I'm working on an 85 D150.
Factory non AC truck.
I have the cab gutted, I am adding everything into it to convert to factory AC.
I have a factory AC Dash the same color as my original one.
Problem being the VIN tag is on the dash.
I would like to transfer the trucks original vin tag to the AC dash, I mean everything else about the truck is still whole. Not trying to counterfeit anything. Just want to keep the right (not reproduced) vin tag with the right truck.
I have heard that there is/are places I could get a couple of those special rivets. But have no idea where.
I can definitely understand why they wouldn't want just anybody to be able to walk into, say (enter your favorite parts store here) and walk out with them.....
Suggestions?

Ask your state police - They can tell you what is legal vs. the many 'opinions' you will likely get here.

The state police are the most likely to confiscate your truck if you take the idiotic advise of the numb nuts opinion spewers on open forums.

In Illinois you can legally remove a VIN tag and reattach it afterwards for restoration purposes, we had the Secretary of State Police come to the shop and asked the question and did it while they were there, afterwards we just did it without them there several times. We are not backasswards like Pennsyltucky...

I dunno about Pennsiltucky, but I disagree about Illinois not doing things backwards. I work for them....... The decision makers at the state of Illinois do not believe in anything that remotely makes sense.
And Rhino, I think you might have seen the exact dash I'm putting in there, at one time.... It used to be yours.
Do they specify any certain way of reattachment?
PS: hope to see ya at Indy

Laws are different in every state on many things. Restoration of cars and numbers is one of many. I watched an episode of Fantom Works where they bought a complete new Daycorn Body for a 57 Chevy and legally cut out the vin tag and metal surrounding it and grafted it into the new body. They said the state told them they could do it as long as they did not “ disturb” the vin number! What? Laws don’t make sense either. In three months, I’ll be a felon, that’s right I can sit in my house and not leave and I’ll still be a felon. The ATF changed their minds again( this is about the 3rd time) on a certain object. Now, if I pay them 200, they will be happy. I think that’s what we need to do here. Create a new bureaucracy that will police old cars and charge us $500 to restore cars. That way the government is satisfied. Bty, those little rivets you want are on sale in the for sale section of this board. Or they were.

Unless you had the entire Secretary of State Police Force there, you could still have problems. We have on numerous occasions had one officer say one thing and then have another say something different.

We had the SofS come in and try and confiscate a dash that was not on a body because we didn't have a car that matched that particular VIN. I had to explain to them it was off a 67 Dart and the VIN is not on the body anywhere else until 1969 except the engine and trans in 1968. They ended up bringing over more of the inspectors and I taught them about the earlier Mopars and SO numbers. I am sure that info has been lost now. And yes, I know all about Illinoise, thank God I am out of here this year...

Same thing when this topic gets discussed on forums.
So apparently there is no EXACT answers to these questions.
Like many vaguely written/or antiquated laws, it will keep revolving around til the end-of-time.

Well gee I wonder how they'd treat my F body?
The vin isn't part of the dash like it is on my truck. The vin is on a separate bracket that stays put when dash is removed

The 68-74 vin tag rivets you can get from different places via a google search. Not sure what was used on a 85. And it's the vin tag that came with the truck so no cop or anyone else will know the difference unless they know how to read the body plate. Same dash except one has ac and one doesn't.

Go right ahead, it’s legal and easy to do.

Not the same as a option tag. Vin tag on has drivetrain option, not comfort options.

Most people are to cheap to buy the correct rivets.

They're not exactly east to find either

I'm guessing one of those SofS employees needed a dash for a project of their own??????

Ok this thread kinda fizzled out. Everything I see for those rivets says 68-74 what's different about 75+?

i work in a bodyshop. i see modern vin rivets all of the time.
in my opinion. there isn't anything different other than the possibility of a slightly different color of the rivet.
proper vin tag rivets are anodized brown and not painted. they are also stainless STEEL rivets not aluminum.
there are multiple correct rivets for sale on ebay. there are a couple of scammers selling round rivets and calling them correct.
there are also some cheap rosette rivets that are original metal. these COULD work. from my experiences LEO look for the rosette shaped rivet, color is secondary because the color fads a bit in time.
if you use a round rivet you are asking for trouble.


my advise to you is buy the proper rivert, swap vin tags and don't look back.
keep in mind the proper rivets are SMALL. they are smaller than the easy to buy 1/8" drill bit that everyone uses for a starter hole when drilling.
if you have the dash off the car grind the rivet at the bottom of the dash. this way won't alter the original rivet hole in the dash.
if you want to cheap out you can glue the rivet and tag to the new dash. doing so will work for a short time. eventually the sun exposure will cause the tag and rivet to fall out. if this happens it could create significant difficulties.
i myself prefer to do things right the first time. your car your way.

Well I think I'm gonna go about it slightly differently.
Now that I have the original non AC dash sitting right next to the one from the factory ac one, I see where the vents would have to go. With them side by side it'll be super easy to measure off of the ac dash and transfer the measurements, and cut the face of the original dash to fit the vents where they're gonna need to be.
No worries about transferring VIN tags that way.....

That’s what I did to my 76 dodge pickup years ago to add factory air. Easy to do.

I've seen them all over fleabay.