72 Bay with oval rear lights

[superfunkyfresh]

Any news on this?? Sounds pretty horrendous!

 

[jamesabell1978]

Hi, no further forward with resolving this yet, it is in the hands of the Police and a fraud report has been filed, apparently this is the correct route until we know what has happened with it.

I have also filled out a DVLA form to trace the last 3 owners of the VIN number I have to see if I can find out what vehicle this number came off. I am not going to dig under the false VIN until the Police have been out, seen it and taken photographs as it is quite clear that this plate was fitted and then painted over in yellow only as there is no sign of the original orange the bus came in. I am sure this is evidence of the fraud taking place at the same time as the recent respray.

In the meantime I have confirmed with JK Insurance that I am still covered so I guess it is best to enjoy the bus and see what happens but I have stopped doing any work on it.

One comment, VW Heritage have been really supportive in firstly taking a look at the van when I was buying the missing tinware, confirming my suspicions and then taking the parts I had purchased back with nothing but sympathy, hopefully I will buy the parts once more in the near future if I am lucky enough to keep hold of the van.

 

[jonboylaw]

Fingers crossed for you buddy, I hope you come out of this without getting your fingers burned and if it is fraud I hope they catch and prosecute the the nasty shites.

 

[jacks906]

I hate that these things take time I always like to know whats going on etc...
Hopefully you come out of this smiling and the OG number is under there and all comes bacj happy....

Dave

 

[MrAndyP]

Sorry to hear about this. there are some proper dicks about,hope you get it sorted.......

 

[BARKING MARK]

i bought my first early bay, with no knowledge of them. I could have quite easily bought a bus with missing vin plates / chassis numbers. If you end up losing money, we could have a earlybay charity event, camp (get drunk), bbq, have fun and get you some money back

I realy feel for you, its a shame that there are people out there doing this sort of thing and damaging our hobby. :evil:
I hope everything works out and even if you dont get to keep the bus that you get your money back from the dealer, but if it doesnt i agree with Dubscums post above," lets look after one of our own".

 

[type2tattoo]

Sorry to read of your horrible experience I hope it all works out for the best andyou are not out of pocket and if its stolen someone gets reunited with their bus. Oh and the trader, if he is responsible, gets hung drawn and quartered!

Good Luck!

 

[Shorty]

mate..... what can I say? I've just read this whole thread and feel completely and utterly gutted, deflated and a little bit angry..

I'm so so sorry that you have found yourself in this predicament

 

[superfunkyfresh]

Hopefully the police get out to you soon and you can whip off that plate and find out the original VIN.

DVLA records for historics are flakey at best (I used to work there). So hopefully something can get sorted.

 

[aspro]

Everyone is assuming the original numbers are still there. I'm pretty sure the scammers aren't that stupid. I think you will find they are long gone. I'm not too sure what scenario you would prefer. If the original numbers are there then the original owner will be contacted and you lose the bus, if they have been ground away, which I'm sure they have been then I guess the bus is yours to keep.

 

[Nugsy]

Sorry to here about your new bus and what it may turn out to be? I know its a bit late now but managed to find a pic of my chassis number from my recent engine bay clean up



As posted before has the asterisks either side, and no filler/sealer up to the lip near the battery tray (that I found out needs replacing after cleaning vigourously :msn4: )

 

[jamesabell1978]

Thanks Nugsy, that does look like it should be a raised section of the chassis rail where it is stamped then, I assumed it should have been flat to the surrounding metal.

 

[superfunkyfresh]

As said, even if the original chassis number is there, I wouldn't be suprised if the DVLA don't have it on record.

If the previous owner has been paid out maybe you could come to an agreement.. Who knows.

 

[vwvanman0]

Is there no way to trace the van off the engine number,they are on the v5 arnt they? that looks to still be there?

Hope you get it sorted and don't end up losing out.

 

[aspro]

Is there no way to trace the van off the engine number,they are on the v5 arnt they? that looks to still be there?

Hope you get it sorted and don't end up losing out.

I'd assume the engine was one of the 1st things to go when it was bodged up.

 

[simo]

hmmm, I know the chap I bought it off was going to spray it green and registered it as such but it ended up yellow. I asked for the v5 to be corrected on registering it to me so it stated the correct engine size and colour. There are no plates apart from the chassis stamp in the engine bay which starts 2222 as mentioned before. the bus is in very good condition with no welding apart from a small repair in the cab and has original devon bunks but I was told the rest of the interior which was good went into another bus and it seems the plates did to. it is a shame the bus is so clean and tidy apart from the missing plates. I know the chap who sold it to me is a vw trader in the scene and stated he has known the bus for a long time and I believe him to be genuine.

Sorry to read about all this, but thumbs up to all at EB for spotting the probs!
In my opinion ( and i know nothing of much use ) if the seller is the one who painted the bus then they MUST have known its dodgy, just looking at that fake plate in the engine bay, even if they arnt the ones responsible for the "ringing" :evil: , along with all the other "missing" numbers too! Lets hope that the police actually do some work for a change?
Keep us posted fella and i hope it all works out well for you

 

[AndyO]

Would like to re-iterate the sentiment on here, busses do go missing a lot :roll: . Now I (and others) know what to look for because of this thread. :shadey:

Hope it works out for you.

 

[jacks906]

How did you get on with the police etc dude?

Still got me fingers crossed

 

[rickyrooo1]

we had one like this on the late bay, a "72" tax free bus that was really a 79.... the owner did all you are doing, police came out insurance informed and dvla too, none of them were interested! in the end it just got left and used, not good if your van was stolen and ringed which seems highly likely, late bays getting ringed to claim free tax is one thing but ringing a historic vehicle anyway only smells of one thing..... mental they used a beetle v5 to register on a van though...... the problem is, if you're told it can be kept will you feel ok with it? will it go on the original reg if you can get info from under the plate? or worse case on a q plate? either way if you come to sell on it's worth less than it would be unless you lie just like this "dealer" has.... he knows it's a wrongun and is taking the piss out of the scene by saying he's a vw man.

 

[AircooledEd]

we had one like this on the late bay, a "72" tax free bus that was really a 79.... the owner did all you are doing, police came out insurance informed and dvla too, none of them were interested! in the end it just got left and used, not good if your van was stolen and ringed which seems highly likely, late bays getting ringed to claim free tax is one thing but ringing a historic vehicle anyway only smells of one thing..... mental they used a beetle v5 to register on a van though...... the problem is, if you're told it can be kept will you feel ok with it? will it go on the original reg if you can get info from under the plate? or worse case on a q plate? either way if you come to sell on it's worth less than it would be unless you lie just like this "dealer" has.... he knows it's a wrongun and is taking the piss out of the scene by saying he's a vw man.

Agree totally the sentiment that anyone into the scene as a trader of these vehicles would know that the chassis number looked wrong and the warning bells would have been set off by missing bulkhead plates. Didn't know?
MY ARSE!