VIN tags

[Sailor Bob]

At the risk of sounding stupid or possibly opening a can of worms.

A rumor is floating around in this neck of the woods that VIN tags are purchased through internet connections for significant amounts of cash. The concept being (I guess) that one can purcase the tags and create an authentic (looking) vehicle. Or make legal sale of a stolen car.

Is this a common pratice IE chop shop? Anybody hear talk of this?

[DatsunZGuy]

Well if it’s illegal and money can be made from it, I’m sure people are doing it. This is probably the case when dealing with higher end or collectable vehicles.

[lonetreesteve]

Yeah, it happens all the time. I found a '65 GTO in a junkyard north of Denver that I was interested in buying and restoring but.. the ID tag was gone (see pics). I'm sure the guy that took this off the car probably put it on their LeMans or Tempest and tried to pass off their GTO "Clone" as a real GTO....a real shame.

[nwcubsman]

I suppose that's why the firewall has the VIN stamped into it. Badges can be moved from vehicle to vehicle. We have at least a couple of members here that have non-matching badges on cars. Maybe one of those was returned to the seller, but there is one local to me that has this difficult situation. Title VIN does match the badgesm but not the firewall stamp. Not sure what can be done with a car like that. Strip and cut up? Drive and hope you never have any trouble? Don't think I'd try to sell and be accused of fraud down the road. I guess the U-pull-it yards don't really check that close, but they do have a paper trail!

[ddezso]

I am in this very predicament. I bought was was titled as HLS3003137. A nice low # 70 Z. When it arrived I discovered that the door jamb VIN plate was removed, as was the engine compartment VIN plate. The dash VIN was the 3137 # but the firewall is stamped HLS3014160.

I don't think anyone removes those VIN plates unless there is some funny business going on. MY car has a 260Z engine. Otherwise it is mostly original stuff to a 1970/71 car and is a beauty (at least to me).

So what happens? For me, the state of Arizona had to do a level 3 inspection and issue a state issued VIN #. They put a state sticker on the door jamb to ID the car. I was finally able to get it titled and registered as a result. So.....my low VIN find won't be as collectible as a perfect documented papered low VIN Z car but I dont really care because all I want to do it work on it and enjoy it. I still know when it was born from the firewall VIN......

What's odd is that the 2 prior owners passed inspection with the wrong VIN using just the dashboard VIN. If I wanted to be sneaky I could have gone to Banzai motor works and used those titles to get replacement door and engine VIN plates made to pass state inspection. Then I could trick a non expert who didnt know about the firewall. I couldnt sleep at night doing that but I'm sure it happens all the time.....

[Sailor Bob]

The case I heard about was a roadrunner (I don't know the dodges well), possibly a hemi, it was almost dust - sold for 10G. At the end of the auction the purchaser simply took the tags leaving the remains of the car.

I've been watching some of the Z cars selling on Ebay and wonder.

[lonetreesteve]

I understand with the older American cars, it is a lot easier for forgers to switch VINs. I've heard stories of people who would buy old Shelby Mustang tags for $1-2K and forgers would then convert regular Mustang fastbacks into a Shelby GT350s and get away with it. Thankfully, with 240Zs, at least there are 4 places where the VIN is located and the engine has its own specific serial number (unlike those '60s muscle cars) I also think that the VIN on the firewall would be very difficult to change.

With the old American muscle cars, assuming each car is in similar condition, a '65 Shelby GT350 is going to be worth at least 3 to 4 times as much as a '65 Mustang fastback or a '65 GTO is going to worth a lot more than a LeMans 2-door hardtop or convertible,etc. With the early Z's values rising considerably in recent years, there could be more problems like Ddezso just went through, but let's hope not.

[onuthin]

I suppose that's why the firewall has the VIN stamped into it.

I know I should look this up myself but I don't know where on the firewall the vin is stamped. Any help?

[kenz240z]

Oneuthin, the VIN is stamped on the firewall above the brake booster, and to the right of the driver's side windshield washer nozzle.

In addition to my love for the Z car, I'm also an old Chevy nut. I remember the discussion several years ago regarding reproduction ID tags for the '60's Impalas. Like Steve mentions about the GTO's and Shelby Mustangs, the Impala crowd was concerned with people converting a six cylinder car to a 409 V8 car and passing it off as original.