Fast Marina Magazine

I have two Marinas, both are Coupés and both were registered in late 1973. The green 1,3 in October and the yellow TC in December. What puzzles me though is that the serial numbers are so far between.

The TC has 135817 in its "VIN" whereas the 1,3 has 265972.

Also the other number, that is on a small plate on the inner wing (body number?) are very far between, with the TC at 106299 and the 1,3 at 156173. Can anything be saifd about which of these cars were built first? If they were built in number-order then the TC would have had to be sat somewhere for quite some time before being registered.

Actually there is one thing on the TC that suggests it could be older than 1973. It has the indicator stalk on the right hand side of the steering wheel which is "wrong" in a left hand drive car. The 1,3 has a more normal setup. My dad had a 1971 1,8 in the seventies and it also had the column switches the wrong way round.

Is it possible the TC was imported second-hand and converted from right-hand drive to left-hand drive? iirc the glovebox and instrument pod are interchangeable...

Bryan
Auckland NZ

I don't think it was imported second-hand and converted. Not a Marina, not to Sweden. But can anything be said about the numbers?

both my 1972 cars have vin 150661 & 12260 (one of them beiing a van) . i also have a 1972 TC and some 1973 models but don't have their chassis# at hand. The man to speak to about this is uncle frank as he is currently putting together a list over early chassis#

Iv noticed that Jims green tc coupe has a lower chassi number to mine but its registerd later than mine. Will post numbers and dates on as soon as iv found them!! Must of been sitting somewhere for a time

Many UK members know that for tax exemption purposes, production of coupes had reached chassis numbers in the 175xxx series by the last day of 1972.So I would expect Fille´s yellow car to date from spring of 1972, and a logical explanation for its late registration date would be that it was a showroom display model for 18 months, in fact until the update with vinyl roof,tinted windows and headrests came along late in 1973.Certainly in Denmark, and likely in Sweden as well, TCs were only imported specifically when ordered in colour of customer´s choice. However 1.3 & vans sold in sufficient volumes to be imported without pre-ordering.
I owned a Danish 1971 TC coupe with a chassis number 71xxx for a year in the 1990s - it was registered late in 1972 and I got it from the granddaughter of the original owner,most likely also a showroom queen!

Thanks for that info!

Is there any other way than a heritage certificate to find out the exact build date? I know the Heritage certificates are unobtainable for these cars so I guess not? Just have to stick to the original registration date then?

The build date correct to within a month should be stamped on the wiper motor box -the car would have been assembled most likely no more than a month after the wiper motor was made,provided the original is still fitted! My guess is May 1972 for this car

I will have a look today!

Just checked the wiper motor, the only thing on that motor that I can interpret as abuild date was 50 72, ie week 50, 1972? Does this make sense?

On the underside of the motor was stamped

14 W ->PARK
12 V 50 72
and a number series that I didn't register.

Hi Fille, yes that date will be correct, week 50 `72, so she would probably have been built within the last week of 1972.

Ok! This was interesting, I will have to check the green 1,3 as well!

Its nice to know your TC is from 1972,but rather later than I would have guessed, as mine is 218662 from March 1973

If you still havent found any original keys for your car, but know the FT xxx number for the door & boot locks,and the 0000-9999 number of the steering lock I may be able to help as a friend has a big bunch of around 20 sets of Marina keys for all the cars he scrapped in the 1990s

Thanks XER, is there anyway I can find out these numbers except from the (non-existent) keys?

Hi

Go to this site, it tells you how to find the numbers on the barrels.

http://www.triple-c.com/How_to_find_you ... y_code.cfm