Decoding tag?

Warren

Gold forum user
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3,872
yes

Embassy black I think they call it ,

Left is engine or valve cover no. Right is engine group.

Can you see build date on block deck?
 

PITT40

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531
I pick up the car on Friday.

Black is a head scratcher. It's been in storage since 1969. It was repainted, but was clearly white from the factory. Look at the pics that show white down inside the driver door window opening and under door panel/under wing window on passenger side. Also, look under the hood. Everything is white in sight. In 1969, nobody was going to that trouble to repaint a 3 yr old car if they recolored it. It would have been easy to leave it all black because black is the default engine compartment color for most cars.
 

tiger260

Gold forum user
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425
What colour is the paint under the VIN.

I hate to say it but are you sure it isn't a wrong un?
 

Warren

Gold forum user
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3,872
Not Pictured

I have a black car 100% code 1 .
Embassy ? Kinda sure on that .Take it easy get under scuttle
also known as the fresh air box underneath the dashboard and look up you'll find black .
Or take off the hood latch ,mechanism where the heater core lives it'll be black in there too .. Good body shops did good work back in the day too it wasn't all Earl Scheib.

One more thing, you could take Q tip and lacquer thinner ,and gently remove the white from top of the JAL tag, there should be black paint on it under the white .
 

PITT40

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531
I am waiting for a call back from the present owner. Maybe someone repainted it white and he can verify it. The primer trunk always made me go hmmm. I knew it had a Vo Tech repaint before my guy got it.

It is clearly a Tiger. You can see in the pic that it has the spare tire boss and battery hold downs. Nobody would go to the trouble to install the spare tire boss back then. It also does not have the Alpine spare mount or holes from it being removed.

Here is another clue that was something that I just realized. It has MkII headlight bezels but he sent me a pic of originals and the cowl vents that go with the car. Take a look at what color they are. I also wondered about the paint chipping off the front fenders and figured it was dark gray primer. Maybe that is black paint that we see?

Do the VINs and JALs match each other from a list or are they independent numbers that have been later matched up? Is there any sales history data, like what dealer sold a car and to whom it was first titled?
 

leepear

Gold forum user
Messages
299
Sounds like you already bought it and probably a good price too. Contact Norm with the transmission and rear end numbers. There is a chance the vin tag came off another car but not likely, first look at the places Warren stated for signs of the original the black paint. Black Tigers are highly desirable. The easiest place to look is under the hood latch. You should have already contacted Norm because it is not original enough to trust it was not messed with in its short time one the road. Lee
 

PITT40

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531
I have paid for all but the last $6K. I will double check everything before final payment and title on Friday when I go to pick it up. There are plenty of areas to verify original color without picking up a tool. Norm said the car was not accounted for in the registry when I contacted him.

I'm not upset with it being an original black car AT ALL. They are very nice looking.
 

Warren

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3,872
Oh yeah

Sorry, now I remember the Vocational tech comment, and see where you were coming from.I went to one mostly to fix my home away from home van. We were encouraged to be thorough and strip everything. No doubt that's when the tags came off. I would not worry about that for 1 second, I would title the car with your DMV ASAP in it's current condition .

The cars were red oxide primer then body color. Undercoating was a broom finish, that probably meant a small whisk style brush of sorts. I think Lee was rather ruff on you the car does have some nice original features in the engine bay. The 5" booster may be a little early but it's hard to say, it does have the later heater valve.

Friday can't come soon enough can it...
 
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66TigerMK1A

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1,130
My car is about 99% bright red.. but still original code '86' above the kick panels...:cool:

under dash is an easy place to look!
 

P. Scofield

Black arm band member RIP
Messages
384
Very cool! You can always tell an original car in this kind of condition IMHO. It's the shiny ones you have to be cautious of. So I assume MKIa from the door panels, but I don't see fresh air vent pulls.

So what state did you pick it up in? How did you find out about it? I need the whole story!

I want to live vicariously through YOU!

Paul
 

cobrakidz

Gold forum user
Messages
2,289
Looks like a good complete car. Those headlight rings look awful, I'll trade you for the correct ones. :)
Like Warren says--check under the dash or under the cowl by the heater core.
 

PITT40

Gold forum user
Messages
531
This is Tiger #3 of my life. I had one in HS in the 80's and another project car about 7 or 8 years ago that I sold before I completed it.

A HS friend's dad posted a pic on Facebook of a late 60's Porsche 911 Carrera (or something like that, I don't know those cars). He commented that this was a car he used to have and wishes he still did. Then he said, "At least I still have my Sunbeam Tiger and Austin Healey 3000 in the garage". I sent him a private message asking about the Tiger and he told me it hasn't run since 1969. I asked if he wanted to sell. He said he was downsizing houses and going to put his current house on the market, so he needed to sell the cars. I went to look and verified it was a Tiger and we worked out a deal. I still had a pair of Mustangs that I wanted to sell first to make the deal happen.

It's got 36K miles on it and the title documents the miles because it was always titled in PA. I'm in Pittsburgh, but grew up in York County, PA and that's where the car is right now.
 

PITT40

Gold forum user
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531
I've gotten around 8 PMs about selling those headlight bezels. I'm not a fan of them, so they will be for sale.
 

Warren

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3,872
Missed ?

"Do the VINs and JALs match each other from a list or are they independent numbers that have been later matched up? Is there any sales history data, like what dealer sold a car and to whom it was first titled?[/QUOTE]


List resides with registry guys and those who went to see archives in UK. Search here and on other sites for "JAL" numbers are all over the map and rarely close a good but tiring read to be sure.

Calif. has a form called a inf 70 that will go back and spit out a print out of what they have on computer. It does not show guys who never bothered to re title a car. I hope PA has a similar form and service for you.

Old ads have dealer info on them by name and state. Plenty of them on eBay. I have a couple around someplace. I only remember the Cali. dealers as a vintage lic. plate frame is a nugget just like those MK2 rings.
 
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