopefully a happy ending). Keep us posted.

[sithot]

Unless you don't mind destroying your dash, removing it will require pulling the windshield, replacement of the rubber seal, potential of bending the aluminum channel trim beyond re-usability, and a "while you're in there - might as well get new glass" temptation. Totaling about $400 and a lot of swearing in the process (ask ME how I know).

But it's so much fun!!!


Tom

[andyjboy]

The 3 numbers on my '69E (the only one I've checked) are all different!

The VIN is 119 20 0812

The dash crayon number is 1092826:



& the stamped production number is 1092823:



Anybody else compared all three on the same car ?

[JCR]

So much for no factory mistakes... looks like those numbers were done after a "double dunkel weitzen" lunch. Mine has a temporary goof - Gunther wrote a 6 and corrected to the proper 4.

My wax and stamped match - vin isn't supposed to match.
Here they are:

[911s911rs]

So much for no factory mistakes... looks like those numbers were done after a "double dunkel weitzen" lunch

Exactly my point.

What's more likely, a mistake at the factory 35 years ago (two of which are now documented here) or some mad genius going out and perfectly replicating all three VIN plates with out of sequence VIN numbers?

[pwd72s]

My thoughts exactly Nick. And if someone is faking these things, and his fake is good enough to fool the experts, he would know enough to get the number right. Right?

Any way to pull the dash without removing the glass? You guys make it sound like it takes 20 minutes! I am going to pull off the knee pad and try that stamped number, the Porsche crayon will have to wait.

I agree. So, we have a mystery here.

[sithot]

I don't want to beat my "Frog" bodyshop story but fwiw and without going to the archives to pull it out here's the story again.
A fellow I know went to France to look at an RS. When he arrived he took note of the "numbers" (dash, underhood, crayon number).
He called the factory and they told him that numbers didn't match. They did not tell him what the crayon dash marking should be, only that it did not match.
He confronted the Frogs and they told him the serial numbers were cut out of a totalled RS and welded into the body of a 911T (which is ironic). They saw no problem with the process. Once finished they intended to move all the parts from the wreck to the "new" RS.

Buyer beware.

Tom

[JCR]

So... the crooks didn't know enough to switch the dash stamped numbers too? Faking the crayon numbers would probably take about 10 minutes, and many are no longer there as a result of full body restoration.

I know there are other "secret" ways to tell an original RS... probably best not to discuss here after reading THAT story. I hope to have one someday... after the next bubble bursts!

[911s911rs]

Yeah, I have thought about that possibility.

I think the argument against such a forgery is simple: this car has a good clean title with this VIN going back to 1988. If anybody was going to fake a car in the 1980's or earlier, it would probably not have been a 1969 S. Think about what an early unrestored S was worth twenty years ago. Why go to the trouble??

Furthermore, what would someone like andyjboy say to the French RS story? He calls the factory, gives them all the numbers and they say

Nein! Nein! Nein! We do not make mishtakes!

Well, clearly they do.

My finger is still pointed firmly at the factory, and, so far, it seems justified...

Maybe a poll