1970 Mexican Superbee (Valiant/Duster)
Just today I purchased a beater of an old 1970 Mexican Superbee (318 4 speed manual). It seems to be a re-badged Duster with some fancy whiz-bangs on it. From what I understand there were very few made and they were all made in Mexico (obviously). This restoration is going to take many years and I'm looking forward to the project. My question is as follows. From my limited research on these vehicles, it seems that there is no VIN tag on the dash where you would normally find one here in the states. I do have a tag in the drivers side door post that is riveted in place (isn't as long as I'd expect a VIN to be), and I have the fender build plate tag. Haven't found numbers on the core support or under the weatherstripping of the decklid yet. The build codes on the fender look similar to other dusters I've restored over the years but the lack of VIN is a bit strange to me. Maybe it's something to do with the Mexican vehicle construction and they weren't put on the dash like you would normally expect. There are two holes in the dash where a VIN plate would normally be riveted in place, it appears there has never been a plate riveted there. Any insight into where the VIN is located and where I could find translated body codes (some codes I've found, most others are still a mystery). I'm wondering if it's so difficult because the numbers used were different in Mexico than the US. Thanks for reading this, and thanks for the help.
Just today I purchased a beater of an old 1970 Mexican Superbee (318 4 speed manual). It seems to be a re-badged Duster with some fancy whiz-bangs on it. From what I understand there were very few made and they were all made in Mexico (obviously). This restoration is going to take many years and I'm looking forward to the project. My question is as follows. From my limited research on these vehicles, it seems that there is no VIN tag on the dash where you would normally find one here in the states. I do have a tag in the drivers side door post that is riveted in place (isn't as long as I'd expect a VIN to be), and I have the fender build plate tag. Haven't found numbers on the core support or under the weatherstripping of the decklid yet. The build codes on the fender look similar to other dusters I've restored over the years but the lack of VIN is a bit strange to me. Maybe it's something to do with the Mexican vehicle construction and they weren't put on the dash like you would normally expect. There are two holes in the dash where a VIN plate would normally be riveted in place, it appears there has never been a plate riveted there. Any insight into where the VIN is located and where I could find translated body codes (some codes I've found, most others are still a mystery). I'm wondering if it's so difficult because the numbers used were different in Mexico than the US. Thanks for reading this, and thanks for the help.