Thanks Derek,
This secondary number on top of the crossmember may be a good starting point
for those TR6 owners who have concerns about the authenticity of the
commission, body or engine numbers of their cars. I wouldn't be surprised
if this secondary commission (VIN) number was a requirement for cars to be
sold in the US.
Rex
----- Original Message -----
From: "Derek Graham" <Derek.Graham@ukgateway.net>
To: "Rex Townsend" <rrt@connectexpress.com>
Cc: "6pack@autox.net" <6pack@autox.team.net>
Sent: Wednesday, April 03, 2002 11:09 PM
Subject: RE: commission numbers
> Rex,
> You are absolutely correct. A lot of TR6 had the number stamped by the
> factory onto the top of the chassis front crossmember on the carburettor
> side of the car. The cars which had this carried out were noted on the
> factory build records and included CC/CF spec. sixes exported to US
> servicemen based in Europe, LHD cars exported to certain countries such as
> Switzerland and CKD kits sent to Belgium for assembly at the Mallines
> factory. Unfortunately for the cars affected as far as I know this isn't
> noted on the Heritage Certificates issued by the BMIHT. I have however
seen
> a number of cars with the numbers in this place and which are quite
visible
> even on the injection cars.
> Hope that this helps.
> Derek Graham
> CP54529-O
>
>
> ----Original Message-----
> From: owner-6pack@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-6pack@autox.team.net]On
> Behalf Of Rex Townsend
> Sent: 04 April 2002 07:26
> To: 6 Pack
> Subject: commission numbers
>
> I would be willing to bet that somewhere on a TR6 the commission number
> (VIN) is stamped in some not-so-obvious location. Almost all cars have
> their VIN numbers in a secondary location as well as the public location,
> including older British cars. Way back in the late 1970's, I was working
in
> a bank in Phoenix, and we had a customer (I can't remember his name!) who
> was a retired former head of the Arizona DOT. He was a car buff and had
an
> incredible knowledge of car identifying numbers and their locations on all
> sorts of cars. He was hired by the Barrett-Jackson and the Kruse auctions
> to authenticate the cars that were being offered at the big classic car
> auctions to make sure that the paperwork matched the numbers on the cars.
> Quite often he resorted to locating secondary numbers when something
looked
> amiss. I remember that he said that even Model A Fords had a secondary
> number stamped on top of a frame rail. Well, anyway, about that time I
> found a '63 Austin-Healey that I wanted to buy, but the car was sort of a
> junkyard dog and I was a little suspect of its authenticity. I asked the
> former DOT guy if perhaps Healeys had a secondary number stamped
somewhere.
> He said, "Of course" and told me to carefully clean the weld at the top of
> the RF suspension tower and that I would find the commission number
stamped
> into the weld with the numbers spaced very far apart. He was right! I
> would never have noticed it if I hadn't known to look there, but the
number
> was definitely stamped into the weld and I wound up buying the car.
Anyway,
> he said that there were books with all that information in them but they
> were very tightly controlled, and that (at least in those days) only a few
> people in his department had access to that information. But, anyway,
that
> experience leads me to believe that if we could find someone who either
was
> a higher-up in a DMV office somewhere or who authenticated cars for one of
> the big car auctions that they could tell us where secondary numbers are
> located on TR6s. Once you know the correct VIN (commission number) then
> the British Heritage Trust can supply you with all the rest of the
numbers.
>
> Rex Townsend
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