Sun Feb 18, 2018 12:41 pm by Monsonmotors
I'm going to give my unrequested opinion on "VINs".
In my job I check VINs everyday. About 2000 a year x 25 years for a total of about 50,000 VINs.
When I started we were checking 1966 and up cars and trucks. Early vehicles do not have the now-standardized 17 digit VIN. Their VINs were much shorter. Sometimes just four numbers.
Guess what, our CA DMV doesn't care (on older stuff) if you tag off engine, frame, cab, whatever. As long as a DMV or law-enforcement officer can walk over and find a corresponding number on the vehicle to what's on the registration.
I've owned old vehicles titled off engines, transmission bellhousings (Ford), frames, ID plates, etc.
It really helps if the number that is used is readily visible, though.
In the case of my first (ex-USMC) IHC D-2 I bought 30 years ago I was forced by the CA DMV to go get a "replacement VIN" installed at the California Highway Patrol. After a couple of appointments blown because the man was off fighting traffic crime, I finally got a replacement VIN installed in the door jamb of my old D-2. It looks completely wrong on a D-2. Oh, well.
My point is that the early VIN numbers used can be somewhat arbitrary. I used a D-35 (two-ton) ID plate for my 1/2 ton D-2/Tacoma. The CA DMV could care less. It's not like they have antique VIN RESEARCHERS on staff. Funny!
To point out how little they care, when I sold my first (ex-USMC) D-2 it still had that funny California HIghway Patrol plate in the doorjamb, but I had switched the entire works unto a 2000 Nissan Frontier frame and running gear!
CT DMV workers can't be any more intuitive than CA DMV workers?