My whole dash board is missing!

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1968Dart270

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1st off I am glad to be a new member and seems my first post may be a big one...

My '70' darts' dash frame was apparently hauled off as scrap along with my seat frames and original fenders by an incompetant body shop worker! I had my parts stored at the shop in a side room and when I went there yesterday to pick up the dash frame to start cleaning it for reassembly I found my parts were missing. Seems the boss told the new guy to clean up the shop and take the scrap metal in the shop to local salvage yard and along with the scrap went my parts! :angry4:
I can get over the seat frames and old fenders as they had already been replaced but my dash frame cannot! It was stripped of everything BUT my VIN tag...what am I to do? The salvage yard let me look for my stuff but I didn't see anything that looked like my parts or dash plus they said they have hauled alot of metal out over this past couple weeks.

Any suggestions? My car wasn't anything special but I had already had it titled and getting ready for the road. I have a parts car with another dash in it (have the title for it also but haven't put in my name yet) could I just title it and use its dash in my almost done body? This seems like an easy fix but I wonder if its okay to use that dash since the body numbers would not match the dash...if I own both cars though would this be okay? I am at a loss. James
 
Wow, welcome to the site.

wow again dude. Now thats some horrible news, so you couldnt find anything at the wrecking yard.. Hmm i would have to say call moto vehicles and give someone there a talk.. make your problem a short story tho since you never really find the right person to tell the WHOLE story to until you have already talked to 5 people and been on hold for 3 hrs.

Do you know the body shops owner?
What will he do to help you out?
What about the new guy. Did ya' hit 'em?!?!?
I think I personally would have been really mad but accidents happen. Just depends really on who ELSE was storing things there and was moved out along with yours.

Again sorry to hear that..
:wack:
 
Bodyshop owners a friend and not mad at him just really the whole situation. Secured my data tag but never even crossed my mind to worry about the vin tag/frame.
Owner said he'll cover the cost of titling if do the other dash thing but that really makes me uneasy since the body would now be different...don't want any issues with the cops. Owner also credited me some $$$ on the body work.
 
:angry4: awh man that sucks big time, id be pissed, at least u got some shop credit but man i cant imagine how pissed id be if that happened to me, especially if it was my cuda fenders...dam they are expensive
 
laws vary state to state, but first off, I would recommend the local post of the state police or state highway patrol. Each has inspection program and methods for straightening this kind of thing out. (Salvage/Crash repair, etc).
Common sense states however, that if you have the title to both vehicles, then you will be fine. A huge majority of our friends in blue will look at the dash and nothing else, they may not know that anything else even exists. If push comes to shove, you show the data tag, the matching body numbers and the title to the dash you lost.
Proof of ownership of both pieces will keep you out of trouble.

Being an official member for only a couple of days myself, still have to say welcome aboard. I find the site incredibly useful myself and i'm sure you will also.
 
If you have the build plate, title and the dash vin from the parts car and its the same year and model, just swap them to the other car. If your car is not a special model like a 340 or GT or something of higher stature no one will be concerned. Most people dont know there are a few places the vin is stamped in the sheet metal.

Another alternative would be to have someone duplicate your dash vin tag. I think Galen Govier does this - but it is not cheap from what I recall.

If it were me, I'd look into option 2 - if its possible to duplicate it, then have the body shop pay for it. If they wont pay for it then do option one.
 
Most states will issue a new VIN. It is illegal to swap the VIN from one car to another and could cause problems down the road.
 
Sorry to hear about your VIN plate...it did however make me go to the garage and pick mine up out of the tool box and bring it in and put it with the title. Mine was on the A pillar and the rivets rusted off.
 
Jim Lusk said:
Most states will issue a new VIN. It is illegal to swap the VIN from one car to another and could cause problems down the road.
Click to expand...

I agree also, check to see if your state will issue a new tag. Another question though...do the states issue a "new" vin or would they use his old numbers, I guess it would vary from state to state. 1968Dart270, what state are you in?
 
oh that sucks i would get something out of it one way or another this is a vintage mopar we are dealing with not a camaro
 
GSS340 said:
I agree also, check to see if your state will issue a new tag. Another question though...do the states issue a "new" vin or would they use his old numbers, I guess it would vary from state to state. 1968Dart270, what state are you in?
Click to expand...
Washington State uses the existing vin#. They don't want to make one up and have it be by dumb luck the same as another car. They also use the existing vin # for auto manufacturer recall reasons. If they changed the vin the manufacturer wouldn't know it and couldn't send a safety recall notice. I believe because of the second reason all states probably use the existing vin #.
 
it would be great if you could make your own Vins up..

something like

19D6od6g3e60v8d8a2r5t

1966
dodge
dart
360
8.25

incorporated into one another
:wav:
 
Changing VIN tags from one car to another is known as re-bodying a car. If reported, the FBI steps in, hauls you to jail and your car to the crusher. Don't do it!
I would get measurements off of a real VIN ( width x length x thickness) and stamp my info on it before I would try that.
 
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