International Vintage Volkswagen Forums

Hi
First post but i was wondering if anyone can help a friend has got what looks like a 1958/59 cabro which is in good condition.It has had a resto about 8 years ago where a later floor from a 1966 bug has been used so the car is now on a D plate .Is there anyway of finding out the cars original chassis number as it still has its original number plates which would be nice to have back.The dvla say the original number plate are still registered to the beetle cabro so it belongs with this car.They just need to know its chassis number which we are strugling to find.Anyway its body number is 6693 and the original reg is 843 XJ
Cheers

Any possibility of tracking back through previous owners to find the pan?

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Sadly the previous owner has passed away
would be good to get the car back to its original form
Cheers

Whats the VIN tag at the front say?

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It says 26-44-66
Cheers

Not quite sure what you're trying to do. On a Beetle in the UK, the cars identity is the floorpan - so regardless of the age of the body, the chassis is now a 66 so you'll have a 'D' plate. If you can find the original chassis and swap the body back over then you'd be sorted, but that sounds pretty unlikely. The other option would be if you had the original log book you could try and get hold of a NOS floorpan with no number stamped into it and get it stamped with the number on the logbook, so long as the floorpan is from the original manufacturer and has never been used then it's legal. It's not legal to change the number on your pan, or use a logbook from another car with your '66.

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I know what your saying about the floor all im interested in is finding out the original chassis number as my friend has a nos floor pan without any numbers on it .He wants to find out the original number so he can change the car back to original(standard ride height king and link pins ect)The dvla will reissue the number on the new floor pan if we know what the number was.They will then issue a v5 stating its had a new floor pan
Cheers

This may be a bit of a long-shot but could you possibly go down the route of sending off to the DVLA a letter with the £5 fee asking for the previous history of 843 XJ, I do this with every vehicle I acquire........
If you are the owner/keeper of a vehicle the DVLA will send you photocopies of all documentation they have (eg original log books etc) if you show 'good enough reason' for wanting the info...
This may not work though if the vehicle isn't currently on the DVLA computerised database...............:?:

:wink:

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Just spoke to my mate about what has been said here.He spoke to the dvla and they said the number is still on there books and he can have it back by filling in a v62 form.The cars log book says that the car has been rebuilt with parts not new .This is the only time i have seen this i take it after the rebuild they inspected it.The only parts i can see that have been replaced is the floorpan and beam the rest is the original cars original parts.There is also a note saying the floor pan was replaced as the original was deemed unfit to restore.
Cheers

You would have thought that if DVLA still has that reg. number allocated to a beetle cabrio then they would also have details of its original chassis number on their database.
Just as an interesting point - there is a good photo of this car displaying reg. number 843 XJ on page 31 of Total VW magazine (no 7) dated October 1999. It was taken at Stanford Hall in May of that year and so the cabrio was obviously up and running and using that number then. It looks very smart in the photo.

Yep, it all sounds a bit dodgy to me. If DVLA doesn't have the number then how will they know it's correct? You could tell them any old number was the original?

Out of interest, where did he get a NOS link-pin floorpan from?

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I havnt got that issue of total vw any chance of a scaned photo that i can pass on.As for the dvla i think he was lucky that they told him that much over the phone with data protection and all that.Anyway ive passed the information to him its now in his hands.As for the floor pan hes had it for ages came with a previous resto project that got sold on without it.
Cheers

Here's a couple of photos of the magazine page. The cabrio isn't mentioned in the text although it looks as though it might have been part of the Cabrio Club display. Perhaps their records would show the original chassis number?
Cheers.

Sorry the photos haven't attached. They must be too large and as computers aren't my thing I've no idea how to re-size them.