Carba1984 Posted September 12 Report Share Posted September 12 Hi guys, I would like to track the history of my car but on the web pages they ask me for a 17-digit VIN number and I see that my Spitfire only has the commission number, how could I get the VIN? The only thing I have is the number of the old license plate that I think is from Belgium and the current license plate of the car listed as historical of Spain, with the license plates I do not get any information. The car was bought in Holland. Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johny Posted September 12 Report Share Posted September 12 Hi Carba, sorry cant help on your vehicle identification but hows the car running? Not heard anything recently so can I assume youve fixed the problems and the valve timing was good? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gully Posted September 12 Report Share Posted September 12 I believe only the very last Spitfires may have had the now customary format VIN numbers. Before that, the commission number is the identifier. Gully Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carba1984 Posted September 12 Author Report Share Posted September 12 3 hours ago, johny said: Hi Carba, sorry cant help on your vehicle identification but hows the car running? Not heard anything recently so can I assume youve fixed the problems and the valve timing was good? Hi Johny, at the moment I haven't been able to look at it since I'm moving house, the first thing I'm going to do is rebuild the carburetors so that there are no air intakes and then I'll check the valve timing 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carba1984 Posted September 12 Author Report Share Posted September 12 17 minutes ago, Gully said: I believe only the very last Spitfires may have had the now customary format VIN numbers. Before that, the commission number is the identifier. Gully It is true that there is no VIN number on my car, there is only a commission number but I understand that there has to be some way to track the car from the beginning. I don’t know how Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Lindsay Posted September 12 Report Share Posted September 12 You will only have two numbers, the commission number and the body number (mechanical components have their own ie engine, gearbox and diff). VERY rarely you may have a plate on the chassis but this is for factory identification only and may not be related to the finished car in any sequence. Contact the BMIHT - British Motor Industry Heritage Trust - and they can supply a build certificate based on the commission number, and any other information you may give them. https://www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk/archive/heritage-certificates Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carba1984 Posted September 12 Author Report Share Posted September 12 9 minutes ago, Colin Lindsay said: You will only have two numbers, the commission number and the body number (mechanical components have their own ie engine, gearbox and diff). VERY rarely you may have a plate on the chassis but this is for factory identification only and may not be related to the finished car in any sequence. Contact the BMIHT - British Motor Industry Heritage Trust - and they can supply a build certificate based on the commission number, and any other information you may give them. https://www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk/archive/heritage-certificates Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Lindsay Posted September 12 Report Share Posted September 12 Get a form from the BMIHT and quote that top 'FH' number. The long lower one is the body number. They'll tell you the build date, date of despatch, any optional features, original paint code and trim code. Brown (93) is Russet Brown, and the trim is C74, beige and white houndstooth on black. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carba1984 Posted September 12 Author Report Share Posted September 12 I need to pay for the BMIHT, it's quite expensive. What I want to know is the owners he has had, where he has bought it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinR Posted September 12 Report Share Posted September 12 The BMIHT certificate will usually tell you the name of the dealer it was sent to when new - after that, you are on your own, it all depends on the data protection policies of the vehicle registration policies of the countries where it has been registered. In the UK, the DVLA used to allow you to get a copy of all the previous registration documents, but that was stopped several years ago as a result of EU privacy legislation. In the UK, a car usually keeps its registration number for life - you can put a personal plate on the car, but 99% of cars keep the original registration number for their entire life. In other European countries, the policies are different - some countries put a new registration number on it when ever it gets a new owner, in others it only gets a new number when it moves to a new administrative district. Of course, when a car is moved from one country to another it gets a new registration number relevant to the new country and registration district. These days, tracing the history of a car can be an absolute nightmare, and is only really possible if the previous owners have passed on a history file with anything they have collected. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Lindsay Posted September 13 Report Share Posted September 13 Due to Data Protection in the UK previous owners' details are no longer readily available, so it's usually a case of contacting the person a car was bought from, to see if he knows or remembers who they bought it from, and so on up the line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carba1984 Posted September 13 Author Report Share Posted September 13 I have been able to find a lot of information about the car on a Dutch website 🎉🎉🎉 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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