I just purchased a 1969 Mustang that looks like a coupe. The vin indicates it should be a fastback. The vin on the dash and door match and say it should be a Fastback. What gives? It's a 9F02F and the body style on the door says 63A but the car is clearly a coupe. No work looks to be done on it. But if someone HAD done anything to it, I highly doubt they'd turn a fastback into a coupe. Any help with this is very appreciated.
Never had a 69 Mustang so bear with me. Had a 70 Torino. The 70 Torino had the VIN riveted to the metal part of the dash pad. The pad was cracked on my convertible, found a perfect one at an auto junk yard on
a like new totaled coupe. The driver door was also perfect and same color as my vert. Had I picked the door and put both on my vert the door tag and the dash would have mathched saying it's a coupe!
What makes no sense is how did the title become matching?
Check the numbers under the fenders. I kinda think may have switcherooed them. The legal vin and door vin are pretty easy to move around. Fender vin will not be as easy.
I suggest looking at the vin under the fender and remove the dash pad to inspect the rivets. I'm sure you'll find funny business.
There had been reports of wrong engine vin codes being stamped but I've never really heard of the wrong body code being misstamped.
Once I went to look at a 70 fastback that was being advertised as a Mach 1. I looked at the VIN and noticed there wasn't an 05 in the Vin stating it was a Mach 1. The owner swore up and down it was a Mach and everything on the car was Mach 1.
The price was right so I bought it and got it home to begin researching the VIN. After looking it up in the book the VIN had an 01 in it saying it was a coupe. A quick removal of the dash pad showed the VIN tag was siliconed in place. After removing the fender I found a partial VIN that I contacted Kevin Marti about and determined the full VIN said it was a 351C 4V Mach 1 shaker car and everything Marti had for information matched the VIN on inner apron.
I then had a cop friend run the VIN on the inner fender and it came up clean so I don't know what the scoop was on it. I sold the car to a guy that was going to use it as a parts car. I always wonder what the story was on that car, if it wouldn't have been a hassle to deal with I would have kept the car as it would have been a fun car to build.
The dash vin is not riveted so there could be some funny business as the dash looks to have been replaced. The one on the door is riveted and matches. The fender vins are 11 19D3 and 4 16D2. I'm assuming from different cars from repairs. I'm new to the vintage car ownership group so excuse me if I sound like I don't known what I'm talking about.
The car has been titled with that vin. The pic of the dash vin Is to show the placement. Luckily my brother in law said he'd buy it back if there were any issues with it. Just trying to see if this was a switcharoo problem or if it's deeper than that.
As stated above. That is not the vin on the fender. That is a part stamp.
The vin # will be under the fender. You have to take the fender OFF the car to see it. Get an assembly manual and a wrench.
This is how the vin # looks under the fender of a 1969 Mustang. This is my 1969 Grande, minus 2 digit's for privacy, but you get the point. I used a soap stone and rubbed it over the area to make it easier to see the stamping.
So all the vins match, the title matches the vins, the car is obviously NOT a fastback...... so you have a car that OBVIOUSLY IS NOT what the title indicates...... I'd say sell it back to your brother in law while his offer still stands! You currently have an 'out' whereas down the road you may not.
why would you buy it if it had such descrepencies
i can see a digit being off for color or engine or a mis stamp but this sounds like a case of fraud in my book>
IE: tag job. someone bought a coupe insured her as a FB collected the insurance on a higher valued car
If the numbers on the car match the title and it can be insured I guess I'm ok with it. Not gonna try to pass it off as a FB, just using it as a weekend cruiser once she's fixed up anyways. Just trying to get outside perspectives on the mix up.
The fender numbers you posted are date codes indicating the month, day (no year), factory and shift that produced the fenders. They have absolutely nothing to do with the VIN. If you remove the fender attaching bolts and pull the top of the fender outwards you should find the VIN stamped into the fender apron.
I wouldn't touch that car with a 10' pole. It's just a plain old coupe and they're a-dime-a-dozen so why get involved with one that has questionable heritage?
Well I knew I was buying a coupe which is what I wanted. The questionable heritage is not a big deal for ME. Like I said, all the paperwork matches and is legit. Not planning on selling or trading so I'm ok with it. I WILL be checking the fender numbers like you said later today (thank you for that). If they match the VINs I'll be even more perplexed.
Look, it has been known that once in a blue moon, the Fomoco factory would make a vin stamping mistake. So, what does the Marti report for that vin number say? Do the options and color match the Marti report? If not (I suspect it won't), just another low information shade tree mechanic whittling a story to fit the circumstances he produced.
Also, remember that back in the day, it was cheaper to get an entire door in the same color from a junkyard than it was to fix damage. I have a 69 door on my 70 and the VIN does not match, but the dash and both fenders do.
Sounds like it's been clipped. . . honest clip???? Dishonest????
As for the rivets, yes that's an easy way to tell on most, or 99.999999% of them. My '68 1/2 . . weird they are. Many had screws rather than rivets . . . . . factory. Not the only weird thing . . they were also missing the engine stamp on the inner fender VINs . . factory as well
Turns out the vin under the fender is an 01 (hardtop) but insured with the other numbers. Is there another spot on the car to see if at least the fender and that will match? It's my last chance to either match the dash or fender number. Something. Geez! This blows.
Passenger side. No they don't match. I meant to say it's titled with the dash and door number. I'll remove the driver side fender tomorrow, but I'm pretty sure the fender #s will match each other unless this car is really chopped to hell.
Sorry, but you'd better get out from under this pronto! There's enough fishiness going on here to attract the attention of law enforcement and/or the DMV. Folks have lost their cars for this sort of thing.
If those fender vins don't match, the car has been cut and pasted. There are rare mistakes, mostly out of NJ plant, where some of the fender vins and dash vins don't match with the body style. Usually the dash vin was correct and fender vin was not. Or there were more than 1 body vin with one matching dash vin. Or some had a few numbers transposed or off one digit. But I have not heard of a dash vin (the legal vin) being incorrect on body style. Sure it may have happened but it would be considered rare. But the fender vin would correspond to the dash vin for sure. It kinda looks bad. As far as what can you do? You can try to talk to person that sold it to you and say that you are thinking about talking to the police and see if you can rattle him into a refund. Mention that selling a car with an altered vin is a major felony. As far as law goes, even if the sale was as is, the sale was null because car was not the titled car. So you would sue him win and collect. Then he would have to do the some to next previous owner and so on until it gets to the fraudster. Usually proving who commited fraud cannot be proven too far back but that is not your problem. You have just bought this car and can prove the fraud. You can sue even if the last owner did not know of the fraud. After he pays you, it will be his responsibility to sue the person that sold it to him. But it will take time and money. Sooner the action is taken the better though.
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