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Brewers

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Apr 1, 2013
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Wisconsin
My Car
looking for mach 1
Hi everyone! Thought I'd join to say hello and pick a few experienced brains out there in the world of 71 mustangs!!

Have found a seller of a 1971 Mach 1. It is a clean car, complete/straight/rust-free exterior, all new interior parts (not currently installed), and runs/sounds pretty good. Title, registration, dash VIN plate decodes to a true mach 1. He was honest and upfront that the motor/tranny do not match to the VIN but did come out of a 71 mustang...he was also upfront to a point he said during his restoration he transplanted his vin onto a 71 fastback shell. The original mach 1 shell itself has been scrapped, but he would give both titles/vin plates in the sale so that I could do what I want with them.

It is by no means a 100pt show car, but it is a head-turner and If I am looking to fix up a little bit and have fun with it...what do you think? does it matter much with the title/vin history? Can anythiing come back on me as the buyer? If so, is the seller off the hook at time of sale?? Don't want a good deal to slip through, but don't want any headache/baggage to come with it

thanks for any advice!

Go Brewers

 
Hi everyone! Thought I'd join to say hello and pick a few experienced brains out there in the world of 71 mustangs!!

Have found a seller of a 1971 Mach 1. It is a clean car, complete/straight/rust-free exterior, all new interior parts (not currently installed), and runs/sounds pretty good. Title, registration, dash VIN plate decodes to a true mach 1. He was honest and upfront that the motor/tranny do not match to the VIN but did come out of a 71 mustang...he was also upfront to a point he said during his restoration he transplanted his vin onto a 71 fastback shell. The original mach 1 shell itself has been scrapped, but he would give both titles/vin plates in the sale so that I could do what I want with them.

It is by no means a 100pt show car, but it is a head-turner and If I am looking to fix up a little bit and have fun with it...what do you think? does it matter much with the title/vin history? Can anythiing come back on me as the buyer? If so, is the seller off the hook at time of sale?? Don't want a good deal to slip through, but don't want any headache/baggage to come with it

thanks for any advice!

Go Brewers
Welcome from Oklahoma!

My intial advice is to RUN from this one. To me the car is good for parts or to become a drag/road racer only.

I didn't notice what state you are from but I suggest a trip to your state's Department of Motor Vehicle office. Get their take on this and see what they suggest you need to do to protect yourself. If there are any problems which I would expect PLENTY - RUN away from this deal. Any potential problems will come back to haunt you or your family if the car is ever sold again. And even with the two titles - if it is ever sold as the Mach 1 you could be held liable for knowingly selling a vehicle with an altered VIN. Your comment that concerns me the most is "he transplanted his vin onto a 71 fastback shell". That is enough to meke me avoid this purchase. That is what chop shops do and I have known of people going to prison for doing a similar vin swap on 69 Z-28 Camaros. Why would you want to pay money for a car with problems and sink more money in it? The only way to properly tag/title this car would be to pull the fender and use the Vin there - hoping it is the correct vin for the fastback "shell" then use the title for that car and represent it as a "clone" or "fake" or whatever you want to call it but you would NEVER be able to represent it as anything other than the non-Mach title you have. This would require you redo all the Mach VIN pieces like the dash VIN and door VIN sticker that correspond to the correct shell's title. Marti would be able to help you get the correct VIN pieces, if needed. Is it really worth all this trouble? Only you can answer that. Not to me. Oh yeah - then properly record the Mach 1 VIN as destroyed in the registry of this site.

Sorry to be so negative but I see way too many problems here.

Best of luck in finding the car you want.

respectfully, Ray

 
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::welcome:: to the site from Luxembourg, Europe.

Unfortunately I cannot help you with the VIN issue as our laws are completely different from US laws and I would not know what to tell you.

 
Welcome to the site, and I have to agree 100% with Ray on this. The same question has been asked many times on here, and every time the consensus is that it's not worth possibly going to prison over.

 
thank you for the warm welcome and thank you all for the advice!!

if anyone else has been in the same situation or additional advice, please let me know!

 
what he did is called retagging another car,he took the tags off mach 1 and put it on the other mustang thats called retagging its against the law,thats why cars come with vin #s so they know what car it is......it kind of confuseing so i will break it down.............you crash your mach 1 and its totaled so now you have no car all you have is a title and a smashed car,so now what some one did is found a mustang a hot one off the streets poped the vin out of that mustang and poped in the mach 1 vin plate and now he has a mach 1 with his vin # and he has a title for the mustang that matches the vin number.......so i would pass on this car you never know what could happen,its not worth it hopes this helps

 
rebirthing is something that's been done to death in topics. Don't walk away, Run! Did the original body have staggered shocks? Disc brakes? Stab bars? Etc. Does this one? You certainly came to the right place if you want to know anything and everything about 71-73 mustangs. Good luck.

 
Welcome to the site.

Part of the advice above was to talk to the DMV. Since you are receiving both titles and VIN info, talk to them or the state police and see what their advice is. Of course any resale value would be hurt with this scenario.

Let us know what you decide.

 
Welcome from across the lake in west Michigan.

I agree, check with the local authorities trying not to get the current owner in trouble. It may be an uninformed mistake that you do not want to make. If the original dash tag matches the chassis number, use it and call it what it is, a clone. I had a 64 GTO clone that I made from 2 cars back in the day. I see no problem with that, just call it what it is.

 
I agree with OLE PONY - check with the authorities and find out what your options are. Once the car title is sorted out and registered to you, it's pretty much a done deal at that point. Documentation is key in things like this.

The only reason I even suggest looking into it is because I 'clipped' my car, and now the shock tower VINs don't match the dash VIN and Bill of Sale (even though I cut out and saved the VIN stampings before scrapping the old front clip). When car is registered, nobody will be pulling the fenders off to check as they will just go by the new title as issued.

The important part is finding out if you have a legal option to even make it happen. Good luck!

 
Welcome from Arkansas. Was the original vin totaled?
From what i understand, it was not totalled.... it was just in better condition to restore than the actual mach shell

 
Hi everyone! Thought I'd join to say hello and pick a few experienced brains out there in the world of 71 mustangs!!

Have found a seller of a 1971 Mach 1. It is a clean car, complete/straight/rust-free exterior, all new interior parts (not currently installed), and runs/sounds pretty good. Title, registration, dash VIN plate decodes to a true mach 1. He was honest and upfront that the motor/tranny do not match to the VIN but did come out of a 71 mustang...he was also upfront to a point he said during his restoration he transplanted his vin onto a 71 fastback shell. The original mach 1 shell itself has been scrapped, but he would give both titles/vin plates in the sale so that I could do what I want with them.

It is by no means a 100pt show car, but it is a head-turner and If I am looking to fix up a little bit and have fun with it...what do you think? does it matter much with the title/vin history? Can anythiing come back on me as the buyer? If so, is the seller off the hook at time of sale?? Don't want a good deal to slip through, but don't want any headache/baggage to come with it

thanks for any advice!

Go Brewers
Got a 72 myself of which went through the mistakes of finding out the hard way that almost all outer body parts from one body style even same year are just different enough that it just won't fit. Mine is a convertible that upgraded w/power disc brakes, suspension, compression, rear axle ration, engine, and even downgrade of gas mileage to qualify as a 71::welcome::::welcome:: R-code(from the original Q-code)

 
Welcome from Arkansas. Was the original vin totaled?
From what i understand, it was not totalled.... it was just in better condition to restore than the actual mach shell
Am I missing something here? Why can't you just put the right VIN back on the good car? It's never going to be a real mach1 anyway and who cares as long as you like it?

 
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