Now, before this thread gets moved, and I get told to use the effing search function, I have spent a few hours trying to find a conclusive answer to my question, and so far have come up short of what I'm after.
A little background:
I have an imported EG6 Civic SiR, which was brought into the country in 1996 and built into a rally car from new. When it was imported, it was issued an Australian import VIN, and has held rego in 2 states (with different owners).
I am now trying to register the car in QLD (as a dedicated rally car) under the conditional rego, or "C-plates". In order to do this, there are several hoops I have to jump through, and I have everything covered except for one thing. QLD transport need copies of the original import approvals, in order to register the car under the "C" plates.
As I am the 4th owner, these papers have gone missing at some stage in the car's life (I have contacted each of the previous owners, to no avail)
"No problems" I hear everyone say. "Just send off to DOTARS to get copies". Great idea, except they need the original factory chassis number off the car, not the Australian issued import VIN. Again, no problem, i read off the code from the factory compliance plate, but am then told by DOTARS that there is no record of this number ever being given import approval.
Oh, crap!.
I'm pretty sure that the number I gave them is incomplete. From searching these forums, I have determined that Honda used a 17 digit VIN, and have found the various pages on these forums and in the FSM showing what all the codes mean. The number I quoted was EG6 - xxxxxxx (obviously numbers in place of all the little x's). Now, from my research, I have determined that the number should look more like
JHMEG639??S3xxxxx.
This makes it an EG6, built in Japan, 5 speed 2 door, 1995 model yadda yadda. The bit I'm not certain about is the two question marks, which come up as "fixed code" and "auxiliary number". Would anyone know what these numbers are meant to be? I can not find the original chassis number stamped ontot he chassis anywhere. The manual tells me that it should be on the firewall, on the passenger's side of centre (RHD model) but there is nothing there. That's where the Australian issued VIN is placed, but upon removing that plate there's nothing underneath. I have searched all the other spots, but come up with zip.
Being a rally car, there's a good chance it's had repairs in the engine bay (in fact I know it took a ht in 2007, and required replacement of some of the front RH structure). It is possible that the section carrying the chassis number may have been replaced at some stage in its life. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, as once the car is issued an AUstralian import VIN, the original chassis number no longer matters to Australian rego departments (or so I thought)
Is there anywhere else that the number might be located?
Can anyone with a JDM 95 model EG6 confirm what the numbers might be? This is only to satisfy myself - I'm not going to try and guess a number to issue DOTARS. I'm in contact with several other people to try and find the original chassis number, and would like to confirm through the numbering convention used by Honda at the time.
I'd appreciate any help in the matter. This car was built to run in the ARC, and won its class in 97, so has some pedigree. I'd like to keep using it as a rally car - would be a waste to convert it to a track car, or stick to khanacrosses and sprints (fun as they may be)
Sorry for the very long winded first post, and sorry if I'm asking questions already asked by others, but hopefully you can see that my queries are a bit more specific than the usual "dude - where's me VIN?"
Thanks all in advance.
