1980 MK1 Cab "ALF"

main suspicious point though, as I say, I'm pretty sure the car length differed in 1980 so the later hoods just wont bolt on at all.

rubjonny said

boot floor would take a lot to change over for late style, as would the seatbelt mounting as there are 2 holes early and just the 1 in the middle on late. no easy way to add the middle hole believe me i wanted to as i had a full set of late belts to fit on my cab and found out about the hole difference the hard way maybe it had a shunt up the back and had the floor replaced as part of tyhis relair, but it must have been pretty early on in its life for the insurance company to pay out for that!

as i say check for a vin number (or evidence of tampering!) under the plastic scuttle tray.

From “1980 MK1 Cab "ALF"”

  The origin of this debate was somebody saying it was a cut n shut/ringer. What Im asking is how to disprove that? Got to admit I think a PM would have sufficed…. So as I said, Provided old reg, engine code, I can get the chassis and vin numbers later on after work. No weld marks on the car whatsoever ( and yes I have looked properly) perhaps it was a prototype S2?  Shall I just scrap it on the words of forum goers then?

its unlikely to be a cut n shut if you cant find any welds, plus as i and others have said everything else seems to match up for it being a later car with the grommet holes in bulkhead, engine, interior etc.

pm me the VIN numbers you find and I'll have a look

buy yeah, even if its not a cut n shut something isnt right with the paperwork fo sho

No problem, will do after work, Is this common for a car of this age then? What problems could have been made with the paperwork? Changed reg and accidentl re registered old cars details as they were attached to the V plate?

not sure how common it is, they were valuable cars back in the day so have to imagine it must have happened now and again and only sad geeks like me would notice!

all the details all add up together point to a late car registered on an earlier cars V5 not just the boot floor, you have all the late interior, late dash, DX engine, late hood, late DX engine wiring loom.

the DX loom wont plug into early fusebox so loom would have had to be converted or whole car upgraded to blade fusebox…

the only thing I can think of is the car was bought abroad and it was just mistakenly listed as 1980 when it was registered over here. this was common as loads of UK servicemen bought cars over in germany and drove them about for a few years while they were based there then registered in the UK when they got posted back home. plus in the 80s it ended up cheaper to buy UK spec cars abroad then bring them back over here.

rubjonny said

its unlikely to be a cut n shut if you cant find any welds, plus as i and others have said everything else seems to match up for it being a later car with the grommet holes in bulkhead, engine, interior etc.

pm me the VIN numbers you find and I'll have a look

buy yeah, even if its not a cut n shut something isnt right with the paperwork fo sho

  I.e this series 2 vehicle has at some point been re registered and taken the identity of a similar model, with the reg XUN653V?

possibly, might even be that original log book was lost and a mistake was made either by the owner or dvla when issuing the replacement?

a vin number will help to see whats going on, another piece of the puzzle anyway. if the engien number is readable pm me that as well but it probably wont be!

It's a mystery as every thing about the car points to it being a later model.
The interior is from an "all Black model" bar the rear passenger cards. So the all black, model was 5-6 years later. It was a limited edition run so perhaps the PO was trying to pass it off as one in the hope for more money. It makes you wonder at the time though why you'd go to that trouble when there would of been other models about that were all ready later? You just can't tell what people have in mind.
Cars from over the years do get changed around and there's been a lot of swapping of stuff maybe, but that's a lot of work to do all that to an older car money wise, unless the PO had a later donor Car to take everything off.
You do have a later roof frame on the car. Early frames don't sit well on later cars and as pointed out the release handles etc are in different places. 79-81 frames on later cars sit higher out of the rear section when folded down and the tonneau cover (which early ones are hard to find) has different fixings inc the parcel shelf which would have a row of press studs on the leading edge.
So a later frame on an early car, not usually a problem.
VW made an awful lot of changes in a short few years after the start of the cabby production, so it's no wonder that folk wonder about the cars history.
The GLi had the 1588cc GTI engine and suspension, while the GLS had uprated trim, but only a 70 bhp, 1457cc engine. Around 1982, the 1.8 GTI engine was installed into the GLi, and the GLS got a 1595cc unit. For 1981, the dash was upgraded. Sports seats and a lockable glove box became part of the specification by 1983. Cabby was lengthened from 150.2in. to 150.8in around 1983.

ah so a late hood will still bolt to a 1980? if so thats 1 less problem to worry about. still leaves the boot floor but it could have been an accident repair job.

if a previous owner had a later and early cab side by side then you could swap everything, even loom holes no problem if you think outside the box, use a bit of wood screwed to smaller hole to give you a pilot hole to drill larger ones for example.

main thing as i say look under plastic tray and check the vin code area very closely for tampering. pm me or anyone with ETKA the VIN code then we can look it up to check when the shell was made