Here's an old thread on anti intrusion bars...
 
http://www.mr2australia.com/mr2play/tm.aspx?m=53124
 
Can be seen on the inside door jamb near the latch, two bolt heads that may appear to be obviously non factory or not.
If your car had an import compliance plate it should have been to the left of the stamped chassis number. Green or yellow I think but that depends on what state it was done in. There's a good chance this car never had one. 
 
I'd be checking out if the car is listed as stolen or not as my first port of call, but that just me.
 
Bad luck on this one, hopefully you didn't spend much on it. A good reminder for all of us to be thorough when buying cars!

Dudeman
Here's an old thread on anti intrusion bars...
 
http://www.mr2australia.com/mr2play/tm.aspx?m=53124
 
Can be seen on the inside door jamb near the latch, two bolt heads that may appear to be obviously non factory or not.
If your car had an import compliance plate it should have been to the left of the stamped chassis number. Green or yellow I think but that depends on what state it was done in. There's a good chance this car never had one. 
 
I'd be checking out if the car is listed as stolen or not as my first port of call, but that just me.

thanks, that should be helpful...
 
also, finding out if its recorded as stolen is definitely the first port of call, but im also interested to know if the shell ever passed Australian compliance because it would help with evaluating my options...
 
although at this point I think im going to be in need of an new shell, and considering the mechanicals aren't in great order, I might as well just part this one out for profit to use towards buying one that is actually what it is... (after checking that its not stolen, cause parting out a stolen car could get me into some serious $#!%)

I'm sorry to read this :(  Hopefully it doesn't owe you too much.
That said, if it isn't stolen and you are looking to part it out, i will gladly take the foglights and the brackets etc off your hands lol :D

Sorry to hear this. You'll still make money selling bits if it's not stolen (99.9% sure it's not stolen, if you study the bogan/meth-head mindset they have no need for a Japanese car).

Freebee
 and how do i tell the difference between 93- brakes and 93+ brakes

To best of my knowledge the rear later model calipers are marked 22V (see pic)
Early model front rotors are 25 mm and later model 30 mm
 
 

so here's what's developed over the past month (more specifically, the past week)
 
i took another look at the previous rego papers and noticed that the vin it was registered under didn't match the one on the compliance plate I thought was on my car... so i thought i better take a closer look in the frunk.... turns out that this was stamped into the strut-top all along: 
 

 
and strange as it may seem... those pictures of a miss-matched compliance plate and chassis no. must have been photo-shopped... because my car actually appears to be missing its compliance plate, and I am currently in the process of obtaining a replacement (which everyone I have spoken to so far has been very helpful with), which once done should make the car completely registerable... (other than the current lack of roadworthy-ness)
 
so in the morning i will be contacting vic roads about a replacement plate as the people from NEVDIS told me to do
 
(and yes i have checked both VIN's, neither is written off or stolen)

Freebee
so here's what's developed over the past month (more specifically, the past week)
 
i took another look at the previous rego papers and noticed that the vin it was registered under didn't match the one on the compliance plate I thought was on my car... so i thought i better take a closer look in the frunk.... turns out that this was stamped into the strut-top all along: 
 

 
and strange as it may seem... those pictures of a miss-matched compliance plate and chassis no. must have been photo-shopped... because my car actually appears to be missing its compliance plate, and I am currently in the process of obtaining a replacement (which everyone I have spoken to so far has been very helpful with), which once done should make the car completely registerable... (other than the current lack of roadworthy-ness)
 
so in the morning i will be contacting vic roads about a replacement plate as i was told to do by the people from NEVDIS told me to do
 
(and yes i have checked both VIN's, neither is written off or stolen)

 
 
I admire your wishful thinking! - but I have to say I have never seen a VIN where a letter has been scratched out like that.
 
The best way to ID this car is from the Toyota stamped VIN, until you get someone who can say yes or no to this ID you are spitting into the wind. 

Freebee
so here's what's developed over the past month (more specifically, the past week)
 
i took another look at the previous rego papers and noticed that the vin it was registered under didn't match the one on the compliance plate I thought was on my car... so i thought i better take a closer look in the frunk.... turns out that this was stamped into the strut-top all along: 
 

 
and strange as it may seem... those pictures of a miss-matched compliance plate and chassis no. must have been photo-shopped... because my car actually appears to be missing its compliance plate, and I am currently in the process of obtaining a replacement (which everyone I have spoken to so far has been very helpful with), which once done should make the car completely registerable... (other than the current lack of roadworthy-ness)
 
so in the morning i will be contacting vic roads about a replacement plate as i was told to do by the people from NEVDIS told me to do
 
(and yes i have checked both VIN's, neither is written off or stolen)

So where did the photos of the compliance plate come from if you said they where photoshopped ?
Still sounds very fishy

Dudeman
I admire your wishful thinking! - but I have to say I have never seen a VIN where a letter has been scratched out like that.
 
The best way to ID this car is from the Toyota stamped VIN, until you get someone who can say yes or no to this ID you are spitting into the wind. 

yes i do agree that its odd to have the mistake in the middle, however even though it may look "scratched" out, that letter is actually crossed out by stamping lines across it, disregarding that crossed out character it is a proper 17 character vin.
 
I have already done the checks on that vin and not only it is exactly as it should be for an individual import (in one of the correct locations, prefix is correct ect.) , but it matches the car perfectly, 
 
from there I then contacted NEVDIS who informed me that it was originally imported into Victoria and in order to obtain a correct compliance plate I will need to contact vic roads
 
also this being a jdm mr2 it shouldn't have a Toyota stamped vin, just a chassis no., so when it is imported it is supplied with a australian low volume vin (1st &3rd digits of 6&9 are used for low volume import and manufacture cars in Australia, and the second digit is a manufacturer code, in this case T=Toyota)
 
so to surmise, this vin is the correct one for the car, and I have spoken to the people who can say yes or no, and they say yes to it and the blue slip people say that there is nothing that can't be sorted in the case of a missing compliance plate, so long as you have a correct vin (which i have now found) and proof of previous registration (also have), whereas they say that a car with an incorrect compliance plate is as good as an unsolvable problem... simple

TomsMR2

So where did the photos of the compliance plate come from if you said they where photoshopped ?
Still sounds very fishy

I might suggest you take my wording less literally and read between the lines to figure out where those pictures came from