Not sure if this is the right section, but i'll try here first, if its wrong section please move to correct area, i have an old mk1 transit and the vin is proving difficult to decode, its in South africa but i want to bring it to the uk, but i don't want it on a Q, its to old for Ford to have it on their database, the vin is CS05LK23001805549, the CS i believe means built uk but assembled in South Africa, 05 i think means transit, and LK is feb 1971 ish, at a guess 23001 is engine number but not sure on last 6 digits or if they mean anything, the South African log book shows it was taken off the road for a while, then when it got put back on the road it lost its original date of build/registration, and this is why i want to verify what the vin says about the vehicle, can anyone shed any light on this for me, and/or point me at someone that could verify and does anyone know where i go to get an official verification that DVLA will accept. i tried the transit but they couldn't give 100% decode, its a different layout to the modern vin's,

 

I have a similar problem with a 1980 Escort. Did you find out what you wanted and where did you get the info?

 

i got it sorted, one of the ford clubs off the DVLA list of clubs

 

Hi any idea which club?

 

you need to sort an ageing certificate from a club, then register with dvla, unless its from south africa and the vin starts 205xxxxxxxxxxxx

this list is a bit out of date, but try a few https://www.gov.uk/government/upload...5X1_270815.pdf

 

Hi I'll take a look over the list. The car is South African but the vin starts 214.

 

There's not much on there for Escorts. I rang DVLA earlier today and they gave me the name for the MK2 Cortina guy, Graham, but I can see the problem, there's not much on there for the Escort.

 

any ford club will do or any general club can help if they can decode it, doesn't have to be a club just for escorts

 

you might find that starting 214 its a government issued new VIN, which means you won't get any luck with a decode, 205 was the old vins issued, could be 214 now, normally escorts start 2 letters i thought

 

well it depends on where you read it, on the paper work they put a number sequence first but on the VIN plate it starts BM209. Does that mean anything to you?

 

the paperwork and the vin should match, the south african vins are funny, sometimes they separate the vin and the engine number, sometimes they put them together to create a long vin, sometimes it seems to be just made up