Andrew Mace wrote:
Henry Frye wrote:
> > Michael,
> >
> > Can you direct my to the Commission number on the frame? I have never seen
> > one.
>
> Aw, Heck! I'll jump into the Frye/fray here. :-))
Well, I suppose "Frye" does sound a bit like a Cockney "fray." But bad
puns this early in the morning? Oh, Andy, how cruel! <g>
> Anyway, I'm aware of the chassis number plates, but ISTR that they show
> just that: the CHASSIS number and NOT the COMMISSION number. At least
> I believe that to be the case on Spitfires. In other words, there is a
> chassis number, much as there is an engine number, gearbox number or
> differential number. For us "numbers freaks" these numbers should be in
> the correct series and within range, but they practically never match each
> other.
Now you've practically forced me to take a trip over to the storage
facility and have a look at the frame for the `70. Of course, I can't
remember if I painted over the tag to make it less conspicuous, but
worth a check, anyway. If I remember reading the factory manual
correctly, the frame number was supposed to match commission, since its
location was supposed to be the most unalterable in the event of theft
(a grand, yet meaningless, concept, that, in the age of the chop shop
<g>).
Nevertheless, it's rather strange (although in keeping with British
practice <g>) that a number _not_ in conjunction with the commission
number (used to register the car) would be the most reliable with regard
to theft recovery ID.... (!)
An aside--it's a common technique among builders of all sorts of
equipment. The buses we produce have the VIN recorded on the
certification label in the driver's area, and on the VIN plate at the
engine compartment. Nevertheless, these are riveted-on tags, and can be
removed. The last six digits of the VIN (the build sequence number) are
stamped into the structure in an inconspicuous place, so that there is
always a way to relate the actual bus back to the assigned VIN.
Cheers.
--
My other Triumph runs, but....
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