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Thank you, Tom, That’s very helpful! Best regards, Steve

Great! Think about this: what are the chances that someone removed a riveted-on VIN tag, discarded it, filled the rivet holes, and painted over the filled holes? Does your title’s VIN match the chassis VIN (stamped into outer edge of right inner fender), the steering column VIN tag, the paper VIN tag on the left door, and the engine number? If they all match, the probability of someone removing a riveted-on VIN tag, and disguising that act by filling the holes, must be very close to nil! Regards, Steve

Uli, Do you realize that you falsely raised my hopes? I saw that you had replied and I came racing back to the thread, certain that you had a full explanation for the cut-outs... Left disappointed... 😢 Best regards, Steve

I have been directed, Tom, on the advice of counsel, to not answer that question. 😯😋😉 Best regards, Steve

There are ‘76’s manufactured before and after the VIN Tag-less Era. All you need is a photo of one of those cars. Email your car’s VIN to BMW Group Archives ([email protected]) and request their data on the car. They will provide, at no charge, the actual manufacturing date for your car. I believe I’ve not seen a May ‘76 manufactured before mid-month that has a VIN tag — which is why I vaguely say “sometime in May”, while I actually suspect the cut-off is late in May. Regards, Steve

I’m not telling, esty... you’ll think I’m a nut. Oh, wait, most of this forum already thinks I’m a nut! 😉 So... heck yeah, I’ve still got a fully functional emissions system, for a car that is no longer subject to inspection, emissions or otherwise. But the car is a 49-state version, E21 head, yada yada yada, so “emissions equipment” is largely an air pump and a dashpot — no thermal reactor nonsense. Best regards, Steve

SOOO glad to have you on here, Anders! And if you want to make up a pretty good tale about these cut-outs, I’ll swear to it! 😋 Best regards, Steve

U.S. 1976 model 2002’s manufactured from some time in February until some time in May 1976 did not have VIN plates. We don’t know why. But they were fully legal without the plates. What’s your plan, as in why do you wish to add a VIN tag to a car that hasn’t had one for 44 years? I’m curious because I bought my April 23rd ‘76 new and not once have I thought, “Hey, it would be great to add a VIN tag!” VIN Tag-less, and kind’a proud of it! Regards, Steve

This, Robert, is typical. To be clear, delivery to “Hoffman Motors Corp in New York City” was not physical delivery of the car. It was legal delivery of the car from BMW AG to Hoffman Motors Corp, a New York-domiciled corporation. That’s why the delivery could occur generally within a week of manufacture: the delivery preceded shipping, as Hoffman assumed the costs and risks of shipping. 100% of the Hoffman Motors-imported ‘02’s show legal delivery to Hoffman Motors Corp in New York City, even though their Ports of Entry (P.O.E.) were all over the U.S. — on both coasts — to ports that were generally the most proximate to the retail dealer. Your car, no doubt, had a San Francisco POE. Shipping took from 5 to 12 weeks, depending on all the variables, from shipping schedules, to weather, to trucking schedules, to location of POE, to Panama Canal schedules, to distance from POE to the retail dealership, etc. A car going from Munich to San Francisco perhaps took 7 to 9 weeks. So the car might have reached the retail dealership in late November or early December. And then it took two months to sell it. Contrary to what we like to think, these cars, especially early on, before anyone knew that BMW did not stand for British Motor Works, were not flying off the lots. Best regards, Steve

Mike, I have never seen a 2002 with the cut-outs, and I’ve definitely seen December 1967 1600-2’s without the cut-outs. That’s why I believe the cut-outs were phased out in October or November 1967. The schedule of ‘02 production we publish in this forum, under the History heading within Articles, shows the following: 1.) The first 10 Euro-spec 2002’s, VIN’s 1600001 through 1600010, were manufactured In December 1967. Regular production commenced in January 1968. 2.) The first 2 U.S.-spec 2002’s, VIN 1660001 and 1660002, were manufactured in ??? 1967. The VIN decoder offered by the BMW 2002 Car Club of Columbia, however, dates both these cars to December 1967. Regular production commenced in January 1968. I don’t know how many cars would define “regular production,” but VIN 1660016, a Polaris U.S.-spec 2002, was manufactured January 15, 1968, and VIN 1660497 was manufactured March 20, 1968, so about 481 cars from January 15 to March 20, 1968 — obviously not many. (VIN’s 1660477 and 1660482, of course, were also March cars, but I don’t have specific dates for them.) I have no idea if either of these sources is definitive, but they’re all we have. Given (a.) that only 12 2002’s were manufactured in 1967, and (b.) a high probability that all 12 cars were manufactured in December 1967, I suspect it’s unlikely we’ll ever see a 2002 with the triangular bulkhead cut-outs. But, if we did, I would probably get very excited, and then we’d have to find a December 1967 1600-2 with triangular cut-outs! 😉 Best regards, Steve

Thanks for publishing this, Robert. I’m looking for the latest example we can find of the triangular cut-outs. Your car pretty much pushes the end-date into October. I’m fairly confident I’ve seen October examples with the triangular cut-outs, but I don’t have VIN’s and dates to support that. Best regards, Steve

And after you receive the manufacturing date and factory color from Archives, please enter your car in this forum’s Registry — with a few photos, if you please! VIN 2782578 is, of course, a 1974 U.S.-spec tii, manufactured in July 1974, per RealOEM.com. Archives will know the specific date in July! Thanks and regards, Steve

Robert, The plastic originally used to close the holes was the same stuff — thickness of a cheap shower curtain liner — used to seal the doors. It was completely adequate unless someone accidentally stuck their ski through the hole... 😉 Best regards, Steve

Your block was cast June 27, 1984 (“27F” inside the oval frame and “84” just above the oval frame), first photo below. Given that date, it was a replacement block, as opposed to a block originally installed in a new 2002. The numbers stamped into the rear ledge indicate that it was also a component of a factory exchange engine. I’m assuming there is no engine number on the engine number boss shown by Hen. Is that correct? Let’s look at that rear upper ledge of the block, second photo below. At far left, a tiny BMW roundel has been stamped. The alpha-numeric stampings following the roundel describe an engine for a 1974-75 U.S. 2002 (“21”), factory-remanufactured (“A”), on September 1984 or 1994 (“9 4”) — according to our guidance, only the last digit of the year is stamped. The block would have been brand new in 1984, so if the year was 1984, perhaps the engine would be marked “N” for new, or perhaps new blocks were sometimes combined with used pistons, connecting rods, crankshafts, or whatever (?), giving rise to the “remanufactured” designation. I don’t know more. The source for this decoding is BMW’s Technical Reference Information (T.R.I.) 11 02 84, of October 1990, the first and relevant pages of which are reproduced below. Piano-top pistons, assuming they were fitted by the factory to this engine, merely reflect an E12 head, correct for a 1974-75 U.S.-spec 2002 engine. I don’t, offhand, know the compression ratio for those pistons, but I would guess a relatively low compression ratio, perhaps 8.3:1. Regards, Steve