Importance of pan vin number

[kingkarmann]

I have had to show the inspectors both VIN locations. They had no idea where to look.
Personally I wouldn't sweat it.
That being said I wouldn't recommend trying to restore or alter the pan VIN under any circumstances.
In the off chance of someone even knowing or deciding to look at the VIN, if it looks like it was tampered it would definitely set off more alarm bells than simply having an illegible VIN due to weathering.
That would be much more easy to explain.
_________________
"Depression is a malfunction of the instrument we use to determine reality.”

Mike Gerson

What is your "Bespoke Reality"?

[Pruneman99]

The only time I had to do a VIN check an older gentleman inspector came out with a young female that was in training. They make you leave the car, but I was still in earshot of the inspectors. He explained that the VW's were a bit different than the "normal" cars. He told her not even to check the VIN tags in the front. He was telling her the only one that matters is under the rear seat.

Then he had her go into the car, lift the seat, and read off the VIN.

This was in SoCal, so it's plausible they get more VW's than rust belt states.

Some inspectors still know what they are doing.

I would not buy, or put money into a VW with illegible pan VIN unless it had a sate assigned VIN attached to the door jamb, and proper paperwork.

[oprn]

Just to update my VIN issue, the original problem was that the VIN number that is on my bill of sale and that the car was originally registered and insured under does not appear anywhere on the car that I can find. This is an 8 digit number staring with "B...". It is a Manx copy so there is a VIN number on the pan in the usual place starting with 1122... which identifies the donor car as a September 1971 Standard Beetle.

My concern was that sometime in the future I may get stopped by an officer of the law and the mismatching VIN numbers would be called into question and complications would arise.

Option 1 was to got to the registry office and do a title search on the 1122... number to see what the status is on the original car. Written off? Stolen? The lady in there was filling in for the normal registry person and had no clue what I was trying to accomplish or how to go about it. She could not find either of the VIN numbers because the were both less than 17 digits! She suggested going on line to Carfax, pay the $65 because there is more info there than she could give me. Carfax also does not accept VIN numbers less than 17 digits as well it turns out! Even putting zeros in for the missing numbers did not work.

Option 2 then was to go to the local police and ask them. I was a bit concerned that red flags would be raised, fingers pointed, hard question asked and the car towed and impounded until resolved. No officer was available to answer my questions so off home to stew over it and await a call. Will I need to quickly strip this car and give them a bare pan with the original VIN and look for a new pan? No time for that now!

My fears were totally unfounded! An officer called, I explained the situation of the two VIN numbers, he totally understood where I was coming from and what I wanted to accomplish. A few minutes on his end revealed that the car had been registered at different times under both VIN numbers. Where the "B... " number came from we have no idea. Perhaps it was a Special Construction VIN number assigned to it? He confirmed that neither VIN number showed up as salvage or stolen. He ran a check on the fellow I bought the car from - nothing of note there.

I then told him I wanted to stamp the VIN on a plate and pop rivet it to the dash in the normal place they are found today. He had no issue with that at all. I asked him which VIN number I should use and he told me it did not matter as both were valid as far as he was concerned. He gave me a police file number to give to anyone who had concerns in the future. He has photos from me in it of the original bill of sale, the pan VIN number, the car and a copy of our conversation on the issue.

All this was resolved over the phone at no charge! Sweet!
_________________
We had the stone age, the bronze age, the industrial age and now we are in the age of mass deception and mind control for corporate profit. (The mass media age)

[Pruneman99]

I guess Canada and the US do it a bit different. Here the police will affix a new VIN.

The DMV here also get a weird with the short VINs. Usually an older person will know how to handle it. Or, I've needed to tell them they need to look it up in their PHYSICAL book, not the computer.

The books are there somewhere, usually under a thick layer of dust!

As long as the VINs don't come back stolen, the DMV/police/registration office don't care. I've fixed a title with a simple "VIN Correction" form, and a VIN check.

[HarrysRatBug]

I'd do it legal as possible before spending any more money on it. Pete the CEO of Airkewld posted a story on their Facebook page about buying a bus and then got it confiscated. He'd done all due diligence, checked all numbers against title etc. Even bought it from a retired cop. Turned out it was stolen decades ago and had legally changed hands at least a couple times but Arizona don't play. He said he'd update his story as it happens!

[GArBa]

[oprn]

[GArBa]

Yes, got that. What I was proposing is that the number may have physically existed at some point in the past. Brazil in the '70s and '80s had many small to medium scale companies manufacturing (and exporting) fiberglass bodied cars, including manx "clones" such as the Bugre or the Glaspac, on locally sourced VW pans. It is thus IMHO reasonable to theorize that the "B" number existed when the papers were first issued and the car was then at some point re-panned with the "112" one.
_________________
cars:
'97 type 1 1600i
'14 type AA Seat Mii (sadly dead after 270.000 km)
'22 type C1 T-Cross
'23 type AC3 Hyundai I10 (VW no longer makes small cars!)
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moped:
'82 Benelli Magnum 3v

[Abscate]

Every state/province has different rules and culture on VINS. French is still the best.

In NY, a user made VIN plate would start a real hassle. Mere possession of a loose VIN plate is a crime.

One big factor in all this decision tree is if you just want to run it or are thinking resale. I’m at a life stage where I won’t resell anything for need anymore so I don’t care about salvage or rebuilt titles on anything
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.ssS!

[oprn]

[GArBa]

Pretty much all world bugs except US and Canada spec cars remained swing axle all along. E.g. in Europe IRS was available on super beetles only.
_________________
cars:
'97 type 1 1600i
'14 type AA Seat Mii (sadly dead after 270.000 km)
'22 type C1 T-Cross
'23 type AC3 Hyundai I10 (VW no longer makes small cars!)
-------------------------
moped:
'82 Benelli Magnum 3v

[YDBD]

Our '69 buggy sits on a '56 pan and has three VINs. In the 70's my dad was pulled over for his headlights shaking too much, was told he had to get a SPCN VIN from the DMV in California. So he did, it's an aluminum plate pop riveted to the tunnel where your foot rests next to the accelerator wheel, it's mostly rubbed off but I restamped the numbers years ago and it's now covered with carpet. So that's two, the original one for the '56 and the CADMV for SPCN.

When I shipped it to Okinawa, even with the CADMV title and registration the vehicle inspection officer insisted on stamping a new number for Japanese registration on the pan, below the original '56 pan VIN. It took him over an hour and a 2 Kg hammer to bang the number in and I think it also flattened his stamp set-that tunnel is hard metal!

Now that I'm in Germany, had both CADMV and Japanese registrations, the German office used the CADMV number as the VIN for current registration.

It's been and still is a fun ride with inspections and registrations!
_________________
'56 pan Dune Buggy since '69
don't live in the past...but when I did:
'67 bug
'64 baja
'60 dune buggy
'73 Personenkraftwagen Type 182 "Thing"

[oprn]

[oprn]

[YDBD]

I believe in most areas registration varies from state to state, and country to country. Both in Germany and Japan vehicles undergo a safety inspection (JCI or Tüv) and the VIN is physically looked at to match the registration. Most people despise the inspections, probably because they think their car should be safe just because it drives. I know of two cars that were failed and probably prevented an accident-one had faulty rear A arm bushings and the other a leaking brake line. Japan's inspections were more difficult and frivolous (you got out of the car to measure headlight height) and Germany is a lot of common sense and you frequently drive very fast-though not in the buggy-it's very uncomfortable over 120kph.
_________________
'56 pan Dune Buggy since '69
don't live in the past...but when I did:
'67 bug
'64 baja
'60 dune buggy
'73 Personenkraftwagen Type 182 "Thing"

[modok]

I have seen cars with official looking vin plates riveted on.
It may vary by state, but they must have some way to handle it if somebody grinds off the number.

My buddy had a bug with four different vin numbers.

has anybody achieved five?

[oprn]

I was talking to a neighbor yesterday who has 3 on his Dodge truck. The police suggested he should get rid of two of them to save confusion.
_________________
We had the stone age, the bronze age, the industrial age and now we are in the age of mass deception and mind control for corporate profit. (The mass media age)