F-Body Europe

Got me a V8 5.0 305cid Z28 through ebay here in Germany,
mean: I bought the car before seeing it.
Surprise, the body is in kind'a good shape, the guy stated that the engine would be running with a new starter.
It has a nice, classic dashboard in it. But it seems
to be repainted already twice, it is black now but there can be corners spotted which are bronce/brown and others are red. The interior is brown.
So I ordered a starter stateside through internet, but I'm wondering about something:
Per german registration paper the car was first registered in year 1986.
But the Vin# in the same paper has a *E* in 10. position which would be a year 1984. (Am I right?)
Some residue of sticker in the rear window says: expired Iowa 1985 bla bla.
Some make year on taillight glass says 1982...
the Vin# in the glove department in the middle console is
matching the number in the registration letter, but that could have been replaced.
The Vin# in the dashboard is all rusted and absolutely unreadable, do I have to take the hole front screen out to clean and read the number?
Or is there anywhere else the Vin# hidden?

Its no surprise that the numbers arent matching. I wouldn't doubt if there were some pontiac pieces in there also.Are the engine and tranny numbers matching up? All that cosmetic stuff has no doubt been shuffled around, just nature of the beast.

Start trying to find a way to dump that 305 for a 350, if your looking for a fast running 'ol V8.

G'luck
Rob

Yeah I've been thinkin' about a 350 already. But my first goal is to get it running and passing German inspection. It was deregistered for almost 4 years, so I don't expect this to be easy.

Well, judging from your infos on the VIN (do you have the complete VIN handy?), I'd say stick with the 305 for this and the next year, and go 350 or more once you can run it on red tags ...

Garry,
I think what you suggest is the smartest thing to do right now. I can always upgrade later on. But would the TÃœV then take the year of 1st registration (then I would have to wait 4 years, not two) or the VIN #.
Or really start searching when I tell them about the mismatch...
The complete VIN#: 1G1AP87G5EL170161

Well, the VIN clearly states it's a '84 car - it was probably brought to Germany in '86 ...
As to having the car registered w/red tags, check some of the oldtimer/classic car sites on the web, they should be able to give you some hints on how to convince the registration place what year your car is ...

thanks, that might help...
can you give me a hint to a good site?

Phew ... got to go through my bookmarks ... I might also have some guys address who I talked to about getting the 07 tags for my 79 (before I had a '79 ... )

... take your time, there is still another two years!
thx