is there a way to ad this car to our data/registry?

I'm afraid not. The VIN database heavily relies on the VIN numbers to be within the known pattern.


Any way you can find out what the original VIN was?

any ideas?

The chassis number and year will get you into the range of VIN numbers, but not to the exact number.

Is there any way to retrieve it from the front fender or was it completely cut out?

Here is a thought. Call PCNA, explain your situation and ask if they can get you a COA based on the engine number.

If the engine is original to the car, they should be able to match that to the original VIN.

the 914 numbers expert is David Pateman - he will tell you exactly where to find the factory oem numbers

- look him up in the member section

fwiw - all 914's and 911's have a "secret" stamped VIN under the dash - on the 914 it is above the ash tray, - it's a bitch to see - take out the entire ashtray & mounting part and get some mirrors and a really bright light

. somewhere I have a picture of one of these under-dash stampings - - can't find it right now, but will post when i do

- nowadays the CHP is usually smart enuf to find that - but it depends on how many yrs ago your car was re-registered

it will be there - unless the thief who "rebuilt" your car was smart enuf to know about it and cut it out (but that would be a bitch of a task in itself)

how the factory got that stamped up in there is anybody's guess - but i'll guess it was done prior to the dash being welded into the shell

(on 911's under the knee pad)

David will also direct you to find a production number (not VIN) stamped in the trunk

go look on the originality thread - those guys are much more attuned to this issue
.

p.s. = after you discover the true number - don't go rushing to validate it with the CHP - they may discover it was a stolen car

.

Thanks for the info - I did find the number 7429578E in the area under the ashtray, but it is not stamped into the metal - it was done with yellow marker.

Any chance the "E" is two numbers???

Looks like an E to me. The first number may not be a seven, it is questionable. What do you think?

Crap, that is a (European) 1 and not a 7.

The car is identified as a 73 with its reissued vin number,

What do you think?

I also just noticed that the color of the dash matches the color of the car which is pretty much unheard of!

Something is really fishy here ...

It seems to have been pretty random, so eventually there should be some car where the dash and exterior actually matched in color...

the 914 numbers expert is David Pateman - he will tell you exactly where to find the factory oem numbers

- look him up in the member section

fwiw - some 914's have a stamped VIN under the dash - on the 914 it is above the ash tray, - it's a bitch to see - take out the entire ashtray & mounting part and get some mirrors and a really bright light

I can tell you for sure that 9140433394 caries a "stamped in steel" number in this location on a tab above the ashtray

here is a picture of the location of one of these under-dash stampings

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Click to view attachment

I did a good search over the area above the ash tray and found no stamped numbers. I'm sure that it's a 914/4.
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how the factory got that stamped up in there is anybody's guess - but i'll guess it was done prior to the dash being welded into the shell

David will also direct you to find a production number (not VIN) stamped in the trunk

- but apparently not all cars have this, and maybe not all cars have the stamped number above the ashtray

- Porsche-Karmann made a lot of running changes in body production etc over the 6 yrs that are simply not documented, and for which there is no authoritative source beyond each of our personal observations

go look on the originality thread - those guys are much more attuned to this oem numbers issue
.

p.s. = after you discover the true number - don't go rushing to validate it with the CHP - they may discover it was a stolen car