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Posted by Keith in Washington on Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 13:00:51 :
In Reply to: 78 w-150 power wagon posted by Micah in TN on Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 08:56:08 :
Sorry for the long message.
What you want to do is illegal! You can not move the vin from one vehicle to another. Federal law!! Rebuilders do it from time to time and can have lots of problems. It is OK to take a body and put it on another frame as long as it is documented and the title stays with the VIN. But the real problem is for example someone buying a wrecked GTO (for example) removing the vin and putting it on another body that was never a GTO but had the same body type. That is not only illegal but it is fraud if the vehicle is sold as a GTO. There is a real discussion about how much of the vehicle around the Vin tag needs to be there for it to be legally sold as a GTO. Some feel that it is OK if the sheetmetal directly around the vin in put into another vehicle but there have been many problems with that. You can replace many sheet metal parts and etc without issues but where is the line between switching VINS and a rebuild. What you are suggesting is clearly a swap wich is not legal.
I know that WA state, even on older cars check to see that the frame and body numbers match. If all do not match they start looking into it. They check for stolen parts and Vins. They will not title it until all is resolved.
Your truck should have a number on the frame. Use it to get back to the Vin and have the last owner sign a notorized statement that he removed them in a rebuild and can not find them. The question is do you have the title for the truck. IT would be much easier to use the vin on the frame to get the title back. If so it should not be much of an issue to prove ownership and have it retagged.
I know that Washington State and Nevada for example, will put their own tag on a vehicle if the original vin tag is missing.
My Willys has a NV tag. It was in a accident and and was hit in the drivers door and the vin tag was dammaged. The truck was repaired and taken for an inspection. They did not put the vin tag back on and NV immediately put on their own tag. I actually have the original tag, which is slightly bent. I will go to the WSP and get it titled back to the original tag. I should be able to do it as the body has never been off the frame and the frame has a partial vin number on it so I can prove a match.
The same happened to a friend. He rebuilt a Opal Mini Corvette and he forgot the vin tag when he went to WA state inspection. They saw it and he said I will go home right now and get it. No way was the response and they slapped a WA vin number on it.