HELP with NSX door plate number

[onecrazydriver]

I am thinking of purchasing this NSX, but I just noticed that the numbers on the picture of the door plate look funny.

The last two digits, 95, looks like it was engraved by hand or something. Is this standard???

Thanks.

The car is at ebay
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2401009751&category=5337

The Pic is at
http://64.49.221.202/pix/laxchix/NS26.JPG

 

[Lud]

**EDIT * See below for further / ongoing discussion of the serial number plate.

That car looks to be in pretty rough shape overall and a quick glance at the ad shows it has some other issues as well (power antenna is broken, missing some small trim parts, very odd stains/discolorations on the trunk carpet, etc.)

[This message has been edited by Lud (edited 30 January 2003).]

 

[onecrazydriver]

Thanks, you guys have such sharp eyes.

 

[I Grok NSX]

Wow, that is wierd. I just checked my plate and, like Lud said, all the numbers are machined perfect.

------------------
1994 Green-black roof/tan, 5 speed
Do you know of another Green-Black roof NSX?? Please email me if you do.

 

[NSEXTASY]

Its the factory vin# if you match the dash vin they would have the same style ..some of the nsx vin# looks funny .

 

[Paul65K]

Any chance that Honda may have changed things in later model years? I checked my door plate last night MY-1997 #169 and the numbers on both door plates appear to be perfectly engraved through the 000 but the 169 appears to be a different font on both sides.

I noticed this on every car that I looked at (95 and later) while I was looking for my car over the past 6 months.

Any comments from owners of 95 or 96 and newer.

------------------
97 NSX-T Black/Tan
00 Mercedes 430CLK (Cab)
93 Cadillac Allante (Northstar) - For Sale
98 GMC Sierra
00 HD Dyna WideGlide
83 Cessna 303 (Crusader)

[This message has been edited by Paul65K (edited 30 January 2003).]

 

[Lud]

I just double-checked my '98 and the serial number digits are machine-perfect and look basically the same as the other characters on the plate. There may be some VERY subtle differences in line weight, because if you look very closely you can tell they were not all engraved at the same time, but the difference is so subtle I doubt it would even show up in a snapshot picture.

By contract, the one in the picture linked above has drastically mismatched characters and has a hand-engraved look.

If there is a difference between model years, that would certainly be interesting to note. However at least the '97+ cars seem to be back to the original machine-perfect look judging by my '98 and the '97 shown below.

The only serial number plate picture I have handy is from the '97 blue -T that was converted to a coupe. Despite all the other things wrong with that car, the serial number plate looked normal. Here is that picture cropped down to the numbers:

Now compare that to the one linked above:

Does anyone have other info?

[This message has been edited by Lud (edited 30 January 2003).]

 

[Soulstice]

Originally posted by Paul65K:
Any comments from owners of 95 or 96 and newer.

I have a '96 model and the ALL the numbers look exactly the same (as Lud described)

------------------
'96 Black/Tan NSX-T
Short gears, Dali swaybars, Ferodo/Axxis Ultimate brake pads, Bridgestone S-03s

 

[cpmoran]

mine is 896 and they all look machined, but the nine looks weird, but it looks just like the one in pics. Anyone else have a nine in their vin? Pleas post pics!

 

[Paul65K]

Originally posted by cpmoran:
mine is 896 and they all look machined, but the nine looks weird, but it looks just like the one in pics. Anyone else have a nine in their vin? Pleas post pics!

Same issue I have. The 9 especially looks like the one in the previous post.

I tried to take a picture of it in the garage but I couldn't get it to come out, and I don't have time to uncover and take outside right now.

 

[Vytas]

Here's a pic of my '91, #991.

[This message has been edited by Vytas (edited 30 January 2003).]

 

[Lud]

Very interesting... Looks like I may need to correct my earlier statement about the consistent look of all the numbers!

Does anyone have a good picture of a 5 in the serial number? I don't have any 5s in mine to compare.

Still, Vytas's looks perfect and machine-done, just with a 9 that doesn't seem to fit the font scheme of the rest of the numbers.

The one in the link at the top of the thread still looks "rougher" to me.... but maybe that's just an artifact of the photograph or the JPEG compression?

 

[Vytas]

I came across this plate pic on Ebay that has the 5 in it for comparison. Looks similar to the 5 on the plate in question.

Lud, you may want to add this to the archive should the font style of the ID plate numbers be questioned again.

 

[Lud]

Good research guys, I will add it to the FAQ.

 

[jlindy]

Although they may resemble the 9 and the 5, the numbers clearly are not the same color, depth, or conistency as the rest. The factory five has a smooth circle in comparison to the uneven 5 shown in the picture. The last two have a much deeper grove than the rest.

 

[nsxtasy]

Actually, I disagree here. I think the 5 and the 9 posted in the original picture are indeed consistent with those posted by others.

The 5 is a rather unusual shape, because the horizontal and vertical lines at the top of the figure look much larger than the circle underneath them. This is a very unusual way for a 5 to appear in a font, yet you can see that that is the way it appears both in the TT000095 as well as the PT000567 posted by Vytas.

Similarly, most 9 figures used in fonts consist of a round circle on top, with the curved line hanging underneath. While handwritten nines often come to a point on the upper right portion of the circle on top, font nines usually don't. But again, you can see that this point is visible in the way the 9 appears both in the TT000095 as well as the MT000991 posted by Vytas.

I also wonder whether the leading zeros in the VIN vary in depth, because those figures are used over and over again during the stamping process (as are the two letters preceding them). I bet they have to replace them every so many cars, because they get used on every car, and only the non-zero figures are replaced from one car to the next. The leading zeros look slightly shallower than the other digits, not only in the TT000095, but also several of the other VIN plates posted in this topic.

For these reasons, I think the TT000095 sill plate in the first photo is genuine.

Just my O...

[This message has been edited by nsxtasy (edited 19 February 2003).]