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Those numbers are the body numbers... I showed him where the vin numbers were.

I was down there Thursday afternoon to strike the deal and went back first thing Friday to haul em out of there. He mentioned that there were other interested parties, but the first one with the cash would get them. I guess I was the guy.

I checked out the numbers and the history of the cars...I am confident that everything is on the up and up...met the whole family, etc.

Im out east of Temecula if you want to come by for a look-see...just let me know.

Im considering selling one to finance the rebuild of the other...hard part is choosing which one to keep. I like the gold color better but the white car has A/C.

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Thanks for the info...I will send off for the build sheet info on both cars.

I found the vin plate but it is really worn and the stamped numbers are hard to see clearly.

So far, everything looks pretty good on the cars. The hog troughs are very solid, the cars are complete and the bodies look to be in nice shape. Possibly a little front end repair to one of them...well done but under the hood the corners up front look a little thicker than the other car. The interiors are complete and look like they will clean up pretty well. Worst part about them so far from my initial scan is that the chrome is really heavily pitted up and the pot metal emblems and such are virtually goners.

I dont have any dreams of full restorations on either car...on one I may do a little paint touch up just to fluff it up a bit but keep it original, on the other possibly a quick coat of paint as the paint on the hood and fenders has really flaked off and it looks bad.

I tried to attach a photo here but it didnt seem to take...what's the trick?

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First question...

Is there a way to figure out the chassis number of a car based on the body number?

On one of the cars the chassis plate is really hard to read...I think it reads 63R 3376 but Im not certain...the body tag on the same car reads 63 RQ2394.

Is there some way to crack this code?

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About 10 years ago or so I had a 64 Avanti that I had some fun with. It was a good runner and needed some cosmetics, but it was a good car and I had a blast with it. I sold it to a fellow from Canada who flew to California and drove it home (after rebuilding the brakes in my driveway).

Anyway...a couple days ago I saw an ad locally for two 63 R1s that were in storage and I followed up and bought the pair of them. The price was right and I just couldnt pass them up. Now Ive got to figure out what to do with them ! The cars had been sitting for probably a good 20 years or more...indoors, but near the ocean, so there is some heavy deterioration to the brightwork. The bodies look good, paint is poor and the interiors need some serious cleaning...mechanically they are a mystery but as is normally told...they both "ran when parked".

All Ive done so far is to drag them home and stare at them a little...Im hoping to get a little time after the holidays pass to play with them and see how well the clean up and if they will fire back to life.

Since Im a bit of a neophyte Im sure I will have a lot of questions...but I figured it would be fun to share "the find" with everyone.

Any comments?