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Confusion Reigns


Stratton Jimmer

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In a fit of madness I decided to buy Don Davies GT6 as featured in the sales column of the latest Courier. It is a bit of a strange one as the owner prior to Don had taken it off the road to use as a racing car. Anyway, the odd thing is that it appears to have two chassis numbers (Commission Numbers) as shown below. The KE0829 seems right for a 1971 GT6 Mk3 (CWD 760J) but the one on the plate doesn't. KE35290 is listed on the registration document but I haven't a clue what that is. Can anyone offer any explanation as to how I get two numbers? The paint code is also one that shouldn't be appropriate for a 71 GT6 (Delft Blue).

 

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Those are two completely different numbers. The 0829KE is only the body number, it's irrelevant and will never appear on a V5. The real commission number is the KE35290. All small chassis Triumphs have this contrast, with the body number on the small, painted-over plate and the commission number on the proper plate. There's also a chassis number somewhere, which is as irrelevant as the body number.

If you think 35290 is too high for the age of the car then I will ask, does it have overdrive? If so, the commission number should have an 'O' suffix, so it's almost certainly supposed to read "KE 3529 O". Mine is also mis-transcribed on the V5 (though bizarrely with the 'O' having been recorded as a 'D' in my case)

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agree the body number  the chassis number  and tub numbers do not seem to have ever been recorded  and were at a guess just used for production control 

use in the factory so they had some clues about volumes produced during production

i guess there was a track record book with all these recorded but its not available and presume stashed away in some lost heap of archive documents assuming

someone thought this data was going to be useful one day   who knows

it was common in the day to note all the major units in a hardback book on the line side 

on trucks we noted anything with a serial number then parts became more on computer   where all the books ended up is another guess 

once the factories closed ,  

too much useful history gets skipped by factory closures 

Pete

 

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Info here throws some light on GT6 commission numbers:

https://www.teglerizer.com/InternationalGT6database/

Specifically:

Built October 1970 to December 1973
Number built 13,042
Chassis numbers KE1 on (1971), KE10001 on (1972),
KE20001 to KE24218 - (Feb. 1973) on

So based on the above, KE3529 looks plausible for a '71 car, or KE3529 O with overdrive.

FWIW my Mk3 was registered in October '72 and has commission number KE14xxx O.

Nigel

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  • 2 months later...

Investigations have now revealed that the car started life in Saffron Yellow, was then painted black by a would be racer and then repainted in Delft blue by its last owner. I rather like Saffron yellow so that looks like a long term aim. The battery tray is shot and there's a clunk from the diff / propshaft area which I will be looking into. One of the sun visor bolts is headless. I have drilled it out and am working on a fix for that. 1/4 unf tap at the ready!

 

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34 minutes ago, Stratton Jimmer said:

Investigations have now revealed that the car started life in Saffron Yellow

Mine also started life in nappy cack. Several years ago, before forums, I had some photos of it on my personal web site, and received an email from a previous owner, who "confessed" to being the one who had it resprayed in Old English White. Unlike you, I have absolutely no intention whatever of changing it back.

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1 hour ago, NonMember said:

Mine also started life in nappy cack. Several years ago, before forums, I had some photos of it on my personal web site, and received an email from a previous owner, who "confessed" to being the one who had it resprayed in Old English White. 

The Internet can be a dangerous place, especially if you criticise the work of some a*** who did strange or dodgy things to your car, then get an email from the PO stating it was him and why he did it.... ☺️

Saffron is code 54; are the commission plates still available to buy new? You can then just stamp your own and leave a gap at the last 'O' for overdrive.

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Our beloved GT6 registrar Andy Cook has a nappy cack GT6, I have Mimosa. New members at East Berks often  ask "Whose car is who's?" I reply "Mine's the pretty one!"

That's Andy's at the back, out of sight! :lol:

That VIN plate is held on with screws, which makes it suspect !:angry:

Doug

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BTW, I sorted the sun visor this morning. Drilling out the headless set screw wrecked the old thread as I expected and so I trapped the hole with a 1/4 UNF, drilled the visor's hole out to 6mm and bolted it up with an Allen head set screw which was the only 1/4 UNF that I had which was short enough / long enough to do the job. The PO had put a rubber strip along the bottom edge of the hatch door which I have removed to reveal a few rust patches along that bottom edge. I don't know what adhesive he used but it was the very bugg3r to remove! It looks repairable but I'm out of Kurust at the moment so it will have to wait.

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