Quote Originally Posted by daveS53 View Post
In Colorado, all you have to do is get a VIN number verification, if you're titling a car from out of state. There's no reason to ask for some sort of paper trail, if you have a legitimate title and the car has a VIN that matches the title.

It may be a bit unscrupulous, but many hot rods have brand new frames with the Ford VIN from another car of the same year stamped into them. Of course the other car has to be out of service - totaled or scraped. You can't use the same VIN on two cars.

My brother did this in Kansas. He totaled his '34 sedan, then rebuilt it with a new frame and body, using some of the salvaged parts. He just stamped the VIN into the frame no one was the wiser. He later sold it with no problems.
All due respect, but what you have to do in Colorado has zero bearing on what someone has to do in their home state. And as for your brother stamping the VIN into a repop frame in Kansas, that falls under vehicular fraud which elevates to a federal problem if it's questioned. I'm sure that "...he later sold it with no problems." The question is was the new owner able to get it registered. In Johnson County, KS the highway patrol office has a very detailed library showing the details of the fonts used by the OEM's dies back in the day, including symbols that were used as prefix/suffix to the actual sequential numbers and the break points of the sequential numbers year to year. They do not hesitate to impound any vehicle that has questionable numbers, and they keep them until any number discrepancy is resolved, especially if you make the mistake of driving the vehicle to the inspection. Last time I was there a fellow had a restored '40's Knucklehead Harley that was beautiful, and they were discussing the fact that the original frame had been wrecked, so the guys who did his build simply "copied" the original number on the new frame. He was on his way to court to try to get a judge to issue a court order based on his paper trail..... And this has absolutely no bearing on Jake's task in Virginia.

Go talk to the DMV, Jake, with copies of the relevant statutes in hand for ammo.