Theoretically, how illegal is VIN swapping if you own both vehicles

I'm an idiot, I understand what you meant.

so hypothetically, if the plate matches the vin, there no real way to be caught with a vin swapped vehicle?

He can always part them out. Probably would get more money.

If you don't swap the plates, you could get caught if the plate doesn't match the vin of the car it was registered to.

vin is on other places besides the little plate

little windshield plate plate, firewall tag, and where else? hypothetically.

The way I understand vin swapping is that there are multiple places they stamp the vin on modern cars, I'm sure you can find where your hypothetical model's are with a quick search.
>illigal as shit tho homie not worth it imo

seeing as this tread died out of no where, Thank you all. You guys have helped with my paper, a lot.

Why would you do that?

It's still fraud.

And there's no practical way to catch VIN swaps provided that you at least transferred over the dash number since that's the one that they look for. If some body of authority gets a warrant to search the rest of your car for a VIN because they have some reason to suspect you, you could be in trouble especially with the stamped VIN on the chassis.

I don't think it's illegal to have a different number on the engine or transmission because those go out all the time and can be replaced by some junkyard pull. However they will look at that as being suspicious.

The real question is why would you even bother swapping VIN on cars you already own.

>hypothetically
What are the hypothetical benefits of this hypothetical vin swap?

somewhere on the engine block, either a plate or stamped

hypothetically it would be easier to do than jump throught the hoops someone like me might have to do to legally get it plated in my state.
allegedly the cars are both from late 80s.

>hypothetically, I wouldn't do it. someone like me would just have to suck to laws dick and get their car legally on the road. thanks though.

Because he probably has a wrecked one with a clean title and a pristine one with a salvage title and he wants the better insurance.

Maybe you should research it yourself hypothetically.

Manufacturers may have it in different places.

allegedly you're close to the scenario

Yeeeaaah that's straight up fraud bro.

Yeah don't do it man just swap the parts that you need onto the clean title one.

>implying 240sx motors aren't constantly swapped because people are always blowing them up

So what about people who had to swap engines because the old one gave out, and whose firewall tags are completely unreadable from 20+ years of heat and the elements?

allegedly its not for insurance reasons.

the person in my papers scenario, insurance is not involved in the reasoning.

sounds like major damage to your car, did you contact your agent about that? :^)

>implying its a 240sx we're talking about.

forgive me if i seem dim, but you own 2 cars (hypothetically) that are, like, 99% identical. if one of them cannot be plated without jumping through hoops, then neither will the second, am i correct? what advantage is there to swap vins?

why are you keeping both? declare the one with the bad VIN salvage, and put the good parts on the good VIN car.

allegedly, in the situation, one car is legal and already plated. the other car allegedly has a title from out of state that is going to be a pain in the ass to get into the owners current state. allegedly vin swapping would get the one he wants on the road without a giant hassle.

that's the alleged scenario in my paper.

its hard to transfer over AN ENTIRE CHASSIS BECAUSE ITS RUST FREE when the alleged owner live somewhere where rust is on EVERY car except the vin problem, allegedly.

>paper
Sure OP, be sure to cite faggots on Veeky Forums

do I have to cite my faggot self in that paper?

googlefu the vin locations, swap them, salvage the shit vin donor as the other one. you'd need to find a yard that will take the car without VIN/ without checking the VIN, prepare to meet some scum. either that or just let the other car rot in a hole somewhere.

>how illegal is VIN swapping
illegal. legality is a binary thing. it's either illegal or it's not (inb4 there are gray zones, inb4 hurr durr but my jewish lawyer, inb4 i know a friend of a friend of my cousin's mother's boyfriend's wife....)
> if you own both vehicles.
doesn't matter, still illegal.
>Theoretically how illegal?
assuming your pic is related, there must be a free legal advice hotline in your area. you can call a lawyer, tell them your story, pretend like cops are looking into your shit as we speak. the lawyer will give you the lowdown. or, if you are not financially at ease (which we can assume you are not because you are asking about hypothetically swapping vins between two 80's shitboxes on a wapanese meme trading forum) there must be some kind of legal aid for the poor that you can go to, show them proof of your poverty, and get a free (or almost) hour with a lawyer. they will explain to you in great detail what kind of trouble you are looking at if you do get caught, what circumstances might aggravate your situation (i suspect one of those two shitboxes may or may not be stuffed with hypothetical crystal meth)
thats if you live in canada, idk about the usa. i've obtained legal advice using these methods in canada and didn't pay a cent.

Well you're no fun, but informational.

and no, the picture has nothing to do with where I live or what car it is.
but allegedly I live in the us and the are allegedly 80 Japanese shitboxes. One of them isnt a shitbox, but that's besides the point

the amount of "theoretically", "hypothetically" and "allegedly" in this thread is at national-treason-conspiracy levels

Does your protagonist go to the federal pen too?

>I'll wait while you look up protagonist

...

Of its an out of state title not in your name, you don't own both cars.

If you do, jump through the damn hoops. It's easier than swapping the vin in the first place.

well, im sure a quick google search will tell you if the state/city where you're at has some kind of free legal advice service. i mean, even if it's some community college degree moron, and even if you have to pay some cash, you will get the closest you can get to exact legal information for your specific state. i've done some sketchy shit in my life, and whenever i was particularly worried, i'd go get some legal advice. knowning just how many years of jail await me for my misdeeds always seemed to reassure me when i was doing the dirty.

ECU. Readable via OBD II port.

obd II wasnt a standard until 94.
80s shitboxes don't have them.

If you live in BC it'll never be an issue as long as you don't sell the vehicle. I know one person who swapped a blue crew cab onto a grey extended cabs frame. He never even changed the paint with icbc (which all you have to do is call and say you painted your vehicle) and never once got pulled over. Let's also say that most of the truck was stolen parts. I know several people who have done this over the years
>don't associate with these folks anymore but I think they still run chop shops

You won't run into any problems OP as long as you don't go bragging to everyone. Call whoever does licensing where you live and tell them you want to paint your vehicle and ask what the process is and go to town.

Still a felony. You're talking years in jail for it.

The only time I've ever seen it done legally is when the VIN is applied to a licensed reproduction body shell like Dynacorn sells.

Also to make you feel better
>own shitbox 2000 civic
>get pulled over driving kinda dumb (just reinsured that day after taking motorcycle off road)
>cop comes up and asks for license and regi
>don't have regi because it was in backpack from riding motorcycle
>cop goes back to car
>15-20 minutes later comes back
>says he had to make sure car wasn't stolen because no registration and my dash was torn apart (had faulty antitheft from previous owner that I removed)
>get ticket for failure to produce registration
Point I'm making is that this cop thought I had stolen the car and threw my plates on it and not once did he check my vin. Could have checked my tags; asked me to pop the hood; even checked the frame vin that's on my drivers side floor but he didn't do that when he suspected the car was stolen. You'll be perfectly fine OP just stop talking all mysterious and shit. Makes me think you're the kind of retard who's gonna brag to everyone he knows and get himself caught for being a faggot. Do it and keep your mouth shut about it. It's as simple as that

right now im trying to find someone to help me get it legal, but im having a hard fucking time. I'd really prefer to have 2 legal cars.

but if it comes down to it, I'm really starting to think about doing it.

/thread

doesnt matter if its the same exact cars that came consecutively off the assembly line. a vin swap is a vin swap is a vin swap is a felony. not that anybody fucking cares. air cooled vw guys do it all the time with mismatched pans and bodies. ive never heard of anybody getting caught, though it's easy with them since nobody knows to look under the back seat for the chassis vin.

Get what legal?

Ok Veeky Forums, related question.

In Australia we got the base Civic FD sedan in 2008, we never got the FD2 Type R sedan.

If you import an FD2R from Japan, it can't be legally registered here because the government cucks us for some enthusiast imports.

What is stopping anyone from importing an FD2R, and buying a base model FD sedan and installing the Vin and driving around? Cops wouldn't be able to tell between an FD2R and FD2 with type r body kit like a lot of people do here. Insurance inspectors would be too stupid to figure it out if your car got inspected after an accident unless if they're a mad Honda fan... So why hasn't anyone done it ASIDE from the fact it's illegal?

I'm not sure if it is illegal, provided you show due dilligence and do a complete firewall swap.
Any other non-matching VIN's on the car can be chalked up to replacement parts as far as I know.

All the cars on this website are registered as Pontiac G8's and have G8 VIN's.
lefthandutes.com/

Sure, if you know how to cut and weld firewall plates cleanly.

Lets say you got a 69 barracuda on your property that you don't have the title for and its been there for 15 plus years

You can claim ANY abandoned vehicle. I think there's a two year waiting period, but after that, the car is 100% legally yours.
I heard a story once about some guy's neighbor just up and leaving a new-ish car in his driveway, so the guy went through the legal venues and got the car, but the neighbor came back like 2 1/2 years later and was pissed.

We were told you gotta buy a bond too

>how illegal is VIN swapping if you own both vehicles.

Ignoring the auto side of it, don't get caught if your career job is legally prohibited by a fraud conviction. Everyone already knows that certain types of criminal convictions legally prevent you from having certain types of jobs for the rest of your life. For example, a pedophilia conviction legally prevents you from being employed in a place with kids. But it also stops you from teaching automobiles to adults. You say NO WAY. Well, in my state, pedo stops you from having a teaching license. Thus, any job that requires you to have a teaching certification becomes out of reach simply because the law prohibits you from having a valid teaching certification.

A fraud conviction from VIN manipulation would legally prevent you from having certain jobs in my state but for only 7 years. It's not severe like the pedophilia conviction.

WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU GOING THROUGH ALL OF THIS AND FOR WHAT BENEFIT

A VIN swap would have no benefits for you.

Well if you found the same year barracuda in a scrap yard maybe and got it to just swap vins

How does that benefit him?

Well he'll own the shitter so if he swaps the vin he doesn't have to buy a bond

>all this talk about vin numbers

>have an euro spec bmw
>from the factory, it doesn't have the little window in the windshield for the vin as its not a requirement in german spec cars, it's under the hood in a sticker, also stamped in the firewall, on the doorsill and behind the rear plate

>car has had the windshield replaced, so now it has the little window for the vin that was never there
>kinda afraid that i'll be pulled over someday and i'll have to explain the lack of a vin on the windshield if he takes a look at it for some reason

fug

I too fear awkward interactions

Wow, bunch of nocarz ITT
Vin plates are attached with special rivets, you can't buy them.
Takes about half a second for a cop to see the vin plate on dash has been altered.
Go ahead and try to cut a stock rivet and glue it or some bullshit fab.

Not worth the trouble for a civic? Though if you have to fill out paperwork to import the type r, which would document that you imported one, it might come off as suspicious that you would have a perfect "replica" of one.

Where can i buy those rivets btw

Or you can swap all the parts onto the FD Sedan but that would be a pain in the ass.

So he swaps a clean VIN for a rebuilt title? Brilliant.

yeah no one cares about that

If the car is old enough then you might have had the dash replaced because of cracking.

What people care about is the numbers stamped into the body which are easy as fuck to swap. The only thing you can't get is a star shaped punch but I know a bunch of people who made them.

it depends on the car, many have the vin etched into the unibody just because of shitheads like you.

What about if I was to swap a cab on a truck? I'd swap the plates, video tag, and door sticker, but the engine, Trans, frame numbers would all stick.

The VIN that came with the cab is now the legally correct VIN.

This desu senpai

What about the Vin on the frame?
I need to replace my cab as its broken.

I'm going to do it anyway, but what would be the legal way?

Donor cab is unregisterable

>Donor cab is unregisterable
Get a different cab. The VIN always goes with body, not the frame or engine.

Not possible.

So basically, if I have a 76 pickup also, and don't want to smog it in California, I can get a junkyard >=74 cab and legally just swap that bit?
That seems be.

Just got off the phone with the CHP. They would have to verify everything, and then issue me a replacement Vin for the cab.
I would keep my title and Vin.

Guess it's different for your state

>friend sells me trailer
>shows original VIN plate hand written in sharpie on a piece of plastic
>he saved it when he had a real looking VIN plate made out of aluminum for like $15

Hypothetically, engine block, body stamping, some cases items like head lights or taillight and door jamb sticker. Under hood sticker. I believe I have seen a Vin number on a faux front brake duct from a Silverado ss. My memory is foggy though it might have been a detailed date of manufacture chart. Not an issue unless insurance needs to take your vehicle to total it or police impound it, and at that they probably will need to be on Vin fraud alert to even catch it. you can always argue engine block replacement or other body component replacement dunno what you would do about a body etching and windshield plate not matching I'd hate to say it mate you can always shave that body etching and reengrave it

every body panel,

>Vin plates are attached with special rivets, you can't buy them.
The police don't yet read them, but the modern car computers know their VIN. Perhaps one day in the future, the cops will simply come up to cars, scan the plate, VIN plate, and the computer broadcasts the car ID as a crosscheck.

>Get a different cab. The VIN always goes with body, not the frame or engine.
When I moved to washington state, I had to submit my car for official inspection at one of the state patrol inspection stations before it could be registered in WA state. You also have to show them the title or send for one if you don't have an official one (they refused any substitutes like a surrender of interest as proof of title). The checked the various serial numbers on various parts of the car to make sure they all belonged to the VIN. If I had anything faked, they would have been pissed off.

WA also has biannual emissions inspections where they check your plate, VIN, and then read the data about your car from the car's computer with their official device. It better match up since they are looking for emissions fakery.

Axle too. I read that in the twin tower basement bombing, the FBI looked at the serial numbers on the axles. So apparently axles have numbers somewhere they can check.

It's in other places too. That's how the unibomber got caught. There's a lot of vintage tags on most cars.

>the person in my papers scenario, insurance is not involved in the reasoning.

>Well you're no fun, but informational.
You have to be totally circumspect or untraceable when asking a lawyer. They have cameras in their offices. The law requires them to report if they SUSPECT (proof not needed) if you are going to do something to deliberately break the law. So don't just casually go up and ask lawyers this "what if" advice. It's pretty risky. Lawyers have seen it all, so they can probably tell if you're genuinely curious or up to no good.

>how illegal is VIN swapping if you own both vehicles.

It is more than a felony here.
You ALSO lose the vehicles to confiscation. So you cannot simply do the jail time and pay fines. They confiscate illegal cars with fake identities.

It is also one of the property fraud crimes. That might not mean anything to you, but you should not do it on any property you own. Do it on rental or someone else's property. If you do at your property, your property can be seized under the same rules that they can seize your home if you sell drugs from it, run a meth lab on it, do a drug grow operation, etc. Just recently in local news, a house was found to have an excavated basement area where a small grow operation was ongoing. Their house was confiscated. Naturally, the drug growers still have to pay off the mortgage because the gov't doesn't assume the debt.

>lets say, for this hypothetical situation, the cars will never be sold.

If you are whitewashing these imported japanese cars from China that were snuck in cargo carriers via a corrupt chinese-owned customs clearing house, then that is amusing.

It's about time the chinese did that. Find likely VINs, attach them to "re-made" cars. Sell. Profit.

Yeah it is a lot of trouble for a Civic and I wouldn't do it, but I've always wondered why any mad Honda fans here haven't done it

what is a pop rivet for$10 trebek