Determining year and spec from VIN?

[Ulfi]

I'm curious about the history of my car - a silver 230 SL from 65 -as it is seems like it is a Euro-spec car imported to the US and then to Denmark (talk about a detour). The previous owner in the US was one Lawrence Liebermensch of San Diego CA, but I haven't been able to track him down. Is there any way that one can determine what colour scheme the car was originally and to which market it went merely by looking at the VIN?
I could that with my MGA, but I don't know whether it also applies to a Pagoda...

Best regards

Ulf

[JamesL]

You can, quite easily, although not from the VIN directly

However, you need to contact the Classic Centre - either US or Stuttgart.

I had to fax them proof of ownership, the VIN and requested the data card. They came back offering to sell me a very nice certificate.. or a copy of the card itself.

I took the latter route and from that - and here - was able to work out exactly what left Sindelfingen in October 1969.  

Oh, and build month is available on this site also using the last 6 digits of the VIN (well, all of it but the 113 042 bit is a given for the 230...
http://www.sl113.org/wiki/pmwiki.php?n=DataCard.USModelYear#ProductionMonths


Read this and you may get what you need on the data card..
http://index.php?topic=9070+card[/url]

[Ulfi]

Thanks James! I've already established the build month from the very same link, seems like it took half a year to sell the car as the first registration is in October 65 and the build month is somewhere between February and March 65, but now I need to establish what colour combination the car originally came in and whether it was a euro- or US-spec. I'll give the guys in Stuttgart a call as you suggested.
Hope you and the rest of UK will have a long and sunny autumn!

Ulf

[hands_aus]

Ulf,
Does your car have the plate near the bonnet clamp? Inside Left hand mudguard.

The plate has a combination of numbers that looks like

113042 22
717H 717H
etc

That plate has the paint numbers and manufacturer, options codes and country of delivery code.
This has been discussed many times on this site so please do a search both here and the User Manual for more information.

cheers