solving a buying issue

I am looking at a 1987 defender 110 station wagon (5 doors in total). It has had plenty of work done to it including a 200 tdi conversion.

My issue is with the vin numbers.
I have SALLDHAB7BA.
should the engine number now be different on the v5?
No longer show the 19j engine.

The ' A' stands for 2 door pick up, hood cab, soft / hard top.
Should this be a letter 'M' 5 door station wagon.
If so does that mean it's been converted to a station wagon?
What are the tell tale signs of this (apart from the owner telling me - which he doesn't know about).

Regards paul

is it cheap?

Not that cheap ....why?

whats not that cheap?

because if its cheap enough, who cares if it was originally a pickup or van or whatever?

i just typed that inti the calVIN checker and said number not recognised!

Beleive as the engine stays at 2.5 litres the V5 wouldnt change

pants007 said:

i just typed that inti the calVIN checker and said number not recognised!

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That is not the full vin number. The serial number on the end has been omitted for security reasons I would guess.

Lot of work to go from a 2 door pickup to a 5 door csw. could be a phony ID

or someones bought a used chassis to put it on.......

Dr_evil said:

or someones bought a used chassis to put it on.......

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can you buy a used chassis ?

I would go with your gutt
engine number etc should be on the v5
it sounds dodgy to me

greyhair said:

can you buy a used chassis ?

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yes

My gut is telling me that there may be something wrong. The vehicle and work done looks spot on. It's the paper work side which let's it down.
Didn't know how much work it would take to swap it over to a station wagon back.
I would have thought for insurance they would have to see some kind of certificate to say works been carried out properly.
I don't want any come back further down the line or something being used by insurance company to stop them paying out if I have a bump.

having converted mine to csw from a pickup, i can confirm it is a load of work, but not beyond the wit of a monkey to be honest.

I personally would hold out. Don't rush into buying a defender, there's plenty of dodgey ones out there.

If the numbers don't match, then there's a reason.

Steer clear in my opinion.

vilguy said:

having converted mine to csw from a pickup, i can confirm it is a load of work, but not beyond the wit of a monkey to be honest.

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Vilguy if you have done the work converting I take it the VIN use to show it as a three door. How do you go on with DVLA and insurance?
What process do you have to go through to make it legit?

Thanks paul