fury fan
Senior Member
I'd bet there are no provisions wherein a citizen is allowed to decide if/when it is OK to move a VIN tag from 1 vehicle to another. Moving numbers is simply not permitted. There is some gray area sometimes, like a pickup truck has a tree fall on it and mashes the bed and frame - so you roll another frame/bed under the original cab. But innocently swapping an A/C dash and VIN from your parts car, into your non-A/C resto project, and then titling it as the A/C car's VIN? Illegal.I believe for it to be illegal it has to be done with the intent to defraud , SO for the guy doing for himself it would legally be OK .
Besides what do you think they did when this was new ? Hit hard , they would clip it . Standard body shop repair . Send it down the road legally done .
As for when these cars were new and were being repaired - the body shop sent it down the road legally because it was sheetmetal repair and no VINs would've needed to be swapped. To my understanding, the body stampings aren't really of any specificity to the car's titled identity, those are used to investigate a car's heritage for being stolen (and/or having had its VIN plate swapped). IMO you could cut out and re-weld all the stampings you want, tell the BMV about your antics, and if you hadn't moved the VIN they wouldn't care.
And I'd also bet that if someone had a car, and announced to the BMV that they had swapped a VIN for their own purposes, not to defraud (like the A/C scenario) - I'd bet they'd soon find a State Trooper in their driveway announcing that car was getting a state-issued VIN.
I am not a lawyer, and it's been a long time since I've read any BMV info on this. If I have said anything incorrect I am willing to admit I'm wrong -- if someone can show some documentation to the contrary.