Is it such a big deal?

[DaveBonds]

Another basic principal to follow is that if it raises red flags with your Sheriff's department, it should raise a red flag with you.

If a seller is legit and wants to complete a clean transaction with you, they should be okay with a vin search.

What I've done in the past that works great; Before exchanging money for a notarized bill of sale, propose that they come with you to the Sheriff's department to do a title vin search and are willing to either cover the cost or place your money paid into the vin search toward the car, or a portion of it toward the car.

This way, both parties KNOW what the status of the car and its vin and title are, before attempting to put together a bill of sale.

 

[halifaxhops]

Dave,
Great advice. I was young and dumb at the time, 20's you feel invincible. Great investment but....

 

[75slant6]

Ok so I have a similar question. I've got an 01 ram that has rust in a cab corner, passenger rocker, drivers floor pan, over the rear drivers wheel and 3 of the doors will need to be replaced. So i could either replace all that or I can get a clean rust free truck and swap on the entire cab (including the interior since it's the same as mine) and the bed onto my chassis, would that be considered a rebody and wrong? If you roll a truck, they put on another cab. If the bed is damaged they put on a different bed. The truck already has a rebuilt title and had some shoddy repairs done.

 

[Chuckman]

Some of you might want to check your states. Virginia has a special rule for vehicles abandoned on your property. You can fill out paperwork with DMV, and get a titles issued to you. My dad did this once with a vehicle that was left on his farm.

 

[ramenth]

I am not going to do it. I was asking and found it is a bigger deal than I thought. And that is why I asked. It will be destroyed just as the car has been. I don't want to get hauled into jail!

In PA you don't have to.

PA purged their systems of titles of anything over 25 years old that hadn't been registered in a while. Pay the fee and go before you local magistrate and plead your case. If he finds in favor of you he'll issue you a title document on the spot that you can send to Harrisburg for a new title.

I have two "untitled" PA Road Runners that I'll be doing this with. The cars haven't been registered in decades and the titles are long gone.

Or I can go the NY route.