I cleaned paint and other crud to expose the serial number on the right front inner fender, but somebody removed it with a grinder. Is this standard procedure? All I can say is the the donor car was originally non-metallic green.

wire wheel the back side..you can get a ghost image ..
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...8239&st=20#

For criminals, yes. Otherwise, no.

Looks like it was welded and ground down. I've seen a few cars where Body shops have done this when the put a complete clip on a car. Usually they will restamp the original vin though.

Sorry, but I have only ever seen that associated with stolen cars or car parts. I hope you can pull an image off the back side to see the VIN. That is frustrating.

Could be as simple as it never got stamped, if nothing shows up on the bottom side.

Not stamped? As in, not stamped from the factory or not stamped as in a unstamped factory original replacement panel?

Also, why would they have to take the grinder to the top if it was never stamped?