Help... Vin #'s dont match

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I have never met, never heard of, nor never conversed with "Mr Goatski." !!HEY!! he set a record. On my ignore list already!~!
 
I would absolutely recommend that before you dump a whole bunch of loot into this car you have the body VINs checked out. Switching VIN, which is illegal, is as simple as swapping the dash frame, and you could even swap the VIN tag from dash to dash

What you have is a body that does not match the VIN

For those that think "there's no problem," review this thread:

WOW Stolen Cuda found

and............

(same car)

stolen Cuda found,cops refuse to get it back - Yellow Bullet Forums

The car "back when." I believe it was missing for 13 years. Only a twist of fate "found" the car

plymouth-cuda.jpg


The car when found, stripped, in the "wrong guys garage"

2597283_1417230120.0767_updates.jpg


Different car, another "little glitch"

http://www.hemmings.com/magazine/mus/2010/04/Case-Closed-on-Stolen--Cuda/3118721.html
 
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67Dart273 said:
...What you have is a body that does not match the VIN
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No, what you have is a title that matches the VIN, and a rear speaker shelf with some numbers on it. They could be the previous owners pin code that he stamped there for safe keeping.

Happy days.
 
What you should do (to protect the previous owners financial identity) is cover those numbers up and forget you ever saw them.

That would be the good guy thing to do.
 
hello mr. me and my z...

welcome to the FABO community of old mopar geezers, young mopar tikes and a few "tall story tellers."

you have asked an interesting question - one of which has occupied a great deal of discussion and "views" here on FABO. i am an attorney in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and and old barracuda collector (4 so far). i would direct you to a long string on this topic that i started a month or so ago titled "Interesting VIN # on a 68 Barracuda." you can find it in the General Discussion Forum a few pages back - just keep looking, it is still listed.

the noted thread included quite an extensive discussion on the effects of correct and fraudulent VIN #'s on mopar collector cars. i think you would find it interesting and instructive. if you have further question, drop me a line here on this thread - i'm on FABO almost every night.

good luck...

jim coster
pittsburgh, pa
 
Hullo Jim. I haven't read the thread you refer to, however....as a lawyer who specializes in this field, do you disagree with my view?
 
Altering or removing a VIN tag is a federal crime. Since the car in question has a VIN tag that doesn't match the car it's attached to, well, a crime was committed. Since the stamping on the core support has also been messed with, an attempt to cover up that crime has been made. Having the title means NOTHING if the car was stolen. The previous owner, when contacted by law enforcement, will no doubt say everything was matching when they sold it, making the current owner the criminal that messed with the VIN. Yeah, that's how that'll go.

Hide it? Brilliant. What happens if you get rear ended and need repairs? If the your insurance company finds out, they can and will refuse to pay. Car was misrepresented, no pay out. That's if it's NOT stolen. And of course if law enforcement finds out after the fact, VIN tampering is a crime.

Listen to Alaskan T/A. Get this straightened out. There are steps that can be taken to make the car legal if you take care of it now. It will never be a matching #'s car, but it can be made legal IF it's not stolen.

Or don't. Worst case is its stolen and you'll go to jail. No kidding. Best case is no one ever finds out, but you're stuck because you can't sell the car without commiting a crime.

Insurance company won't care? Yeah right. Google "stolen car returned after" . Just that. You'll get DOZENS of hits for cars returned after 20, 30, even 52 years. Yup. Don't listen to Gorsky, he's 100% wrong on this.
 
Ok, I'll play the game.

Let's assume the body was stolen and the dash has been swapped and the radiator support VIN altered to match the dash VIN.

I'm no expert on Dusters, I'm new to the A body game, so correct me if I'm wrong.....this car could be a VL29 or VM29 shell from seven different years. It's one of 14 cars....which one is it? The chances of all fourteen being stolen is pretty damn low.
 
Doesn't matter.

In fact, that's even worse. If one of those "14" cars is stolen, it's a problem. Maybe you can't prove it IS that car, but you can't prove it's NOT either, and that's what you'd have to do to keep the car, prove that it isn't the same car as the one that was stolen with a matching partial.
 
72bluNblu said:
Doesn't matter.

In fact, that's even worse. If one of those 14 cars is stolen, it's a problem. Maybe you can't prove it IS that car, but you can't prove it's NOT either, and that's what you'd have to do.
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No, what the authorities have to do is prove the rear shelf numbers weren't replaced due to an unfortunate incident some time in the last 40 years....and they only have to do that if they're alerted to the fact that there some question about this car.
 
You think? Or maybe they'd say "close enough"!

I mean, they've got a car with a matching partial VIN to a stolen car that also has a swapped VIN tag and an altered stamping? Slam dunk. Heck of a coincidence otherwise.

Or hide it in your garage for the rest of your life. All it takes is one guy to say, "hey, that's the same VIN as a car I wrecked and parted out ("clean" vin on the dash). Or a picture taken at a show to be posted online.

Or maybe it's better to deal with it legally now. Beats jail for fraud.
 
This is getting ridiculous, get it checked out and taken care of with the PD.
 
72bluNblu said:
You think? Or maybe they'd say "close enough"!

I mean, they've got a car with a matching partial VIN to a stolen car that also has a swapped VIN tag and an altered stamping? Slam dunk. Heck of a coincidence otherwise....
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There is no swapped VIN tag. There is a car with a title and some numbers on various panels, some of which could have been changed due to repairs (not unknown on a forty year old car).
 
Mr Gorsky said:
There is no swapped VIN tag. There is a car with a title and some numbers on various panels, some of which could have been changed due to repairs (not unknown on a forty year old car).
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You think? If the partial stamping matches a stolen car, that's not how its going to go in a court of law. Maybe you could try to argue that, and maybe you wouldn't go to jail. But you wouldn't keep the car either. If it, or any part of it with a VIN stamping is stolen, it can be confiscated.

If it were my car, I would take it to the local authorities and go about getting a real title for it, at this point that will likely mean a state issued VIN tag. If it's not stolen there are legal ways to deal with the NONE of the numbers matching besides the dash VIN and the title. You know, so the owner can sell the car in the future without doing a big song and dance around possible fraud charges.

But let's forget the law for a second, if the car (or part of it) was stolen at some point that means some poor bastard out there had his/her car stolen and used for a re-body or VIN swap or whatever positive euphemism you have for VIN tampering. I don't want to keep that car from that person, because if someone STOLE my car I'd want it back. Do unto others, Karma, whatever you'd like to call it. Tells me all I need to know about your moral compass.

I'm all done here. The only legally responsible answer is to have the car verified by the authorities.
 
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Authorities. What a joke. They will wonder where all the rest of the numbers are and why the vin # is so short.
Go ahead and take your stick and stir it up so everybody has to smell.
All they will do is take your money. It all they care about. Just walk right in there and explain to them how to screw you out of your car investment and what was supposed to be fun for you.
Sure they will continue to tell you its your wellbeing they care about and they will do so as long as you are fool enough to listen and pay.
See how much time they care to invest on behalf of you and your old car when they find no one to pay.
Best advice. Just get your plate and drive the car. Be glad to drive a car that is old enough that they don't care about enough to tax it anymore.
Damn you got a legal title, enjoy it before they make these old cars illegal.
Or not?
 
Ahoy there ssba....I like the cut of your jib :)

To the young man with the questionable old Duster, I offer this advice. Yeah, your car has parts of a few different Dusters in it. So does every other Duster, including the ones owned by the noisy owners here in this thread.

Cover your rear parcel shelf up, put the speakers in, register your car and enjoy it until you sell it. I'd buy it myself, if it was a Demon. There are thousands of cars out there just like yours. Dime a dozen. Over one million Plymouth Dusters were made, no-one cares about your VIN. Hell, the Demon I bought just last month could have two VIN's, but I'll never know unless I tear the interior out. Understand this....of the 300,000 Plymouth Dusters out there (700,000 have been melted down and turned into Toyota's), only about 100 owners would know that Plymouth Dusters have a partial VIN on the rear parcel shelf....and those 100 will never see it, unless you show them.

Do not ever post under this username again. Let the dust settle, join up under a new name, locate yourself in a different town, and introduce yourself to the fine members of FABO as the proud owner of a small block Duster.

All will be well, and you can sleep easy knowing that the VIN Nazis are none the wiser :)
 
Mr Gorsky said:
Ahoy there ssba....I like the cut of your jib :)

To the young man with the questionable old Duster, I offer this advice. Yeah, your car has parts of a few different Dusters in it. So does every other Duster, including the ones owned by the noisy owners here in this thread.

Cover your rear parcel shelf up, put the speakers in, register your car and enjoy it until you sell it. I'd buy it myself, if it was a Demon. There are thousands of cars out there just like yours. Dime a dozen. Over one million Plymouth Dusters were made, no-one cares about your VIN. Hell, the Demon I bought just last month could have two VIN's, but I'll never know unless I tear the interior out. Understand this....of the 300,000 Plymouth Dusters out there (700,000 have been melted down and turned into Toyota's), only about 100 owners would know that Plymouth Dusters have a partial VIN on the rear parcel shelf....and those 100 will never see it, unless you show them.

Do not ever post under this username again. Let the dust settle, join up under a new name, locate yourself in a different town, and introduce yourself to the fine members of FABO as the proud owner of a small block Duster.

All will be well, and you can sleep easy knowing that the VIN Nazis are none the wiser :)
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Wow....

I think the OP's overreacting but to tell him to go to those lengths......just wow.


That said, while it wont hurt to have it checked out by the popo, I would run it thru the numerous free online VIN searches, while it is a paritial vin, you can play around and run it numerous times, I think there's about a dozen possible VIN combinations left besides that partial.

I'd be curious to see if the front number matches the rear, if not, then yeah, its more than likely a rebody, if it matches the dash vin, then it was probably repaired at one point.
 
Those package tray VIN numbers have the correct format?

Looks kinda odd to me.

VX29J2B123456 is the format
VX29J2B2423383 has too many characters

Even if the 4 is a A it still doesn't fit.

( I know VX is not a valid body style and a J code Hemi was not available in a 72 A body- they're for illustration purposes)
 
And you experts think the cops are gonna want to deal with this kind of nonsense.
The state has already issued a title, current and legal.
They don't know and don't care about the rear package shelf of your duster until it rust loose from your car and fly's into the air and causes an accident.
 
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