At the risk of reigniting either the rivets or TAC debates:
In a lot of circumstances, removal of the VIN plate is illegal. However,
it's hard to do a strip-and-dip body restoration without either removing the
VIN plate or watching it dissolve in the caustic bath. Then, having done a
better-than-new body finish, a lot of people are loath to rivet the grubby
old plate back on, and hence there is a demand for reproduction VIN plates
for legitimate purposes.
Danger signs:
-a new VIN plate on an otherwise unrestored car
-VIN and JAL plates that don't agree with each other (that doesn't mean they
have the same number... They should match the build records)
-a VIN that doesn't match the car series or the chassis configuration.
Example: A late mk1A VIN on a round-corner or transition body.
-non-original rivets on an otherwise unrestored car
Caution signs:
-Non-original rivets on the VIN plate on a restored car. This is pretty
common - how else are you going to remove and reinstall the VIN plate?
Still, in this case, it's worth making sure that everything else about the
car shows signs of always having been with the car.
-Original rivets on a restored car where the VIN plate obviously was removed
and reinstalled or replaced. The correct rivets are very hard to come by for
legal reasons. Ask questions when in doubt. Again, everything else on the
car should "belong".
Authenticated Tigers, under the program administered by STOA, have passed
the close scrutiny by three Tiger inspectors who have been trained in
Sunbeam and Jensen factory methods. If they don't all agree on the car's
provenance, it doesn't get a sticker. If the car you're looking at has a TAC
certificate, you can be confident that it's the real thing. Barring that,
bring along someone that has a lot of experience with Tigers when looking to
buy one whose history is in question.
Best regards,
Theo
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-tigers@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-tigers@autox.team.net] On
Behalf Of RMEbstein@aol.com
Sent: January 20, 2005 3:39 PM
To: chris@cthompson.net; tigers@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: VIN Data Plate on eBay
It is heresy and blasphemy to do such a thing with my Brand X car. It's
just not done, unless there's some cataclysmic event that destroys the VIN
tag and not the rest of the car.
Rodney
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