Does anyone know if the vin number is on the car doors for reference?
Making sure a car has matching numbers.

 

Can't answer your question, but I can bump it to the top and tell you that there is no such thing as a VIN number. VIN stands for Vehicle Identification Number, therefore it is a VIN or VI number. Same thing goes for "ATM Machine"

 

Whatever dude.

Every car has a VIN. Maybe it should be called a Vehicle Identification Alphanumeric since it has letters in it too. Don't bother us with semantics.



The driver door end should have the full vin, matching the rpo tag and window sticker. The trans, engine block, chassis, and various other parts of the car will have the last 7 digits of the vin stamped on them. On some imports, every body panel has a VIN tag on it. I guess it's to help track down or deter chop shops.

 

.........I dont know about this one.Right after I got my car years ago I started looking for numbers,nothing looked right so i asked somebody and was told the numbers deal doesnt work with early C4s.My car was produced in early May and everything has late April marked on it.Motor stamp is 4/24 and top has 4/24 and so on.

 

Aside form Grand SPorts, ZR1's and a few other select C4's. The basic C4 will never be worth so much that numbers matching matters.
Numbers matching is bull anyway, you ever see these restorations? As long has they have the proper date code, they consider it numbers matching even tough they aren't the original parts.

There can't be more than a handful of C4's that are completely original. If they were driven then they surely had maintainence done and that would mean filters, sparkplugs etc would have been changed therefore rendering the car non original.

Bloomington Gold, NCRS have a place in our hobby and I commend those who take the time to properly restore and document their cars, and they do bring a bigger price tag when it comes time to sell, but I hate those who buy a car with the intention of selling for what they paid or more because they have a rare color combo or consider it "numbers matching" A car, especially one that has been massproduced as the Corvette should never be thought of as an investment. Except for those I listed at the top, there is nothing special about a C4, there are simply too many of them out there.
A car should be bought for your personal enjoyment. If you want to keep it in the garage and have it Top Flight certified, that is fine with me as long as your intention is to preserve the hobby rather thanmake a profit, if you want to gut your car and race the hell out of it, that's fine too. If you want a daily driver and want to beat the crap out of, that's awesome, that's what the car was built for.

But as mentioned above, the major parts have the last several digits of the VIN stamped somewhere, and that's what more are concerned with.

Now I've heard a rumor that C5 exhausts have the VIn stamped on them(never checked to verify) but think of all the C5 owners who have aftermarket exhausts, they wouldn't be numbers matching(technically speaking).

With replacement parts covering most of the C4 run being interchangeable, I wouldn't worry about numbers matching, I'd worry more about why something was changed, and even it something was replaced(like the engine,trans, rear etc) as long as the car rides and performs as it was intended, why should it matter. Same for a wreck that may have been brought back, if it was fixed properly(which today would probably be a total loss as far as the insurance company is concerned) why should it matter as long as you knew up front that it had happened.

I could go on, but I think I've rambled enough.

 

Yeah, obviously GM stockpiles the parts to some extent where they are picked off for assembly, they don't always go out in the order they come in.

I was referring to the actual VIN though, I don't know the frame and block locations on the vette, but the last 7 digits of it are engraved on my transmission. I'm with Mojo though, matching numbers don't mean much on these.

I'm putting a ZF in mine. It has no VIN on it... does that mean I'm still matching?

 

In the art world those numbers matching restorations would be called forgeries and you would wind up in jail if you tried to pass one off as authentic.


quote from Mr Mojo
"Now I've heard a rumor that C5 exhausts have the VIn stamped on them(never checked to verify) but think of all the C5 owners who have aftermarket exhausts, they wouldn't be numbers matching(technically speaking)."

I think I read somewhere that the VIN was stamped on the ZO6 exhaust. It is made of titanium and GM would only sell replacements to certified ZO6 owners.

Anyway the VIN is on a plate inside the driver's side windshield.

 

I think you missed the point.

"All original" is not synonomous with "numbers matching".

"Numbers matching" means those car components that have unique Vehicle Identification Numbers will have the correct numbers.

You can still buy sparkplugs, filters, etc. with the same part numbers as the original car carried...these could be considered as "original".

Moj is right; except in the case of the GS and ZR, not many will care if your C4 is "correct"....maybe not even then.

Larry
code5coupe