But how many realy consult the DMV before doing this? When they were making these laws they were trying to crs theft rings and they made no allowances for the car hobby. Now, a state licensed auto repair facility can probalbly do something like this but would have to provide some kind of documentation I would guess.

Its been my experince that people who tend to this. think they can do whatever they want because the own the car. While that may be true, once they license it and or sell it, they could be in violation of the law. Who's to say what they did it legit, just because they say its so? What if you just spent $25,000 for 1966 GTO and then discovered the VIN tag had different rivets on it than what is supposed to be? Then lets say that the person discovering that was a state DMV inspection officer. Right away its going to raise suspicion with him and he is going to impound the car till he sure its not a stolen car. That has happened to some collector cars buyers when they brought the car in from another state. I heard of one buying an old Chevy, bringing it home from another state, restoring and then many years later trying to license it in his state only to find out it was a stolen car all along. The guy he got it from had no idea because he never registered it. The guy had the car impounded and it took a very long time for him to ever get the car back. Since it was over stolen over 20 yrs prior and the insurance had settled, that he was able to claim the car since no one else would. But if the original owner or the insurance company would have claimed it, he would heve been screwed.

Don't ever buy a car with a tampered VIN plate, it will only be a matter of time before it comes back and bites you. Every car has more than one VIN on it. You see the one on the door pilar or the dash but they are more stamped in the body in hidden places, as well as the engine, transmission and the frame. The locations are kept confidential but the auto industry, law enforcement and the insurace institute. One guy told me he took a car he bought down the the CA DMV to check out, they took inside a shop and went over it with a fine tooth comb and then told him it checked out. They would not allow him to observe.