My friend is about to swap cown due to major rust on firewall/cowl. It's a 383 R/T N-code Challenger he is building to OE.
We bought new cowl/firewall set from YearOne.

Is there any way to restamp the new cowl with the VIN? Someone knew about what tool to use?

cheers,

According to Moparts you cannot do it, but if you decide you have to cut the old cowl away from the car leaving the VIN suspended in the air until you can weld the new one on the old VIN...

Good answer. Lol.

There is no OLD vin, the new cowl is "unstamped" and new from YearOne. I dont know if we wanna cut the new metal and weld a rusty metal to it... haha. Stamps?

since you live in sweden, what does your DMV say about vin problems ?

The Op has 4? posts and is asking a legit question. We really ought to give him a bit more background/links on this topic, or are we assuming he has been a lurker for years and already is up to date? I would attempt, but there are many here much more versed on this topic to help guide him/decide what he should do.

Whatever you do, DON'T post the VIN online.

That is the answer right there.

The legal VIN is the tag on the dash, not the stamp in a cowl. So here, at least, what you do with the cowl is irrelevant for identification purposes.

What some can't seem to grasp is that taking that legal VIN tag off the dash from a rusty, wore out, tore up, no longer salvageable "collectible" vehicle and putting it on a "donor" is what's illegal. Not fixing a rusty cowl.

your results may vary

Steve - some states do a VIN check and verify body stampings when registering an out of state vehicle. I wonder what their procedure is on this? The safe thing for him to do is check w/ his authorities and thoroughly document whatever he does in case of a future sale. This topic has had quite the flogging on this site previously, not that I remember there being a definitive correct answer.

-Michael

Ohh didnt know it was so sensitive for you guys. I apologize.

Better to cut out the rust and let everything be and use body filler like you do

And No, Swedish government is more realistic than identifying a car with a plastic piece with two nuts.

I'd replace the cowl then cut the numbers out of the old cowl and put them in the glove box. I'd also take pictures of the process.

The body stamps are legal identifiers, they are what law enforcement uses to determine VIN fraud cases like dash VIN swaps.

They also use them to determine the original full VIN if it is missing, this is why you see some state issued VINs with the full original VIN as part of the full state issued VIN.

They also know how to check for welds around the numbers using forensics.

As a secondary identifier the body stamps are relevant. If there is an issue with the dash VIN then yeah, they look at body stamps. But what do they look at with pre 68 cars? Or how about even older ones where the engine serial number is the VIN and it has a swapped engine?

Best bet is to talk to the relevant authorities first and save yourself some grief and money.

There was a case in CA a few years ago, a 1967 Barracuda being sold with a 1968 VIN & title.

The CHPs investigated.

They contacted the NICB with the SO number on the body & they linked it to the original VIN.

The seller had the title & dash VIN seized since they did not match the car & he was given the forms to apply for a state issued VIN since there was no record of the '67 being stolen.

The body numbers are legal identifiers even on the older cars.

Read up on butt-welding.

When we bring in Cudas and Challengers from out of state we have to run a vin search on them. When the State Trooper comes out to inspect the car he looks at the body numbers. If the body numbers don't match the vin tag and title then we have issues. Having no body numbers is better than having ones that don't match.

The picture of the major repair and weld it in the correct spot.

My friend used to own a frame shop and cut cars in half, section in frame repairs, swapped out roofs, cowls, etc, and this was since the 60. Do you think that every car was checked when sold to the new owner? Never was the fact that the car two made into one talked about or discussed.

Cut it up weld it up hand enjoy the car! You never know that you are driving might be an example that someone cut up in the 60s.

there is no reason to make it any more difficult then
it needs to be.