TAC Tech > Number Crunching

Rusty VIN tag ?

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JDMopar:
 I was reading another thread here http://www.transamcountry.com/community/index.php?topic=83594.0 and saw the pic of the rusty VIN tag in that thread. If you have one like that, which is practically gone, can you get a replacement? Mine is a little rusty, but not as bad as the one in the pic. Flat tags like I'm used to on the old Mopars I've always fooled with can be reproduced, but a tag such as one on an F body, that is bent 3 or 4 directions would be hard to do. Just curious if one could be made if needed.

firebirdparts:
I think it's possible to duplicate one.  The GM ones had a little bit of shape to them, but not much.  I have not seen an example of somebody forming them for sale, and I don't know if anybody does.
 You can get flat ones made new all day long.  The rivets are also available on cars where they used a special rivet.  It's not legal to install one, as I'm sure you know.  That said, all 50 states evidently have a process for VIN replacement which would cause you, I think, to have an assigned VIN.  Nobody wants that, but it is available.  Just looking at the form here in my state, the state offers a replacement VIN plate where it appears the VIN would be original.

Coincidentally, I knew a guy who built a 1969 Camaro almost entirely out of new individual panels (they're really cheap for that car) and it didn't have one on it.  I told him he ought be at least mildly concerned about somebody stealing it.  He has since sold it.  I wonder what the buyer thought about it.

roadking77:
And then there was the case where someone restored a vintage 'vette and removed and re-installed the vin tag. It was flagged and confiscated by the state police and ordered to be destroyed. There was a long court battle, the owner was able to get the car back after all.

Maxthe222:
They reproduce the data/cowl tags pretty reasonably. The VIN tags however, I'm not sure. Someone has to be out there reproducing them. There's not much to it, just getting the pressings and the font correct. If cowl tags are being repro'd perfectly, the VINs can't be too hard either. I don't know about the legal ramifications, and I don't see it as much of a grey area, there's a legal issue or there isn't. The car hasn't been re-bodied, it is just a part that is damaged. The VIN tags are commonly removed during restorations for cars that are being sandblasted/stripped as they can be damaged during this process, and the rivets aren't anything special either. If you order a new VIN plate off someone, go into a dark shed, destroy the old one and put he new one on, no police officer or court is going to be able to recognize they have been replaced by simply looking through the windscreen of the car when it's reassembled.

xtrme_ta:
It's a federal law to tamper with a vin tag. Legally they can not be reproduced by anyone. That's why no one reproduces them.
You can go through proper channels in your state. You would have to take your car to the state and they would verify the original vin off of one of the many hidden in the car.
They would then attach a new vin tag with the original vin number.
There might be some states that do it a bit different.
Just an FYI my brother went to jail for two years for tampering with a vin tag.

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