[RichSchmidt]

Numbers swapping in an issue with all old cars.In the northest,there are some odd laws that would lead somebody to believe that certain cars could never be titled.The loosening of some of these laws is giving car resorers more options then they had before.In states like New York,if a car changes hands and is never regiatered{like a race car would},there is no transfer of ownership,and no title.If the car changed hands multiple times there would be no paper trail to find it.Since many hot rodders were afraid of trying to do a title search on a shady car,they found it easier just to swap the numbers with one of the zillions of base model rust buckets that are available for the cost of a 6 pack of beer.Over the last few years,the laws have loosened up,and you an go to DMV with a pencil trace of the VIN and chances are they will give you a hassle free title or the contact to the last known legal owner of the car so that you can arrange for them to assist you.I live in Jersey,and until this day,they have towns that release impounded auction cars with junk titles.The town will tell you that the car is listed as crushed by the state,and that it can never be titled ever again.Well since most of these cars are perfectly fine cars that the owners didnt want to pay the $100 a day storage fees on{especially since some cars have to stay in the pound for over a month until a case goes to court},there are plenty of base model cars in the junkyards that were bought bulk bid from local impound auctions.A local junkyard old me I can get a title for one of these cars using conventional title search means,so there may be some hope,but to some 18 year old kid who bought one as a parts donor for his 1979 camaro hot rod that is rusted beyond repair,all he is looking at is that he can swap his mag wheels and cherry bomb mufflers onto it in about 2 hours and be driving a more solid car then his current one if he simply springs for a box of window ribbon and some pop rivets.I think my own personal car my suffer that affliction.I know my car was first built as a race car back in the early 80's,and that it was bought from a local impound yard as a junk car,and yet it sports a perfectly clean title and the VIN tag sits a little crooked under the dash.Since my car started life as a 1973 pontiac esprit with a 350 2 barrel and green paint,and is now a decked out race car with a bigblock chevy and mostly fiberglass body panels,I dont think anybody really cares what the title on my car says as long whoever holds it can legally lay claim to the car,and register it with plates if they choose.I have no proof of this numbers issue on my car,but it sure looks a little suspect.When I bought my car the front subframe was bent from too many wheelstands,so I had to replace it,and the firewall has pretty much been cut apart for every hop up mod under the sun,and the original drive line went into the metal shredder about 20 years ago,so there isnt much left on the car with numbers on it aside from a tin plate on the dash.Who is to know and who really cares.I have owned the car for almost 15 years,and anybody who would buy it would buy it because it is my race car not because it is a real 1973 firebird esprirt.In the case of somebody paying 100 times the base model value because the numbers came back to it being a real live supercar,that is a different story.I hate the way the goventment ran many of it's motor vehicle operations,and therefore I dont really shun guys who would swap a few numbers just to get some paperwork on their car instead of dealing with beurocracy,but I would never be able to bring myself to swap numbers from a wrecked supercar onto a clean base model as a way to defraud somebdy into believing that what they were really buying was a clean original supercar.I do have some morals.