Looking for Manufacture/Build Dates of New Zealand Assembled CKD

F

Fraserp6

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I've a blue 71 V8 that is a CKD, my understanding is that it is a UK manufactured but New Zealand assembled car.

I'm looking to send it back home to the UK as its totally rust free and is in outstanding condition.

In order for it to be registered back home, I believe it needs a build date or date of manufacture, which in turn I need to find verification of.

The Chassis Number is 45301072A

Any idea where I should look? I've tried Gaydon... they don't appear to have records of the CKD kits that leave the UK (I suspect this is because its not actually a fully built car by the time it leaves the UK)
 
According to dates in Mark Websters book "Assembly, New Zealand Car Production 1221-98" all 3500 were built at the NZ Nelson plant, and I don't think any were assembled at any BMC or Leyland plant in Australia. Rover 3500 built for the NZ market were built between May 1971-April 1975, and Rover 3500 built for export to Australia were built between June 1972-October 1976. Both my P6B's have a chassis number ending in E, which I think is the export from NZ to Australia and all Aussie rovers have the Australian compliance plate with a build date stamped on.
Do NZ home market not have any compliance plate affixed with a build date??
453 is the starting numbers for all CKD kits from UK according to rudiger wicke's website
"A" suffix seems to be for UK market
 
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What information is on the NZ registration documents, does it not give a manufactured date or only a first registration date ?
 
My NZ assembled P6B has a tag riveted to the inner guard just below the chassis number plate.. From my memory, having worked for NZ Motorcorp in the parts division, this plate is an internal company tag. Mine reads HP2125376. This should break down to being the 2125th unit assembled at the Nelson plant. The 376 indicates it was built in March 1976. This fits in with the Australian applied compliance plate, applied to car on arrival in Australia, which shows a build date of April 1976. NZ vehicles didn't have compliance plates at the time these vehicles were built. It may be a CBU (Completely Built Up) UK assembled vehicle. If it is NZ built the drop glass in the doors should have the NZ safety standards mark the rest of the glass should be of UK origin. If the vehicle is currently registered or has the registration on hold the paper work will show when it was first registered. In 1971 new cars were restricted imports so when they landed or left the plant they were generally registered within a week.
 
As a further example my NZ P6B was first registered 7th Jan 1975 and has an inner guard factory tag of HB7201074 indicationg a factory build date of Oct 1974


Graeme
 
actually i'm sure all P6 bodies were made in UK and shipped to NZ by cutting through the A, B/C, D pillars allowing the upper body above the waistline to be turned upside down and placed inside the lower body half for shipping then rewelded back in place at the Nelson plant. So, an NZ assembled P6 will have the tell tale rewelding at said pillars (as mine does, and my parts car does) as opposed to a UK import which will not have been "chopped" so the tag on the inner guard would be the UK assembled chassis tag?? as the chassis were'nt built up in NZ or was the HP tag fitted at the Nelson factory??

mine is HP1261 874 and the Aussie Compliance plate is 10/74

For extra info from the above mentioned book by Mark Webster,
1345 Rover 3500's were built for the NZ home market between May '71 - April '75,
and 1806 3500's for export to Australia were assembled between June '72 - October '76.
 
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westOz74P6B said:
actually i'm sure all P6 bodies were made in UK and shipped to NZ by cutting through the A, B/C, D pillars allowing the upper body above the waistline to be turned upside down and placed inside the lower body half for shipping then rewelded back in place at the Nelson plant.
Click to expand...
Is that how they did it?
The South African V8s generally nearly all had their roofs rust off them in pretty short order and the fix was to find a wrecked 4 pot and chop the roof off to transplant over. I managed to find what was probably the last 2000 LHD in a breaker when I bought mine back in 1994 and did just that. Also got the pedal box out of it for my manual conversion, later.

For some odd reason the 3500s were all CKD but the 4 pots were PKD imports and the shambles that was the Leyland Blackheath plant in Cape Town managed to totally ignore the fact that rust may occur....
 
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