Help with VIN please

dilla6

dilla6

Gear Grinder
Aug 21, 2020
5
indianapolis
First Name
diana
Willys Model
  1. Wagon
Willys Year:
  1. 1947
I recently purchased a 47 Willys Wagon. My state dmv is requiring police inspection/verification of the vin as vehicle currently in the shop.
The vin on the title is: 72V1572725307. The vin on the interior by the door is: 25307.

The police are requiring documentation from me that this was the correct vin format when the vehicle was made before they will sign off on the vin inspection.
I have researched and learned that 25307 is in the manufacturer's sequence for this year/make.

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Any info you can share would be greatly appreciated. Thanks much.
 
Welcome to the forum!

Short answer: it depends.

The five digits - in your case 25307 - is the serial number for the Willys factory for that year. In many states' DMV back in the day, these five digits were also used as the official VIN. Fast-forward to today and this causes a lot of head-scratching at modern-day DMVs to see such a short VIN.

There also is the model number that describes a 2wd Wagon versus a 4wd Wagon versus a Jeepster versus a Willys Truck etc, both those didn't start until the early 1950s. This model number was often used by DMV as a prefix in conjunction with the Willys serial to make a VIN.

Before 1950, I am not sure if the body number was also used as a prefix to make a DMV VIN with the five digit Willys serial number.

So what can you do? In California, you can sign a DMV paper called the "statement of facts" that helps clarify such things. Does your DMV have similar?
 
I should also add that sometimes people use the engine number as the VIN, which obviously causes problems over time as engines can be swapped. Does 72V15727 match any number on your engine?
 
Welcome to Old Willys Forum, Diana!
Please post an image of the plate by your door.

You may want to contact the DMV of the state on the title document. They might recognize the "prefix" as fitting the format of something they assigned.
 
Sounds like a state assigned vin number. You can write a letter to Dodge and they will verify your short number.
 
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