Folks Of Interest Missing title

If no one cares about titles on cars leaving that explains where stolen cars go.

 

What dream world are you living in............ You really think that all of these old vehicles that have been pulled from fields and scrap yards and the barns of long dead owners really have the original paperwork......or any real documentation at all? Early Ford bodies didn't even have a Vin number on them. The engine got the vin number and then when it was assembled onto a chassis the factory stamped the engine number onto the top of the frame............conveinently right where water collected and corroded the number into oblivion. The body got nothing.

This hobby originated with people who circumvented the law on ocassion. No one is harmed when an old car is resurected and becomes a taxable entity rather than a lost piece of history......... I'd sure hate to see these cars lost because beaurecrats don't know how deal with these things......so the average rodder has to find ways work the system.

 

Living adjacent to a Pacific port, I have, and many others have heard tales of "steal-to-order" lists, where the vehicle in question is shipped to a far-off land, where nobody has a prayer of getting it back.

I have readied several cars to be shipped overseas for customers. With every single one of them, I verified their driver's license, and the fact that they had valid title to, and current registration on the vehicle.

I will not ever participate in anything that might have the appearance of impropriety.

If I do otherwise, I risk sending a fellow hot rodder's vehicle, all of their hard works, and their dream, away forever.

Insisting that a vehicle be sent with a valid title prevents this. Insist on one.

 

Yes, and back to the original poster importing a car to Australia - let's say he did not have to produce a "title" or equivalent to bring in a car in the past.
He imports another one, but the old guy at customs has retired, and the new guy says, "yeah, old Charlie used to let that slide, but he shouldn't have, and we don't allow that anymore."

Aw heck, maybe the best idea would be to study the relevant Australian Automobile Importation legislation.

 

Sold a model A to someone in Norway. Car had a valid California title, for many years, when I bought it and was transferred in Nevada with no problem. Car shipped ok, but when it got to Norway the officials would not accept the title as it was the engine number. They made him pull apart the car to find the frame number. It was different. So although it had been legally titled here, Norway would not accept it. Different states in this country and different countries have their own requirements.

 

Years ago I sold a car to a Canadian guy. He wanted it delivered, agreed on a price, I thought a fun adventure so off I went. At the boarder, they wanted to know everything about me, but never even looked at the car title. The buyer had told me before hand, the title is nothing in Canada. Perhaps old news, but a fun story for free!

 

I've sent cars to England, Portugal, Germany and Japan with no problem as they all had a title that matched the frame numbers. I also built the 2004 NSRA giveaway car and I have no idea how they handled it as I turned it over to the NSRA without a title and it was won by a man in Ohio. I am currently building a 32 Ford chopped tudor sedan and am thinking about scrapping it as I can't get a title here in Nebraska. I'd rather push it behind the shop with a tarp over it than give it away. I was stupid for buying a car without a title. My bad.

 

This is only partially true. Like in the states, it varies by province how they handle it. In Quebec there are more hoops than ever and if the person that answers the phone doesn't like the story that vin gets black listed and you are shit out of luck.
If you're crossing the border with a vehicle in tow they usually check the registration/title in my experience.
As a dual citizen I get some flexibility with what I do....but like someone else said above. These old cars being pulled out of barns don't always have paperwork so ya gotta use the loopholes available to ya. Sometimes that loophole is a white lie.

 

Yes, That car went to Saskatchewan, I should have included that in the post as other Provence's would have they're own laws , and its my only experience of selling a car to Canada

 

I bought a new vehicle in North Carolina and brought it to Canada in 2008. The dealership didn’t have the colour I wanted, so it was a transfer from another dealer. They had a copy of the ownership and said they would forward the original by mail. I drove to Detroit where they made it clear that I would not be leaving the land of the free with that vehicle until I had the original. I stashed the truck with a relative and had my wife pick me up. When the original came, they kept it and crimped it, and sent me on my way. To be clear this was a new vehicle, and Canada is not Australia.

 

Don't have any experience with Australia although my wife's youngest brother lives there and has since 1971. Don't know if there is any nationwide uniformity or if the title thing may vary from state to state as it does in the US. As others have said, some US states never did title the older vehicles. Georgia never did issue titles for anything older than a '62 model. I've never had a title for the '55 Ford that my parents bought new or for the '38 Ford pickup I owned for 55 years before selling it in January.

 

The thing is.........breaking a man made law (or getting creative) when licensing a vehicle is not a sin. Some unknowing burecrats tried to write laws when they don't understand the problem. Circumventing them isn't done to harm anyone or anything. It merely allows someone to reclaim a piece of history and turn it into an asset with value. Then the system that we circumvented recieves remuneration in the form of the taxes we pay now that its an operable vehicle. Jobs get created because parts and labor are needed for the restoration process. Everyone benefits and no one gets hurt.
It's kinda like when your wife asks you: "Honey, do these jeans make me look fat ?" A properly used "little white lie" is often way better than the result of the truth.