<VV> Hidden VINs

[airvair at earthlink.net]

Oh, I might point out that, concerning out-of-state cars, Ohio's system is
only geared towards dealers who would be trailering cars in, and NOT
private owners. Hence the lack of such provisions that I ran into. Legal
inspectors are only at either the highway patrol posts or in-house at
designated car dealers, with absolutely no thought in the law so as to
provide for private transfers.

-Mark


> [Original Message]
> From: airvair at earthlink.net <airvair at earthlink.net>
> Subject: Re: <VV> Hidden VINs
>
> All this talk of VIN's reminds me of the time someone came to the
> convention with "the perfect concours car." It was a perfectly polished
VIN
> plate. Since there are no deductions for what's not there, they reasoned
> that it would get a perfect concours score. LOL
>
> But you bring up an interesting point. At what point does "replacement
> parts" alter the car's identity? Could you use an entire Corvair body
shell
> as "the world's largest replacement assembly?" Seems to me that if the job
> were done perfectly, who's to know any different? 
>
> You've got to remember that most legislators are clueless when it comes to
> the car hobby. Thus laws are usually not written to provide for us car
> hobby persons. Rather, they only are meant to prevent dishonest people
from
> committing fraud via ID swapping of stolen property and (possibly) legally
> held property. That's the only thing the legislators can see as happening.
> Thus the laws simply don't take into account legitimate reasons for
massive
> replacement of parts in the restoration of someone's hobby car. And THAT
is
> the real problem. So I think "intent to defraud" should be the overrulling
> factor.
>
> I once encountered a similar problem just trying to transport a legally
> bought car home from out of state. Seems you can't "legally" register (and
> hence drive) a car until it's inspected IN STATE.(Heck, you can't even get
> it TO an inspection station legally, even after you get it INto the
state.)
> But what if you can't get it INto the state without driving it? Catch 22! 
> What I did was to "borrow" another car's plates, and hope (should I have
> been stopped for any reason) that the officer would be sympathetic and
look
> the other way. Fortunately, nothing happened. And yes, I DID drive it to
> the inspection station on the other car's tags. Double Catch 22.
>
> -Mark
>
>
> > [Original Message]
> > Subject: <VV> Hidden VINs
> >
> > Smitty Says:  Some of you are coming on pretty strong about the idea of
> re-VINing a car by changing the plate and title because the hidden number
> doesn't match.  I won't argue the legality of that but here is something
> else to consider.  How about the thousands and thousands of cars that have
> suffered collision damage and got front end clips.  Perfectly legal back
in
> the day when "salvage" titles and "reconstructed" titles didn't exist. 
> Does the title match the hidden VIN anymore?
> > Not that I can imagine a body shop replacing such an item even when
> the cars were new, but I have seen stacks of NOS front frame assemblys on
> pallets.  No numbers on them and it would be illegal to put them on.  
> >
>