Super99Z

Ok this is going to be a long first post so bear with me please!

I just inherited quite the project. My father-in-law just gave me(as a wedding present) a 59 body mated to a 58 frame, no drivetrain but everything here is in pretty good shape.

Here is a little back story on the car, he bought one car from a couple in 1969, their son had crashed the car and passed away in the accident, they were obviously very upset from the situation and he never obtained a title from them. His plan was to make it a race car so I guess the title never really mattered to him. He soon after obtained another car that had been hit in the rear. He mated the two which made a very solid car. He had the seats recovered, and As he says, soon after my wife was born which ground his racing dreams to a halt, and flash forward 35 years it has been untouched and now sits in my garage.

I had some big plans and was about to send Chassis Concepts a check for a new frame with LS mounts and all the goodies when I sat down to run the VIN on the car.

My FIL is a great guy but a bit of a procrastinator so he never paid the no title/VIN tag any mind. Yet here I am and its one of the first things I want to tackle. I looked on the body ID tag and ran the numbers and it came up as a 1959 Impala 6-cylinder VIN tag on the drivers post .

I know there should be a VIN number on the frame under the drivers seat, my question is, would that be the best course of action, that is pursuing the VIN on the frame for a title? I feel bad as I had the chassis deal all worked out but I really don't want to be stuck holding a $16k hunk of metal I can't drive. Finding the last owner is going to be next to impossible as you can gather from the story of the car.

Thank you for any direction/advice you can offer.

Nowhere Man

state issued vin tag

Super99Z

Ok I heard about that as an option, I know my state is a PITA to get anything like this done. I will look into that process.

My plan is to get the car driving and bring it back to him so he can actually drive it, looking at a project for 40+ years is a long time!

warrenmj

Your state may be a PITA, but they should have a process to get it titled. I would not sink a dime into the car until you get this taken care of first.

warrenmj

BTW, you should fill out your profile or at least tell us what state you live in. There may be guys on the forum living in your state that may be able to give you specific advice.

Super99Z

I am in Massachusetts. It would appear from reading the MA requirements that all restoration work must be complete prior to inspection from the state police, maybe someone that has gone through this can clear it up.

phil2302

I would search for and buy an absolute mess of a legit car (or whats left of one) with good legal numbers and build from there. Capish?

Frankie the Fink

Go down to the DMV and lay out the situation; if there is any classic car hobby at all up there, somebody has hit this problem before. The 'barracks lawyers' on here have good intentions but aren't the ones you have to satisfy.

Super99Z

That's a good idea and I will give it a try, unfortunately MA state gov has to be the most unhappy and unhelpful group of people you have ever dealt with, maybe I will get lucky though!

csherman

pics would be very helpful.
VIN
Body
Chassis
Sure we can point you in a good direction

jimh_1962

The 1959 impala part is concerning... Each state is different. Mine I had only bill of sales going back to the early 1970. I had to do my homework. At the end of it all in CA DMV was to get it inspected (as a complete driving car). From there CA issues new title as a 1962 corvette. Not-reissued.

I would see what the frame vin is and see if it matches any bill of sales you might have. You have some major thinking ahead. I would say ditch the vin body tag since it will only lead to problems.

Nowhere Man

His problem is if he finds the frame vin and try's to use it and it's already in use somewhere that will lead into bigger problems. If he is going with a aftermarket frame anyhow and going resto mod it would be best just to fill out a form from the state and just get them to reissiue a tag

jimh_1962

Yeah, he needs to research the vin for the frame off of the 58 if he has a bill of sale for it.

TTA89

Mass...

Sell it to a friend in NH with a bill of sale using a VIN you have on the car. Have him register it and pay the extra money for a title and then sell it back to you in Mass on that title.

Then you can play the game with Mass of how much sales and excise tax you owe. They will look up "Book Value" and base on that regardless of condition.

Good luck....

Gary's '66

Geez, and here I thought the Ca. DMV was bad enough. Now, I feel a lot better.

Gary

Railroadman

That's so stupid that I believe it to be true - sounds like how the .gov would work.

"You go ahead and put a couple years and $40,000 into the car, then we'll tell you whether you can keep it or not."

I agree the '58 VIN is your best bet if you have any hope of an original title. Of course then the car will "be" a '58, but if you want to avoid the state-issued VIN that may be your only hope.

As someone here already said, another option would be find some legal but totally destroyed '59 and use that as the basis for your car.

GTOguy

Mass. is even more liberal than CA, if that's possible!

mashinter

A very common strategy back in the day was to get a wrecked Chevrolet VIN and attach it to a stolen Corvette. You may find that the VIN on your frame will show as stolen. Be careful.

Super99Z

While I know this could be a possibility my FIL is a good church-going southerner and I can't see him being involved in anything not above board. I worked late today so I didn't get a chance to finish working on lifting the body up. I tried with a mirror but I couldn't make out any numbers or letters. I am going to lift the body this weekend and wire wheel the frame and see what I can find.

On a separate note, where does the body attach at the front of the frame? Is it through the radiator support? I can't seem to find anything up there.

The VIN tag on the body starts with an "E", did all Corvettes start with a "J"? From the little research I did it seemed like "E" meant Impala 6-cylinder, is that correct?

thank you all for the help and ideas

Nowhere Man

back then most people cared only if it was a clear tittle. and the tittle would have said "1959 Chevrolet" and thats close enough. not like you could get on google and look it up.