Hi all from newbie camper owner (in dire need of a bit of advice)

Be careful, good luck and hope you get to the bottom of it all.
(And welcome to the site!)

 

the original 72 will have been too rotten to mot in 2002 the owner bought the 79 with full intention of continuing the free tax but made the mistake of doing it badly because they were using it themselves or the mot place was a mate and knew him, i've seen it a thousand times on landrovers. plod is semi correct on the way parts can be changed but the dvla operate a points system to enable the 'new' car to still be the old one, landrovers have fully removable chassis so can be swapped but the engine gearbox axles etc all add up to points, there is no way there is enough of that van left to be the 72 bus, in [glow=red,2,300][glow=red,2,300]FACT[/glow][/glow] i would hazard a strong guess none of it is. glad you're not resting on the word from plod because although as i said earlier plenty do the V5 fiddle i've not seen one as bad as rhis.

 

That's better news i guess. I'd try checking both chassis numbers with the dvla. At the very least it's someone dodging road tax, as others have said, you can't swap the bodies and chassis' on these, well you could, but it would take ages and be very difficult all to save a couple of hundred quid a year in road tax. I'd scrape the filler off the engine bay number, sand down the m plate addition and re-register it as a '79, you'll have to pay road tax but at least it'll be correct and won't put off future buys, and you won't get in trouble with a more thorough copper.

 

My advice -

for the moment drive and enjoy BUT make sure you have details of the copper you spoke to and/or written confirmation so IF suddenly you need to claim or someone comes knocking you are able to prove who and when you spoke with PC Plod. Get a badge number and email /letter!

Have you HPI'd both plates - this will show written off or stolen?

good luck!

 

Its all been said I think. Lots of opinions. Depends what outcome you want really.

If you want your money back an start again then I would give the previous owner a call if you dont want to talk face to face and tell them the situation. Give them a chance to sort this out. If that works out then yes - they may sell on as -is, thats not your issue IMHO so dont feel the guilt.

Tell him to contact us and we will tell him how to ring it properly (only joking).

If you want to keep the van as is then you have a few issues. Insurance validity and value, resale value, potential police and DVLA issues in future.

If you want to legitimise as a 79 then you will need to apply for the log book - wedont know if the original vin is stamped on it so you need to find out - doing this might obliterate the "new" number, you also have the issue of the tampered plate as well.

I really do sympathise but all in all you seem to have a bus you are legally entitled to keep but a few issues to put to bed. very good luck and some karma coming your way ;D

 

^^^ Well said

 

Well... more thanks to all of you, I'm quite overwhelmed by the volume of good wishes, suggestions and ideas. Here's the latest I've discovered to add to the mystery:

MOT checks show that the 72 bus failed an MOT in May 2006 with the following notes: Front subframe corroded. Structure has excessive corrosion which adversely affects braking or steering (same for rear subframe). Then in July 2006 it passed.

A mileage check shows all the mileage stacks up from 2002 to 2012 but in 1994 it was 6k more.

HPI check on both vehicles came back with the following:

1972 bus, not stolen, not scrapped, no plate change, no colour change, listed as campervan, red and white.
11 previous owners, - (the engine number is listed, where would I need to look on the engine to check if it matches)? Condition, nothing reported, not written off.

1979 bus, not stolen, not scrapped, no plate change, no colour change, listed as an 8-seater microbus, red.
8 previous owners. Last change of owner 20-02-2001. Again need to know where to look to check engine number? Condition, Date 04-10-2001, Cat C Extensive Damage.

Do my pics look like an 8-seater microbus? Did they convert them? sorry to sound like a numpty but my knowledge is very limited (although it's growing by the hour on this site).

So the good news is neither of them is stolen, so I am legally the owner of the vehicle I have, I just need to ascertain legally exactly which vehicle it is! I think tomorrow I need to call the police again before I start investigating the vin number in the engine bay with a putty knife or something.
If someone could point me in the right direction on whereabout the engine number is, that would probably shed some light too as now I have engine numbers for both the 72 and the 79 and I'm pretty sure it will match the 79.
Blimey, just looked at the time, think I'm getting a bit obsessive with this.
Night night all
Cx

 

Welcome to the forum Caro, a bumpy start but a start all the same...

Hope you get everything sorted so you can get out and use your lovely bus!

Robo...

 

*smug mode on* as i guessed..... ref the engine, what cc engine is the 72 listed as? then what is the 79? we can probably tell just by that, as for the microbus listing, all vw's started life as delivery vans or microbusses and were then converted to motor caravans which can be changed on the V5 by the dvla, the vin number for both vehicles will tell us which one started life as a panel van and which as a microbus, panel van conversions have flat windows with the rubbers 'sticking out' microbusses are recessed, but as i say this can be seen on the vin number, it looks like the interior from the 72 was put in the 79 then, look on the bright side, when we have the 2012 awards i'll vote for you for best introduction from a newbie

 

Depending what engine you have depends where the number is = post up a pic of inside of engine bay so someone can advise.

At least you now know neither bus was stolen so legally it will be yours, just need to know which one you own, then it shouldn't really be to difficult to sort, will just need to sort the bus and paperwork correctly so it is all as it should be for one bus ). Good luck, and what a pity you have had to go through all this with your first purchase. Hope it doesn't put you of, they aren't all bad.

 

Just gone over all this and it's bad , what gets me is how they have out the numbers on the plates the rear is not even strait what a bad attempt

 

I seem to be in an alternative reality here, a glass case of emotion if you will (you can tell Anchorman was on telly this week!)

On one hand I am extremely pleased that neither bus is stolen - which was my main concern, as as a community we damn the thieves that nick them, but seemed to be err ing towards if the cops say its ok, don't check further - am happy to be wrong on that but that's deffo how it felt. Put it this way - how would you feel if your bus was nicked and had another buses ID put on it, and the owner then only made the most cursory of checks, knowing something was wrong but carrying on regardless.

I guess that's by the by as it transpires.

MaBlimey - credit to you for persevering when the outlook is bleak - fair play as its hard to watch, leave alone be in your shoes.

At least the 1979 bus is not stolen - a good thing.

But - and its a big but - am I the only person that is picking up on this:

HPI check on the 1979 Bus - Cat C Extensive Damage.

You have a bus that was written off, now carrying illegally doctored chassis plates from another vehicle.

Fail to understand how this is a good outcome - the owner indeed may have possession of a bus that isn't stolen, but is in possession of the true definition of a cut and shut/ringer.

It's still not legal to doctor chassis plates and is there any VOSA engineers check to show that the repairs are up to scratch - you might have a Cat C write off driving about (admittedly, the MOT's give you some comfort, but its not hard to get dodgy MOT's).

Put it this way - the numpty that can't use a punch in a straight line may have done all your welding/repairs from a Cat C Extensive damage write off?!

Someone somewhere has carried out fraud - to protect yourself I would still go to the authorities and get the thing checked - I would imagine you might be able to get an engineer's check and re-register the 1979 bus on its 1979 details.

Appreciate I might be the harbinger of doom - and probably not popular here as a result - but you have invested bucks and need to know you are safe and legal - I'd push this through as you are already in a better place than you were yesterday.

 

In fairness cat c write off is repairable just means the damage is more than the insurers deem the vehicle worth, could mean it just had engine fire for example no need to panic although a vosa check (vic check) may me needed to re register the van as a 79 and also some insurance companies don't like write offs so you might struggle to get insurance but i wouldn't worry chances are with rhe info you have ( original reg/vin etc) you'll be able to find out what has happened and get it on an age related plate, looks like you'll be paying road tax though.

 

Morning all!
Here is a picture of the engine.
Can't believe all this shenanigins really. I am just so relieved that I'm not driving around in someone elses 'lost baby'. Yesterday I knew I couldn't just leave it, I had to follow it through to the bitter end, even if it meant losing both my savings and the bus. I'm not actually sure if it's possible that the 72 bus was used to get the 1979 bus written off. I need to try and find out now what the damage was, who all the previous owners were to try and establish exactly what happened. Will be actually physically going into a police station today where maybe I can actually get someone to follow the whole thing up (but I'm not going to hold my breath).
I am hopeful now that I may in the end be able to get this bus VOSA checked and re-registered as a 79 but I know it's going to be a long and arduous papertrail before that happens. Sorry if I'm answering questions from different people in one post, I haven't figured out how to answer individual posts! Both 72 and 79 have 1600 engines (well 15 something) - and I've just been out and had a poke around in the engine bay and guess what... the engine number matches the 1979 bus! Going to try and link up all the MOTs, tax discs (I've got all the tax discs) and mileage readings so try and get a timeline of sorts and an idea of where each bus was at given times... onward and upward! Cx

 

Just to be clear - I can't see a reason at the moment as to why you may loose your bus (unlike when there was a suspicion of it being nicked) but you do need to be careful what you do next - remember you have bought it in good faith and it's not registered as stolen.

 

I'm really really happy for you MaBlimey!

What a roller-coaster of a day you had. But hats off to you - you persevered and now confidently own a bus that ISNT stolen, rather one with an 'interesting' history which adds to the story of your dream!

Lets have some positivity team - no matter what the story is with the rego's and the vin van von plates, its surely all manageable, MaBlimeys not loosing all her money and that makes this a good day!

The weathers looking amazing this weekend! What better way to celebrate than to park up somewhere nice and reflect over a refreshing bottle of bubbles!

 

Are you going to chip away at the chassis number in the engine bay to see if there is another under the filler ? May be worth seeing what's under that . Good luck

 

I thought I'd go to the police and let them have a look before I start taking the number off (just in case they have sanded the original off and then I wouldn't have any ID).