No, it is not legal to sell that. In fact, in many states (like Maryland for
example) it's illegal to remove that plate from the car. The title is to
follow the vehicle, and the vehicle is to carry that plate for its life.
Exactly for the theft reasons you mentioned.
But it does lead into an interesting question that I don't know the answer to.
And that is when is the car no longer the car. Clearly (though perhaps not
legally) if I were to sell you a car without a bumper, the car is essentially
complete and would rightfully carry its title and that identification plate.
Even if I sold it to you without the engine the same would hold (though not in
all states, and not with all types of vehicles). But what if I removed the
entire drive train and frame? At that point, things begin to get very
confusing. Does the title go with the drivetrain and frame, or the body tub,
or both or neither? Don't know the "official" answer, though I've had it
explained officially each way, and seen it done each way.
As for the hand stamping, that's pretty normal. The plates are printed in
batches, with the final individual vehicle identification digits stamped by
hand. Ford probably took the cake on poor stamping years ago when old Henry
himself was running the company. He had the serial numbers stamped by hand
sequentially on the production line. So different people using different
stamps would individually whack their number of letter as the vehicle came
through their step of assembly. If a person lost a particular number or letter
they were supposed to use, they would become creative. So an upside down L
would be used as a 7, 8 might mean B, etc.
>>> "Scott A. Roberts" <herald1200@home.com> 03/01 11:41 PM >>>
I just wanted to ask how legal this e-bay offering is- Someone is offering a
body plate and title to a Mk IV Spitfire on e-bay. My thoughts are:
First, Is this legal? Any stolen Spitfire could be easily retagged with this,
and the theft legitimized. This is a VIN plate by current description, and
that it has a current title with it, although the donor car was destroyed some
time back, I am sure the title was supposed to be turned in.
Second, after looking at the plate, and title, this plate has been tampered
with- a second "2" was added to the end of the serial number- it is easily
noticed because the stamp is deeper, the font of the number is very slightly
different, and the spacing does not match. It is also a hair larger, and you
can see it was hand stamped on wood from the slight impression.
You may ask how I know this-. I have done enough stamp work in the past on
projects to pick up these differences. Also, the pic is HUGE!
Comments?
the e-bay listing is
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/aw-cgi/ebayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=564863779&r
=0&t=0
Scott
64 Herald 1200 CV "Trimf"
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