That VIN plate / ID plate has an interesting law about it here in SA....

IF you remove that plate from the body, and the police somehow find out, you WILL be arrested, you WILL go to jail, you WILL get fined, and your car WILL get confiscated.

Stab a person fatally and you'll get a similar sentence.

I say: report the guy to the cops, or threaten to, and see how brown his pants become

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[NATHAN] -- Sold everything mini related and am back in big beautiful BMWs

No, that is standard, from late 69 thru to end of roundnose production (71). Clubbies then got it rivetted on top of the RH inner guard.

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

I never had one on my 78 clubby when I bought it, the mech doing the blueslip commented that I really needed to get one on it for him to pass it (luckily I'm his PC Tech and he needed it fixed ).
When I took it in to the Registry they noticed it was no longer a 998cc but a 1275 so the needed to sight the engine number. Of course they then noticed there was no compliance plate and stated it was illegal to remove it, I just claimed ignorance and said it was like that when I bought it. After a checking with a supervisor it turned out it was registered in SA with a compliance plate so they just marked it on the database and registered it that way

Plus you void the warranty It says so on the plate!!

There is a difference between COMPLIANCE plates and build plates.

Build plates were fitted by the maunfacturer and usually state chassis number, engine number, colour, trim etc. AFAIK they were never compulsory. Minis had them until around 1969 when they disappeared.

COMPLIANCE plates were fitted to Minis from late 1969 or early 1970. They state the ADR's the vehicle was maunufacturered to comply with and the build date. ViCRoads told me these were compulsory from 72?? However VicRoads sensibly recognise that sometimes ciompliance plates are lost or stolen, so they will accept a vehicle for registration without a compliance plate if an Australian rego history for that chassis number can be shown, and teh chassis number has not been altered, restamped etc. I have even seen a 2001 Prado rebuilt after a crash with a missing compliance plate be legally registered.

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Brett Nicholson
Greendale (near Ballan) VIC.
1971 Morris Mini Moke
1966 Austin Mini
1965 Morris Mini Traveller
1973 LR Series 3 88
2007 LR Freelander 2

I was talking to NSW RTA tech section last week about an import vehicle not having a compliance plate and they told me that if the vehicle is pre March 1972 its ok as long as the chassis and engine numbers are visible.

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Roundies and Clubbies(except vans) are both ugly that is why I have Midas and a van
1293 Mini Midas Bronze,1275 Clubman van

Sounds like it should be ok, hopefully the guy has some rego papers for it, that would make it easier. Thanks for everyones info, i will let you all know how it goes.
Steve.

To clear up a bit of common confusion, VIN numbers were started after compliance plates were introduced. The compliance plate was just that, it showed compliance for that vehicle with the ADR's at the time of manufacture and only had the CHASSIS number on it. The VIN numbering system was introduced using and international standard (I think) to thwart illegalities in car stealing, rebirthing etc. It has not been a roaring success I would suggest. It is a 17 digit numbering system started in the US and now applied universally to all cars and is applied in 3 different parts of the body. The mini never had a true VIN number, as it was introduced after production stopped. The VIN number also details the build spec of the vehicle off the production line and if buying a vehicle you can check the spec against the number, no match, no buy and report it.

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Chris

Everything I like is either
illegal, immoral or fattening.

I have a handful of those I should start selling them as replacements !!!!! But then again I woun't be the only person who has wrecked Minis. I smashed all mine in the 20 years I raced Speedway. That is where I got the spare ID plates from. There were times when the Police used to turn up at the race track (Archerfield) checking race cars Chassis numbers suspected of being stolen cars. They used to do well too. I saw many Commodores and Toranas get carted away before they even raced !!!

Gday
I just went and looked at the car, doesn't look too bad , a bit rough. The problem is as i said , no id plate. There are two sets of numbers on the firewall where the plate was. 18383 and above it 19564. Don't know what these mean, maybe someone does. The biggest problem is that the radiator shroud with the body number on it has been removed. Looks a bit sus to me or at least it will be a hassle to rego it. If anyone is interested in it, it has a dellorto and extractors on it, 10 inch contessa mags, apparently the 1100 motor has been bored out and a hot cam put in. Body is pretty straight, no visable rust.Motor sounded ok as far as i could tell, the dellorto is pretty noisy. Drums all around.
Thanks again
Steve.

It does sound dodgey, best to leave it alone. To be honest, I think the price is high for a car you can't do much with.

The bottom number is the body number, the top number is usually concealed behind the ID plate - it is a factory number and should have a hole either side of it where the ID plate was once pop-rivetted.

The bottom number is the one you want to take for rego checks.

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[NATHAN] -- Sold everything mini related and am back in big beautiful BMWs