On Feb 5, 2009 VintageBentleys.org requested the following information from current owner Bill Fletcher:
"At the bottom of this page, Michael Hay talks of a rebuild on a new frame in 1947. What is the chassis no. of your car (Reg UL 7870)? Hay also says #RL3449 got a new body. Then was it this body that got the new chassis? You would be the best person to know, since you can physically sight the chassis no."
— VintageBentleys.org

Mr. Fletcher replied on Feb 20, 2009 with a copy of a 2001 letter signed by Michael Hay, which is reproduced below, in full.
(Click here to view the original.)

22nd March 2001

Re 4 1/2 Litre Bentley UL7870, Chassis RL3449

Dear Gregor,

A letter as promised concerning the 4 1/2 Litre chassis RL3449 I inspected at your showroom last week.

This is, basically, a completely original, correct 1929 specification 4 1/2 Litre chassis with a very nice Meynell Phillips Vanden Plas replica body. Meynell Phillips built some of the best VdP replicas; if you look at Johnnie Green's Fifty Years of the Marque, p.98, he says that of VdP replica bodies built after the war "none are more authentic than those by Phillips" (the Phillips of Meynell Phillips).

I have checked all the numbers on the car except the chassis, front axle and gearbox. Since looking at the car I have checked my own book, and see that it is noted there that chassis RL3449 was rebuilt by Syd Lawrence on a blower chassis frame in 1947. I have since checked this with Nathan, who has scraped the front chassis cross-member and confirmed that the number stamped there is indeed RL3449, in the correct position and style. It has to be the case, I think, that the information I repeated in my book concerning Lawrence's reputed chassis change is wrong, and that the chassis frame is indeed the original frame RL3449. The gearbox is a C type, correct for a 1929 chassis and very probably the original C box fitted to this chassis (no. 6494). The front axle beam is also the correct 1929 pattern heavy beam with the desirable 1929 specification self-wrapping, semi-servo brakes; I did not scrape the paint off to reveal the number.

This is an excellent, proper car, with its original 1929 bulkhead original engine no. RL3450 with vertical SU carburettors and ML magnetos, plate clutch and pedals, original diff and banjo, original 1929 pattern B&D friction shock absorbers, original bonnet with the number clearly visible on front sides, etc etc. The 1929 specification 4 1/2 Litre chassis is, I think, the most desirable specification.

The "GB" on the crankcase starter motor housing indicates that the engine was rebuilt by George Brown of Birmingham, probably in the 1950s. George Brown was well-known for doing high-quality engine rebuilding work.

Sincerely,

Sd/-

Michael Hay