Advice on R69 with no frame number

[hazey999]

I am restoring a basketcase R69, VIN 654000 with a matching engine and front plate VIN, but no VIN on the steering head. The guy I bought it from 20 years ago had powdercoated the frame (badly) and at the time, I did not know to look for a number on the steering head. I went through the Massachusetts registry form for a lost title, had a police officer over to verify the VIN and check to see if it had been reported missing, and was given the OK. I'm still not sure what will happen when I go to get the bike on the road, but want to continue with the restoration. BTW, this is by no means a concourse resto, I just want to get it running.

Was the frame VIN set in lead on the right side of the steering head? How deep was it? I have scraped the heavy powdercoating from the right side if the steering head and see nothing. Also, the engine VIN font does not exactly match the one I've seen on Duane's page on the subject, which appears a little more top-heavy, and the "4" in 654000 seems to be overstruck. Advice?

TIA

[Darryl.Richman]

I just bought a frame and an engine for an R69, number 654 610. The numbers on the engine and the frame (yes, on the right side of the headstock) look the same as the numbers on my R60/2. They're stamped clearly, evenly spaced and level.

I understand that BMW supplied replacement cases and frames without numbers stamped in them, so that a dealer could restamp them to match a bike that had been in an accident. Perhaps this explains what you're seeing. Or...

[schrader7032]

Can you take a picture of the stamp? It would be interesting to see it and compare to others.

What year is your R69? Here's info I have in my slowly building registry of bikes:

Model Year VIN Build Date
R69 1959 653468
R69 1960 654246
R69 ???? 654399 10/13/1959

[hazey999]

not a real good image, but at least there are roundels

[Darryl.Richman]

It's a shame about the image; it would be nice to be able to see the casting around where the numbers are stamped in detail, as well as the numbers and roundels themselves.

Roughly, I would say that this doesn't look as precise and even as the stamps I've seen on other bikes. The numbers bounce up and down a bit and don't look perfectly straight relative to each other. All of the stamps I've seen look like the numbers were set into a frame and stamped all at once; they're all the same depth and exactly in line horizontally and vertically.

[hazey999]

but it only shows the center numbers...can I email it to anyone?

[hazey999]

You are right about VIN 654000 being 1959. I emailed BMW and they gave me the proper dates, but it was sold to me as a 1958

[schrader7032]

When you click on the picture, all the numbers show up...that's a good shot. That's really strange...the zeroes have a squareness at the corners...never seen that before. If that is another number underneath the 4, my guess is that it could have been a 7.

[schrader7032]

You are right about VIN 654000 being 1959. I emailed BMW and they gave me the proper dates, but it was sold to me as a 1958

So BMW said it was a 1959 but is titled now as a 1958?

[hazey999]

where a title did not matter, as in NH (there was a NH plate on the fender) I've had this in storage, and just started working on it. It's got all the R69 stuff, ignition, advance lever, stamped flywheel...but between the crank issues, no title, no frame number, questionable VIN on the block, I may start selling off all the stuff I've bought in the last 20 years to get this thing running. Very disappointing.
BTW, I thought a 7 also, but I've never seen one stamped.