johnymd
Club Member
Here are a couple of pics showing the style of engraving and the location on a LHD car. It is directly above the servo and just above the horizontal pressing. On a RHD car it is the mirrored opposite.
Thanks for the continued help!Factory literature, RHD chassis number location:
...but, being Devil's Advocaat for a moment (indulge me...), what exactly are you expecting to find? Do you really think it won't match up with the paperwork for the car? If it didn't, it would be pretty blatant wouldn't it?
Possible scenarios:
*Original bodyshell with original chassis number.
*Original bodyshell with 'transferred' chassis number (unusual).
*Original chassis number 'transferred' onto replacement bodyshell.
....etc.
Here in the UK, when a "re-shell"* is suspected, the scenario would usually involve the identity of an original UK market RHD car being 'transferred' onto the bodyshell of a cleaner/less rusty/straighter LHD car sourced from north America. There is more than one way of doing this, and the most comprehensive method is to transfer the complete bulkhead panel of the RHD car and weld it into the LHD car's bodyshell, but I have seen cars with only part of the RHD bulkhead panel transferred. In my experience, the results of such activities are rarely undetectable. Anybody who knows their way around these cars can spot the clues...
(*The concept of "re-shelling" is not one that can be applied to these cars, as the factory did not supply replacement, un-numbered bodyshells and each bodyshell carries its own unique identity in the form of its chassis type prefix and body serial number combination.)
Alan - looks like the vin number is a lot higher on the very early cars. Do you know when they started engraving them lower down?
You boys know your zeds!!The answer is: from the beginning of series production...
I don't think you should take the photo too literally. It's a shot of a pre-production car.
The bulkhead chassis numbers were not *stamped*, as many people believe, but *engraved*. Nissan Shatai had a cumbersome machine which clamped onto the bare metal bodyshell in a set position, and the operator dialled the prefix and body serial number combination into it. The combination was then engraved by the machine and the body went off to the paint shop. I have a copy of a document from Nissan Shatai which shows the dimensions for the LHD and RHD engraving locations. I am not allowed to publish it, as it is still Nissan Shatai property.
So, having just handed over a wedge of hard earned cash for a UK RHD car and then been told there was reason to doubt it... I needed to do all I could to confirm the case and do it fast.
I saw a video from the auction house which misidentified the car as a "Series One", pointing at the vented tailgate as evidence. Clearly wrong. Your first post here showed you still believed it to be a "Series One" car, so you clearly bought a car that was not what it was being described as, and not what you thought it to be...
As I've pointed out further back in the thread, you might not want to dig too far. Especially not in public. If you're going to race the car, then what can the digging achieve? *If* you found that it was an LHD body that has had an RHD identity swap, would your plans change?
What a great story. So, bent 'chassis'. But the car was straightened on a jig and lived again ... unlike the Honda probably.
I guess seat belt pockets or signs that they have been removed would be an easy way to quickly check if it was an import shell.
Do any records exist or is knowledge known about the HS numbers (in terms of what did they start at) which came into the UK ...
uk66fastback said:...were other RHD markets designated just HS?
uk66fastback said:Is the low(ish) figure on this car indicative of one that might have come in 'early'?
As I understand it the bulkhead back was fine, but clearly it needed a small nose job!