Hello,

I am new here but have been doing some searching and haven't seen this answered but admittedly when I searched there was like 40+ pages of posts and I only went through the first 15 pages or so...

So I have a 1951 Ford F1 Project that I am working on and when I bought it a restoration had already been started when the previous/original owner passed away. The body had largely been prepped and is nearly ready for paint. The previous owner had removed the vin plate and it was with the truck and I have a picture of it, the number matches the stamp on the frame (I checked) but at some point in transit the vin plate has been lost.

Is there a way to get one reproduced correctly and legally?

 

If your title matches the frame stamping, you're golden. Don't worry about it. Just order a blank VIN plate for the firewall from one of the various vendors, and get somebody to engrave it as close as possible to the original. But from the law standpoint, any inspector who's really trying to check will be more interested in the frame stamping.

 

So I did a google search for replacement vin plates and I am not getting very far. Do you know of places that reproduce them, especially if I have a photo of the original?

 

Dennis Carpenter and others handle them. Search Patent Data Plate to find them. FYI, VINs were not issued until the 1960s.

 

Like this?
Stamped Ford Data Plate | eBay

 

As stated, Dennis Carpenter has them. I bought one and a set of stamps and made my own to match my original Patent Data Plate, the glove box tag and frame stamp. My original had the numbers stamped, but the paint was all gone.



So this is what I got from Dennis Carpenter for $6 p/n 7C-14001 and stamps from Harbor Freight for $11.



And this is how it came out. Certainly not perfect or "factory", but I think it looks better than the original.

 

You may want to use rivets instead of screws.