VIN of New Zealand 5 window Coup'e
 

Can anyone advise me what my cars VIN A 40904 F indicates?
The car is a 1937 5 window Std Coup'e, right hand drive. The VIN is marked on the right hand chasis member top channel above the steering box mount and on the top rear face of the gearbox bell housing. I purchased the car in New Zealand about 1973, it is now in Queensland Australia, under restoration.

Re: VIN of New Zealand 5 window Coup'e
 

that doen,t look like the numbers on either my 33 or 34,both nz new,they start with C18 then some letters and numbers.
Lawrie

Re: VIN of New Zealand 5 window Coup'e
 

The number is a Vehicle Id Number that the New Zealand Land Transport Agency attaches to cars for their identification. Vining is the inspection process a car goes through after restoration, significant changes (such as steering or suspension upgrades) or a long lapsed registration to confirm it is road worthy and can be re-registered . I have a (long) VIN number on two of my cars but the other two have had continuous registration since new and hence haven't required vining. I didn't know it was being done in the 70's -Karl

Re: VIN of New Zealand 5 window Coup'e
 

Vin numbers in NZ have been around since about late '80's/early 90's. Before that you could just re register them with the old plates & owners papers, go get a fitness cert [ wof] & back on the road.
That number A......F sounds odd. The Coupe body was assembled at Seaview Plant & would have an NZ body number with the Canadian stamped engine number as the cars serial number which should be on the original NZ Ownership papers if still in existence.
Pre '36, most Fords new in NZ had Canadian body assembly numbers & their serial/engine number. No Vin number before Big Brother era.

Re: VIN of New Zealand 5 window Coup'e
 

40904 would be the number of chassis's assembled and stamped so far while it was still in Canada.
F is Foreign ( for export ) again stamped in Canada.
I think the prefix A may have indicated the chassis was to be used for a passenger car ( sedan, coupe ) rather than a commercial - 1/2 ton pickup, station wagon or convertible .
The chassis's came already assembled from Canada.
The bodies were welded together here in NZ from stampings sent from Canada ( via the USA ).
The gearbox would have had the matching chassis number stamped on the assembly line.
Unfortunately there are no workers left from those days to tell us.

Re: VIN of New Zealand 5 window Coup'e
 

here's some more info:
You'll note on the left further info covering this topic

http://www.wnyrg.org/canvins.html

http://www.wnyrg.org/findserno.pdf