Paint tag and VIN plate removal?

[Zithlord]

My 71S chassis went off to JansCarfactory yesterday for a partial resto. It will be taken down to bare metal externally, but I will try to keep most of the original undercoating, and just touch up the spots with surface rust(There is very little rust on the car). Its presently red, but will be brought back to Albert Blue. The suspension will be blasted and powder coated. The engine is in my garage and will have the original MFI mounted back on. All the common oil leak spots will have new gaskets/seals and most of the bolts and washers are new. The dash, seats and vinyl plate under the rear window will be restored to.

My question is; what do I tell the guys at the shop when it comes to the paint tag and VIN plate? Do they remove them and rivet them back on? Or leave them and mask them out? I would like to have them removed for the paint job, but I am afraid that someone at a later point in time will think the car has been tampered with.

Thanks to Bobby for selling me the car and Eric for helping me with the MFI.

John

[Alan.uk]

Hi John,

Masking them will never be as good as removing them. You will get a much cleaner paint finish and then re-fit them after.

HTH

Alan

[j911brick]

I would probably leave it the original color. Getting the VIN plate off is easy since it is just held on with pop rivets. The paint tag is a little more difficult. I forget how I did it but on my 914 I was able to get it off intact with the rivets. On the last 911 I did I used a dremel and ground the heads of the rivets off and used a pin punch to push the remainder through. I ordered a new plate and rivets so I can reflect the new paint code. I also thought that you might be able to zap the head of the rivet with a mig welder and pull the rivet out, or drill a hole on the back side to push the rivets out and then just plug or fill the hole.

[Zithlord]

Thanks guys, I will have them removed, and document the whole process with pictures. The shop will put them back as accurate as possible.

John