VIN question

930_pit · 09-23-2015, 02:10 AM

Kindly shed me a light on this matter. My car is a 87 930. My car's VIN as seen on the black sticker by the driver's door is WP0JB0936HS051319. There's also a small sticker under the hood with a porsche label with the same VIN. Also same small sticker with the same VIN at the back where the license plate is. The same VIN on my nevada title.
However, I just found another number stamped in the body near where the reserved tire is. It says WP0ZZZ93ZHS051319. What is this?
Should the VIN and this number be the same or should they be different? Is this called chassis number?
Kindly help me on this one. Thanks!

lee88 · lee88's Garage

The WP0ZZZ**** would be a rest of world (ROW) VIN, not US like your WP0JB*** VIN. I can't think of an explanation unless a body panel had been swapped or VIN altered, but perhaps others have some ideas. Can you post some pics to show of these?

The VIN is the chassis number btw. For 1981 model year and onward, Porsche and other manufacturers standardized around the current 17-digit format for chassis numbers and the acronym Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) came into use. Prior to that each manufacturer had their own format for chassis numbers, so there were different number of characters and use of numbers or letters that wasn't consistent. Porsche used 5-10 digit chassis numbers (all numbers, no letters) prior to the standardization of VINs.

jay72 · 09-23-2015, 04:49 AM

Its perfectly normal.

lee88 · lee88's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by jay72

Its perfectly normal.

Thanks, good to know for reference. So that stamping inside the trunk inner tub utilizes the WP0ZZZ convention but with the same ending digits? How long did this carry forward... thru '89 or into 964/993 generation too?

jay72 · 09-23-2015, 08:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lee88

Thanks, good to know for reference. So that stamping inside the trunk inner tub utilizes the WP0ZZZ convention but with the same ending digits? How long did this carry forward... thru '89 or into 964/993 generation too?

Yes. Not sure if it ran into the 964/993 generation but my old '86 930 and my '89 930 have it.

930_pit · 09-23-2015, 09:49 PM

My analysis to this is that the chassis of my car was originally intended not for the US market, and when they decided this chassis should go to US, another VIN was assigned.

A few months ago, I brought my car overseas and my problem is how would I explain the 2 different VINs on my car to the registering office here in my country. All my papers are showing the US VIN and when my car arrived, the customs did a stencil on the sticker by the door by rubbing a carbon paper on the VIN then sticking a scotch tape on it so the numbers would transfer to the tape and stick it to the custom forms. They did it 3 times but as they stick the tape to the VIN and removed it, a few portion of the sticker was getting peeled off. Now the sticker with VIN is hardly readable.
When I brought my car to a local registering office for a VIN inspection, they could hardly read the VIN by the driver's side door and suggested to look for the one stamped on the chassis. I was not aware of the VIN stamped on the body and where to find it since I only know of the one by the door and it is the only one being inspected when I was still in the US. Honestly, I was surprised when the officer who did the inspection showed me the VIN on the trunk and was more surprised when he showed me that it is a different number. I don't know what to say about the 2 different VINs but I told him that all my paperworks like Title, old dmv registration, import permit and other documents use the VIN by the door. But the officer said that the registering office leans more on the one stamped on the chassis and suggested to present my case at their main office.
Thanks for the info and I hope more would chime in.

Noah930 · Noah930's Garage

Normal.

When the car was first assigned a VIN on the assembly line, the WP0ZZZ... VIN was stamped on the front trunk crossmember. At that time the recipient market for the chassis hadn't yet been assigned. So all cars have that ...ZZZ... designation stamped there. Then the car was assigned to a market and the rest of the VIN stampings and stickers match the intended market--not necessarily with that ...ZZZ... bit (though the rest of the digits should match up).