Sorry guys, didn't mean to cause confusion! To recap.
Hidden vin in two locations, doesn't appear to have been tampered with to my (admittedly non-expert) eye is 180XXX which I dated using the attached table from another site to very early March '67
Rear quarter pressing stamps are H4, end of Jan '67 which a member kindly suggested was a reasonable gap to the above.
Vin plate hasn't been with the car since owned, the last 20 years.
Cowl tag is earlier than it should be compared to VIN - 12E and NOR63657 so is not original to the car, although the spec on the tag mostly matches the limited amount of car that is left to consider.
Exception to the spec matching is there is no evidence of Butternut anywhere on the car but it has had a LOT of repaints over the years. However, if I had to guess from poking around in flanges and other areas that have *probably* never been touched, I would say it was white from the factory.
Engine that came with the car dates from '79 and the gearbox had been swapped to a T5.
12 bolt with the car is not the original, I was told it had been ripped off at some point - there is a substantial dent to the chassis rail on the drivers side above the axle and welded repairs to the shock mount same side (non-rusty) which all point to this quite possibly being true.
I'm guessing the traction bar was damaged / deleted at the same time..?