Swapping shell and vin issues

[fijianrocket]

Ive heard a lot about swapping parts off one car into a shell after a bad wreck. Well I have a few questions about that.

1. Do i swap the vin tag from one to another (incase i get stopped or something)? If so would that be legal?

2. How should the vehicle registered?

3. Which title do I keep using? What if the shell didnt come with a good title?

thanks for your help.

[EazyBreazy]

you need to give more information, but from what i gather, the best advice i can give you is this:

DO NOT EVAR EVAR EVAR EVAR EVAR EVAR EVAR SWAP VIN NUMBERS FROM ONE SHELL TO ANOTHER, IT IS ILLEGAL JUST GET IT REGISTERED LEGALLY. IF YOU GET CAUGHT YOUR GONNA GET EFFED IN THE A HARD

[adrianfromthecastle]

1) It's not legal, period.

2) the purpose of swapping vins is because the shell is unregistered, and the vin you have should be registered.

3) you're supposed to use your original vin. The purpose is that the shell's vin is unusable due to salvage title or whatever purpose

[xX RB Xx]

another thing, i dont know if its with all 240's but my vin is imprinted into the engine bay, not the metal badge but actually its pressed into the chassis and if anyone isnt dumb enough to look, you will probably get caught.

[jspec603]

99.9% of cars out there have the VIN in more than one spot on a car. 240's have the plate and the stamp on the fire wall. It's very very illegal to swap a VIN. There are some cases where it is ok however. Take for example interior swap....you want to go from ugly blue to black interior. You can take your VIN off the blue dash and rivet it to the new one. The idea is to keep them all the same. You don't want to be stuck explaining to a cop why your dash VIN and firewall VIN are different. As far as the shell goes, you need to use the VIN that originally went with that vehicle. Bad title? See if you can apply for a new one! Here in NH we don't need a title after 15yrs, only a VIN verification done at the inspection station. Maybe your state has a similar rule? Good luck and don't do anything foolish!

[Xdisaster240sX]

Whe I replaced my dash on a salvaged title, all they did was give me a new vin plate that gos over the one in the door jam. Its not a big deal and only takes them like 5 minutes. If I were you I would take the chance.

[jspec603]

If I were you I would take the chance.

Would or would not?

Remember this if your saying you WOULD take the chance. Your from MD and he's from AL. The laws COULD be significantly different. They could be much more strict and give the kid jail time over a chance? You should not preach that type of information without knowing specific state laws.

However, if that was a typo and you meant to say you WOULD NOT take the chance, I agree!

[heartofaskyline]

umm..have you ever been to al ^^^ they dont even care if your car has a title. there prob even more lax than tn. lol, im sure alabama doesnt give a ****!

[jspec603]

Actually I have been there once. I got out as fast as I could! lol You may very well be correct in your statement, but I have a very valid point. There is way too much preaching online about things that may/may not be legal in a state over 1,000 miles away and a good portion of the people don't even know if they are being correct or just talking out their asses. I'll leave it at that.

[ZX88]

also alot of people dont realize that if you swap say the dash of a car you have to go to the dmv to replace the vin on the dash to match the cars vin if a cop sees that you have a different vins on the car and the dash your fuced. since where on the topic of vins and swapping parts.

[jspec603]

You can take your VIN off the blue dash and rivet it to the new one.

You don't want to be stuck explaining to a cop why your dash VIN and firewall VIN are different.

You must not have read all the posts? All you have to do is drill the old rivets out and pop rivet it onto the other dash.

[xweav32]

i though about doing this for a jdm silvia. swap vin tags from my wrecked 240 over and call it a rhd conv. the dmv and insurance dont even look at our cars here.

[fijianrocket]

I just want to do this right. Thanks for the help

[240atl]

assuming the shell has no title you'll be doing it all at your own risk

[Arabrockermang]

AL is like AR so I say just cut a chunk outta your old fire wall and weld it in to the new one grind the welds and paint your whole engine bay swap out the old engine plate or remove all together

thats the safest thing to do besdies that the one in the dash will be the only one they'll ever look at but you don't want to sell the car one day and get the new owner in trouble because he tryed to register it in California then it gets traced back to you the car gets destroyed.

the other option if you want to go through the hassle is go through the DMV etc have new number issued after going to the state police and letting them inspect what you are doing and singing some paperwork.

either way not that big of deal I've when through both ways depending on how old the car was and how hard it was on an old cheap car like a 240 where Nissan made it easy for us it ain't nothing

[Kalypso]

I just want to do this right. Thanks for the help

IF your asking whether you should do it... you're already implying that you dont have enough skill to pull it off convincingly.

A vin is harder to move then a twin turbop v8 swap, why do you want to do this?

[hbpignosePA]

go for it

make sure you incriminate yourself on a public forum first

i always get a kick when people blatantly discuss illegal activities online and then want to cry when the get caught

[Kalypso]

This will only work if you don't get into an accident, and the car doesn't end up sitting in an impound.

[cmar42]

1) replace vin plate on dash2) grind/weld new piece of steel with same vin on firewall3) replace sticker on jam with one from different 2404) make sure they all match and buy the title for the car you took vins from5) if vins are etched in glass, thats what insurance is for, use your imagination 6) good luck, if you do it right completely untraceable, trust me

[Uberck]

why not just keep the vins from the shell your swapping into?

[fijianrocket]

Wow this topic is back from the dead.

why not just keep the vins from the shell your swapping into?

Shell did not come with a title so could not be registered

Anyway I was asking for legal solutions. Removing a vin from one vehicle and putting it on another is illegal; atleast in my state.

Best way to do this is to apply for a salvage title through a salvage yard. Thats what i did and it worked out fine. thanks for all of your help