e36 VIN # Tag missing on the hood?

Hi all,

First off, thank you in advance for any help/advice you can offer.

I'm seriously about to buy a 99 M3 that is perfect for me except for one thing: it is missing the VIN # tag on the hood. It has every other matching VIN tags on the fenders, doors, rear fenders, trunk, etc. But the one for the hood should be one the lower left on the inside of the hood, correct?

Should I be concerned that the car was hit and the hood replaced? The panel gaps are perfect, so perhaps only the hood was damaged? Could the VIN tag have simply fallen off over time?

Thank you again,
Tom

If the hood was repaired or repainted, it should still have the original VIN tag on it unless, like Steven said, it simply dried up and flaked off.

If the hood was replaced with a factory replacement, it should technically have a "DOT-R" sticker on it where the original VIN tag would have been.

Thank you for the replies, Steve and Bimmerdan. Hearing that the tags can or have fallen off makes me feel a bit better about it. As you can see, I'm really working hard to talk myself into buying this car!

BTW - love that collection of cars in your picture, Bimmerdan!

My only concern with a replacement hood is the paint job. Does the color match perfectly and the clearcoat look sound? If so no problem.

Thanks! Two of the cars have replacement hoods and I can guarantee nobody could ever tell without looking at the DOT-R tag underneath. Like Jeron said, if the paint is a perfect match and they did a good job on the clearcoat (which it sounds like they did)...it's a non-issue. If that's your only concern with the car, buy it!!

It looked great when I initially saw it, but I will really inspect it much closer on the next and final round. Thank you for the tip!