I resently discovered that someone decided to lift,(steal, filtch, swipe} the VIN tag off my 38 Chevy Sedan Delivery. Luckily, I had made a tracing before I bought the car, so I have the numbers. The issue is, is it possible to find someone that can restamp the numbers on a new blank VIN tag. I was getting ready to title the car, but without numbers, I have a slight issue. Any suggestions? I have letter stamps, but I'd prefer they be stamped like the originals, from the back. Thanks.
My '50 they're stamped from the front. If your car is not currently registered, best go see if anyone's using the serial number on some other car and if not get some kind of tag on there and register the car ASAP to make the stolen tag worthless.
And if someone is using the VIN on a registered car, you can hand that info to the police when they take your report. Should make it real easy for them to file (felony?) charges.
Bingo! Go get it taken care of immediately. If you have the tracing of the plate, and the title, I would think you're golden. On the other hand, they may give you crap about not titling it when you first got it.
Thanks for the advice on the stolen VIN, but I have already checked out to see if someone has tried to use it and nothing is registered. One Deputy I talked to said that there were "collectors", kids in the area that were stealing the tags from parked cars. I guess its like the kids that were always stealing valve stem caps. That always pissed me off. Anyway, I haven't found an engraver that would punch the tag for me, but I understand how they have to protect themselves. There used to be companies that specialized in tags, maybe the Feds shut them down. But all I need is the numbers stamped on my new plate. I'll keep checking around.
Check the ads in the back of Street Scene Mag. Jim Mothershead in MD offers a service to make a plate for your VIN for $15. Check with him and see if that will meet your needs. Jim: 410-535-1933, 410-474-2244 or A1933@aol.com.
on ebay item #160383230914 are door tags. On the ham , back about a year ago, some one was making them up on the m.a.m.b.;. I cant find his name.
just measure the height of the numbers on the pencil rubbing of the old tag and get some stamps. it's a 50 year old car and the wa. state patrol has no books for comparison. plus if their is a number in plain site and they don't have to crawl around thats good enough for them. is it from wa. or different state?
And...buy the holder tool to hold the whole set of numbers in a row. Practice before hitting the real thing. A wobbly row of hand stampings is not going to impress the police much! Be real damn careful...you seem to be coming from a righteous position, but any numbering not applied by the manufacturer or the state is deeply illegal. One of the reasons states are starting to crack down on the common title service, purchased old title, purchased data plate stuff common in the old car world. I would report the theft, but then you must go through state for assigned title numbers...you cannot very well report your number stolen and then stamp a new copy yourself and title it.
X2.... when my buddy (48 Chev) moved from WA state to OR a few years ago, he was getting ready to go to DMV to register the car here...we looked at the WA title(an ugly computer printout sheet) and it had some number with RX on the end (probably the rebuilt engine number sometime in its life)..nothing to do with the serial number on the door post...well, long story short...we took a piece of aluminum, cut same size, stamped the RX number on it and screwed it to the door post, shot a bit of body color on it and went to DMV next day....No problem...got title and reg......show them what they want to see and make it EASY FOR THEM
Uh...you stamp your old number on a piece of aluminum. Thieving bastard takes the real plate he stole and fastens it to his '38 Chevy. Shit hits the fan when the second one of you registers his car. Cops dig out their old handout, figgerout your plate is not the exact one shown for '38 Chevy, study further and figgerout it is hand stamped. Let's say to make it worse the backup numbers on your frame rusted beyond readability or cannot even be found. Now, you have a clear cut felony attached to you, and you really cannot actually prove the car itself really belongs to the number... The other guy has a proper number on his car...if he has a nice bill of sale from a friend or an otherwise good story, he might well come out blameless in the eyes of the police. You NEED to report the number stolen to cover one side of your ass, and once you do that you need to get the new one assigned and stamped by the state to cover your ass from the other direction. Your old number is probably going to need to be KILLED since it is in illigitimate use, and you cannot then go stamping your own version.
Put a CL ad up in your area that you're looking for tags for late 30s Chevy cars and willing to pay good money for them. See if your tag turns up and you can get someone arrested.
Why don't you just register your car with the title that you have? After it is registered in your name, take it to the state patrol and show them the title and tracing of your VIN, and explain what happened; someone stole the VIN. I would think that they would assign you a new tag.
Thanks, guys. A lot of good information there. I am going to just have another number assigned by the state, a lot easier and a lot less hassle. Again, thanks everyone that contributed. This is serious stuff and good information for anyone missing VIN information.
The Jalopy Journal
