Diamonds on Wheels TC

[Esandage60]

Greetings all from Little Rock, Arkansas. This is my first post and I'm happy to be a part of the group. I have recently inherited a 1947 TC that I believe is the car from the Disney Movie "Diamonds on Wheels". Does anyone have any knowledge of this car? My dad bought it in the early 2000's as a car from the movie. I have a registration where it was owned by Walt Disney Productions in London. Disney was the second owner of the car. The main car in the movie is red. This car was originally red by the registration. There was also a green car in the movie. My car is now green. Both cars had black interior as does mine.
I wonder if they shot the red scenes then painted the car green and then shot the green scenes? Please let me know if anyone has any information on this car. Thanks.

[Esandage60]

Also the engine number has zeros stamped over it and another number below. Does this mean it had an engine swap?

[antijam]

Welcome.
The registration of the green car in the film was GZ 9379. Cars in films did not always carry genuine registrations but interestingly the DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency) in the UK have record of this car. It's listed as a 1947 TC colour Blue, first registered October 1991 but not taxed (for road use) since October 1992. It's possible that this is not the film car, since it is probably imported to the UK and perhaps given the period correct Registration if the original car was destroyed.
The red (or rather orange) car in the film was registered DFV 487 and there is no record of this car with the DVLA. What is the UK registration documentation with the car you have?

[Esandage60]

Ok, the UK registration on my car is KKJ 700.

[Steve Simmons]

How exciting that the car still exists. I hope the first thing you did was check inside the seats.

Most likely the car had an engine transplant at some point, and the owner or garage stamped those numbers. If you have the car number, you can look up which engine number was original to it. Maybe it's still out there somewhere.

Usually a production will use fake registration plates on a picture car. I can't say for sure what they would have done in England in the 70's but if the Disney corporation owned the car then they may have used the actual plates.

[antijam]

Ok, the UK registration on my car is KKJ 700.

There is no record of KKJ 700 with the DVLA. This is not unusual since many cars not taxed since 1983 are not registered. Unless someone has knowledge of the chassis numbers of the cars used in the film it may be impossible to confirm the provenance of your car.

[Tom Lange, MGT Repair]

There is quite a bit of interest in engine numbers - could you please post a photograph of your re-stamped engine number and the Guarantee plate? Thank you.

Tom Lange
MGT Repair

[Esandage60]

Lol! I checked the seats, no diamonds... I can't post a pic of the engine plate from my computer, but the re-stamped # is XPAC C3527.

[Esandage60]

IMG_2051 (1).jpg (25.46 KiB) Viewed 1859 times

[Steve Simmons]

According to the production records, the original engine should be XPAG4625. Built 5 November, 1947.

[Esandage60]

Thanks for all the info.

[Tom Lange, MGT Repair]

The re-stamping is not a factory job, so presumably some later owner had the engine replaced. I've never seen a factory plate with 0's cancelling an engine number, and the re-stamping is too uneven.

Tom Lange
MGT Repair