Ok, just bored and thinking about a conversation I had at a car show the other day with an old timer like me. I’ve personally talked to a Texas state Trooper about restoration of an e body dash pad and specifically the problem of restoring the dash pad on an ebody. And I quote” you cannot remove the tag from the dash under any circumstances. You must cover the pad with material and leave the tag intact on the pad”. Now. I know what all these restoration shops do on tv and every state is different. I’ve heard some states are not that picky. I’ve even seen Dan on Phantom works ON TV, state what he had to do on a rot box 57 Chevy. He had one that he bought one of the newer reproduction body complete. The state of Virginia said he could cut the vin out of the old body and install it in a new body “ as long as he did not disturb the numbers! Hmmm.
What happened when a collision damaged dash or cracked dash was replaced( not repaired) at the dealership. I know you could buy dash pads because I bought one from the dealer in 78. I’ve still got it unused in the box. Did they have special permission to change the vin tag? Did a LEO have to watch the process? Did they have access to the proper rivets at the time? Anyone work at a dealer back in the day that has personal knowledge. Cars now days have the vin affixed to the frame so t’s not relevant today.

I wonder if anyone has ever seen a car seize because it had regular pop rivets in the tag instead of the original rosette ones. The conversation that got me to thinking was involving a car tagged by the local police in CA many years ago because it was inoperable an on a public street. He had the dash off and the car and he was asked to bring the title and vin tag to the police station. He had the vin tag off the dash. He produced the vin tag and they politely took it and cut it up in front of his eyes and said “ thank you” he had to get a state applied vin for his 440-6 Cuda!

With the value of these old cars now, I just wonder if they will get more interested in stuff like this. I’ve known Troopers that would give their own mother a ticket like it was a bag of honor.

We just changed the vin plate using the original style rivets. We could get them through Chrysler. I don't see what the big deal is, the body has numbers stamped on it as well.

Removing the VIN tag propaganda is a bunch of BS. Fraud yes. Any type of repair or replacement of a dash NO. Cops don't care and do not want to be bothered. In the dealership we did it all the time. No special instructions to fill out an affidavit or call law enforcement.

the law pretty much states if it's for repair work it's ok.

If it's to slip another car under it then it's fraud and not ok.

Not hard to google the requirements.

I'd say your trooper knows not of what he speaks. Not uncommon.

back in the day, i worked at a body shop [1968-1972] whose specialty was rebuilding totals. [this was pa.]
this involved front clips from the dash forward, rear clips from the rear post of the door opening, and everything in between.
the paperwork involved required state trooper inspection to make sure nothing "funny" was done. these guys were in and out several times a week.
back then, there was no such thing as a salvage or rebuilt title, so all cars got a clean title showing nothing but the mileage and the appropriate serial numbers.
we always made sure the customers knew these were rebuilt, and usually had requests for specific makes and models.
lots of muscle went through our shop with no legal hassles whatsoever.
every single customer [while i was there] was more than happy with their purchase because of the cost savings over new, or very low mileage [almost new] used.
as to the tag question, that depended on how much was replaced, and which was the best car to repair out of [the] two used to create one.
the tags not used, as well as the title corresponding to that tag, was turned over to the trooper upon final inspection of the rebuilt vehicle.
this is just my experience, i do not claim anything else.
as i have said many times, my charger was bought as a total during my employment at this shop in 1970. it was finalized in very late 1971 or very early 1972. [it was still winter with snow] it has a "clear" pa. title with no mention of it being anything else other than the car before you. it is not "original", more a "day 2" car, and i have no intention of restoring it. what i REALLY am disturbed about it is i didn't take any pictures of it as it was when i bought it.

Exactly correct, the law has the direct mention of "intent", so repairs are fine.
All those who come on and spout the heavens will reign down on you for restoring your dash are ill-informed

Oh goody, another rebody thread

I was a servcie writer at a Ford dealer in the 1980's and we got a car with the wrong VIN from the factory. When it came time to replace the VIN tag there were several people present from Ford with cameras to record the event. A local glass company sent a tech to R&R the windshield, and one of the dealer techs drilled the rivets and replaced the VIN. Quite an event for a minor operation.

Pretty much my same experience working in the body shop back in the 70's, clipping vehicles front or rear, mostly insurance work, some insurance companies also brought along LE, but mostly to collect the paperwork or tags used from the donors, and or confirm the donors were dismantled/destroyed, there were a few cases where a donor vehicle (usually auction buys) were in better shape than the shop purchased vehicle/customer's vehicle and basically a rebody was performed as it was just easier to move everything over to a clean donor.... and if you think the customer/buyer was informed, think again, they were just pieces of merchandise for sale/trade or customer's rebuilds.... and we did everything from grocery getters, trucks, muscle cars, vettes, etc, etc

Well this is not a rebody thread. Sorry, Chuck. Lol. And the trooper I was talking too was not just a regular trooper. He was with the vehicle fraud division out of another part of the state. He called me on my cell phone. He told me who is was and asked if I knew a certain individual. I said yes but I would not do business with him because he is a crook. I told him about a car that I refused to sell him because he was going to rebody the car because it was easy and basically destroyed the car. Then I told him that he has already offered me a stolen car with the vin changed and a old race car body that used be a 68 hemi dart. He had rebodied it and was trying to sell me the race car remainder without a vin. The trooper then told me that the hemi dart was stolen and that was his main interest. I think he was well versed in TEXAS law. All states are different I’m sure. My question was strictly about vin tags on e bodies. Since they are on a pad that is prone to crack. B bodies can be painted around. Fortunately for me my two Cudas have perfect dashes and don’t need any replacement. I got lucky.

Yada yada yada.. Once again there is no law that I am aware of that says a VIN tag can not be removed and reattached doing a repair, restoration, or dash replacement. And again this when it is in a legitimate repair or restore. Anything else is most likely unlawful and fraudulent.

^^^^ i agree 100%. there is a exemption in every state law that allows you to transfer the vin plate to a new dash during repairs.

now put a vin tag on a different car you are subjecting yourself to getting yourself put behind bars.

Well, I agree as well. I was shocked by his answer and did not dig any further. I know plenty of LEO. Most would agree. However, we all know one or two that would be a turd and give you grief. We have a weights and measure guy close by that pulls you over with a trailer and looks till he finds something. He must have a percentage of the fee deal worked out with the state! What I was looking for is dealership experience and how they handled it. That has been answered.

What is a LEO?
I drag raced a 1970 Baracuda in 1974 to mid 1976 that the dash pad was cracked, we live in SO CA Mojave desert and that car had set in the sun alot before I got it. The former owner had swapped the 383 motor, 4 speed and K member out and replaced it with a 1968 Street Hemi out of a 1968 R.R. along with the K member and 18 spline 4 speed, I'm not sure who had swapped the tail shafts but it was done when I got the car.
The guy I did the swap with on my 1963 Plymouth Belvedere 415 HP M.W. car worked at the local Dodge Plymouth and Chrysler dealership in parts originally and then became a repair tech, the older parts man had told me when I went in to order anew dash that I would have to bring the car in so he could verify the dash tag so the factory could have he same VIN on the new tag on the new dash pad. He quoted me around $350.00 plus 6 to 10 weeks to get it so I past on that.
I had bought a 1969 Dodge Polara California Highway patrol car for $500.00 in the spring of 1969 that had 51,299 miles on it when they blew the motor up, it had a red light light mounted into the center of the dash that they had remove, I tried to get a new dash pad for it and got the same run around and high price on it from the same dealership in late 1970
I had ask one of the Highway patrolmen about replacing that dash when I picked the car up and he mention that the dash pad was not the only I.D stamped into the body in Dodge cars in 1969, he said it had the door tag, the inner fender tag, the radiator cross support had the VIN stamped into it along with a total of 19 places on those cars
Are any of you guys on here with Mopars "body in white program" for race car bodies?
If not you could buy a new body shell with no VIN on it to build a race car from
I've seen several of those cars built for NHRA SS and stock classes

A LEO is short for Law Enforcement Officer. That’s the kind of info I was looking for. I’m sure that was SOP back in the day. I bought my NOS pad back in 78 or so. I had a Cuda with a cracked dash but that project never got off the ground or finished. I think I pained $200 for the pad. There was no mention of anything like you just stated. Of coarse the parts man was the son of the owner of the dealership and we were good buds. If I would have asked, he would have probably given me the rivets. It was just a $1500 car back then.