I have a 1984 corvette with a rusted Vin plate. I purchased the car from out of state a couple of years ago and have been working on it trying to get it road ready. I am about ready to register the car but I need to have the vehicle verified by a peace officer or DMV employee. My question is do you think I will have a problem with vehicle verification, I know they can look on the RPO tag under the storage lid but do think this will be acceptable. Any help is be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

The RPO tag is easily changed and virtually useless for verifying the VIN of the car. When I have moved cars to a new state all they did was verify that the VIN on the paperwork matched the VIN on the car. If they can't read the VIN plate or have suspicions, they know where to look. If the car is truly legit, don't sweat it.

RACE ON!!!

 

check the drivers side door there is usualy a backup VIN somewhere in the door frame

 

What your saying is,you have no title.Right?
http://www.broadwaytitle.com/
They may be able to help.

 

I have the title I was just worried about verification how will they know the vin is correct. Thanks for the encouragement CFI-EFI, the car is legit so I guess I just wont worry about it, if they know where to look I'll just let them do their thing. Thanks to all.

 

Amen!

RACE ON!!!

 

If you have the title I would not worry about it all.

 

How about registering a salvage car without a title and only a bill of sale?

 

Lots of luck. First the car must be road worthy. Then you need a title search followed by a bond in the amount of what the car is valued at.

If the title search shows the car has any liens on it you may have to pay them off and if there are liens and the lien holder is looking for the car you could loose it.
In other words don't start a title search unless you know the history of the car until you have enough to bail it out if money is owed on it.

Of course this may differ from state to state.

This doesn't sound like much but it's not as easy to do as it sounds. In my state they frown on giving titles on vehicles that have no paper work per se. Good luck

 

It will really help if you have the Certificate of Title from the prior owner and the last vehicle registration. The VIN will be on both documents and that will help with what is on the car.

There will be portions of the VIN stamped on the frame. One place to look is on the vertical portion of the frame rail directly under the battery. Remove the inner fender panel that sits behind the left front tire and you should see the last 8 digits of the VIN stamped just below the top of the pinch weld on the frame facing the rear of the tire.

I would remove this panel youself rather than having some state worker do it. The small bolts that hold this panel to the frame may be rusted so I would start by squirting some WD-40 or soe sort of rust penetrant past the flat washer to help with removing the bolts. If they snap off, it will be a PITA to get the stud out of the nutsert.

There is supposedly another partial VIN stamped on the right rear corner of the frame but I don't know exactly where.

If you have the original RPO sticker (either under the console lid or under the passenger side rear storage compartment lid, the VIN will be there. On the driver's door just under the lock mechanism there are two decals; one will have the VIN on it. Having these two match what is on the title will help.

 

Since Title and Registration Laws vary by State, you need to know your State Law - without knowing it's all a guess. You may not need to have anything verified or you may have to be fingerprinted and then bend over and grab your ankles for a cavity search. Look up your law at www.(Whatever your State is).gov and take it from there. Heresay doesn't count (and sometimes the DMV gets it wrong - well at least out here they do).

 

In Mississippi this can be done. You will need the bill of sale, a form (get it from the DMV or post office???) of everything used on the car and a VIN from the donor car, and progress pics. If everything is up to par, there should be no problem.

 

 

I had the same issue - bought a car from out of state which means Police Officer or DMV official has to visually verify the VIN. The car was from the coast so the VIN tag had rusted fairly bad. I had an employee whose father was a Police Officer and I asked him if he would have him come by and check it out. There was no problem, the VIN was still legible although you pretty much had to shine a flashlight on it to read it unless it was in direct sunlight. THis was the first time I had run into a rusty VIN tag and I asked him what his opinion of the matter was. He said as long as he can read it even if it is rusted over it's fine. He said it does happen and as long as there is no obvious sigh of tampering it's no problem. I told him I considered cleaning the tag up but figured that was not a good idea. He said that would cause all sorts of problems and raise red flags. He said just leaving it alone was the best thing to do.

Hope this helps,

 

I bought my '87 and it has a Pennsylvania VIN plate transposed to the engine firewall. This was done because the VIN plate rotted off! I guess this was legit and I have had no problems. I don't know what this will do to the value of my car?

 

You never mentioned where you are at. I have a friend that is a "Certified VIN Certifier" if you want to call her that.

I bought my 1988 out of NC and brought it here to CA. Had to get it smogged and VIN Certified. They did the VIN in the DMV parking lot. 3 minutes, no problem. They checked under the hood, on the dash, on the door and that was it.

I'm sure it helped that I had all the documentation I needed too.
Title, Proof of Insurance, Smog Cert, Bill of Sale, etc,...

Jim