Hi guys , i just picked up a sw20 gt turbo import,   the guy i bought it from was in nsw,  im in Melbourne,   its an import but im unsure of the year the car is ... 
It only has Import plates rivited to it , i cannot see the vin stamped into the fire wall etc to get the truth,   
 
How can i check out what i now own? 
Car was from Qld... bought down to nsw...blew a head gasket,  now is in Melbourne with no plates and a unclear history...
 
Import vin is , 6F91mportthxa7042   
12/96  
Im lead to belive its a 93 .. ?   Imported in 96... ,   but that vin has 91 in it... 
It looks to be GT model with power steering and turbo etc. If that helps .

There should be a vin stamped into the bulkhead that's between the cab and the frunk, drivers side from memory.

Also should be vin plates on the bulkhead between the frunk and the radiator.

If they're not there.... Well.... That's a worry....

Dudeman?

Here are the plates that are on it .

What colour is the car? The colour code is 202 on that plate, toyota 202 is black. The VIN on the toyota plate is from a car that was built 03/1990 as a GT/GTS model t-top. Can't tell if that car in the pics is green or black. Put some shots up of the whole car, someone may recognise it and help out with some info. 
 
I don't know why that plate with the 'import vin' is placed over the top of the chassis vin, thats a no no afaik. There should be no reason to cover up any identifiers on a car. 
 
If you really wanted to know if you have something dodgy i'd be taking that import vin plate off and see what is stamped into the chassis - that's your first port of call.

Its black underneath,   its obviously been sprayed this olive/metallic greeny colour with the body kit thats been fitted. 

There may be a genuine original vin punched into the top of that strut tower between the four mounting bolts.
Don't go buggering about drilling rivets out of those existing plates yet.

Well $25 later and it would appear that its a 1996...
Gold colour ,   was reg in qld as per the story.
From www.revs.com.au
 
 

Locked On
Well $25 later and it would appear that its a 1996...
Gold colour ,   was reg in qld as per the story.
From www.revs.com.au

Imported in 1996, built in 1990. I saw an old thread where someone else was trying to ID an import, it also had a import vin riveted over the toyota stamped in VIN. No idea why that would be done, just makes it look shady to me.
 
But hey, if you have the papers to prove its ID and its been registered before somewhere in australia you're on the right path. Not so long ago another member bought a car that had it's VIN plates swapped over from a ADM car to a JDM one, it ended up not being stolen, but was imported as 'race only' and even though it had been used for years on SA roads with its swapped VIN it couldn't pass ID checks to get rego in QLD or NSW. (can't remember which state)
 
Well good news if its what its supposed to be!

Hey Dudeman, why do you say its a 1990 ? 
I was first under the impression it might have been a 91 due to the vin being 6F91---
But the Nevs report says year of manufacture 1996 ,  year/month of compliance 1996-12 .
 
Ive seen other imports and their plates are much easier to understand. 

That import VIN most probably uses local codes for the place doing the compliancing and other 'things', for some reason the authorities here deem the date of aus compliance to also be its year of manufacture - which would make things amusing if you were importing a vintage car but just a bit annoying for someone like yourself. Each state has their own regs for how and what is done to compliance an import, so it can be pretty confusing. 
 
Your actual toyota chassis number - SW20-0010853 - it's number 10853 of SW's built, thats pretty early in the run. Some people can let you know month/year of build of your car from the chassis number (ADM cars all have this on their VIN plates) - your build date from that chassis number is 03/1990.