Quote:
Originally Posted by theastronaut
The main purpose of a vin is to identify and register the vehicle to the legal owner. These are 60 year old trucks and a lot of them didn't survive intact. They're often missing major parts, assembled from parts of many other trucks, rebuilt from reproduction parts (including repro cabs and frames built from scratch), modified into something it never was (long to short, 2wd to 4wd swap, etc). As long as the parts were sourced legally then I see nothing ethically wrong with using the vin and title from a donor truck if you're making a hodgepodge of parts into a running/driving vehicle, especially in states where it's not easy to get a new vin assigned. It's not like we're stealing trucks and swapping vins to cover up the crime... that's the kind of reason why vin laws exist, not to punish the guy that's trying to rebuild his vintage truck.
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Respectfully, astronaut, I disagree with you. The primary purpose of a VIN is to identify the vehicle it is attached to. The title is for the purpose of identifying the legal owner.
VIN laws are pretty clear, you cannot swap VINs from one vehicle to another. While your intention, meaning you and what you stated, isn't to cover up any type of criminal activity, the fact that you are placing a VIN plate from a completely different vehicle, albeit the same make and type of vehicle, is illegal. Despite it being difficult to get a replacement, it is still doable. They make it difficult for a reason.