ME is an "interesting" state as far as DMV rules and regulations. I used an attorney there that specializes in licensing race car trailers. You send him a copy of your title and a power of attorney letter and he sends back your brand new 10 year ME license plate for ~ 30.00. That way there are no inspections, high yearly fees, or as is the case here no yearly property tax bill. If you go to a national level drag race event and walk around the pits you will notice a majority of the trailers have ME plates.

 

This company has been around for at least a decade that I know of. If it is illegal, how are they still openly in business?

 

Yeah, Nevada got sued for processing stolen vehicles back in early 2000's. Now they are tough, VIN inspections are required. Any police officer can do the inspections, but the DMV can over-ride the police officer and order an inspection at one of their inspection garages, located at various DMV locations. The city I live in has several officers that are trained by DMV and their inspections are golden with DMV. For 1948-1960 trucks that I have experience with, they always require the Serial # on the frame to be clear and to match your old title. (No old title? Don't even go there in Nevada....long long process but can be done, very similar to California's Process.)

 

If you buy it in Alabama, they don't have titles for vehicles built before 1975...so an Alabama Bill of Sale works.

I'm in FL and just went through this. The DMV official looked it up in their database to determine title requirements in Alabama. Did the same for a trailer I bought that came from Michigan. They defer to the state it originated in.

 

My brother was a detective in Cincinnati years ago...he said that Alabama had the worst system for registering cars of any state in the US. If they saw a car with Alabama plates in town, they stopped it because it was more than likely stolen. Not sure what it's like today but I always look at a car with Alabama plates on it with a bit of suspicion.

 

Listen to Ax and the other no title states. You can register it there drive it do as you like in your state. when you transfer to your state get a letter from that state stating they don't issue titles and use your previous tags to transfer to your state.

 

Georgia doesn't title the old cars like that either, BUT if you buy one of those car/truck's in Georgia or Alabama and try to register/ title it in Tennessee, they will not touch it unless you also have a copy of the last registration in the same name as the BOS.

 

I had to go through that when the person I bought the truck from out of CA lied about having a title that he was sending to me. The truck came but no title. I did end up contacting the CA state police and CA DMV. Here there was a title in his name and the truck was not reported stolen. I had to go through a title service out there who did the abandoned vehicle process for CA. Took a few months but eventually they issued me a CA title for the truck. Cost was an extra $300+. I have yet to put it into a PA title but I don't think that's going to be an issue (hopefully) since I do have a title in my name for CA.

 

I had a problem getting a title for a 35 chevy truck, I had a bill of sale and a VIN tag, I live in Michigan and was having trouble getting DMV to do a title check, Then a friend in another state tried at his DMV. Asked to do a title search and they said there was no valid or to date title on the truck so he applied for a new title and got one in his name and state then he sold the truck to me for a hundred bucks as a parts truck, and paid for the title search gotta pay your taxes now I have my new title, all good GM

 

One of the first posts on this asked the question "why doesn't it have a title?" That's very simple. There are hundred or even thousands of old cars and trucks that have been sitting in fields or in barns for 40 or 50 years, the last owners now dead or they were passed on to (now unknown) relatives who didn't want them and during all of that the titles were lost. I live in Arkansas and probably 3 out of 5 project vehicles listed on Craigslist on any given day have no title. The owners simply want to pass it to someone else and let it be their problem, so I run and run fast !

Another problem which fortunately doesn't affect Ford products too much is that with other makes such as GM, many vehicles before 1960 were originally titled by motor number and not vin tag number. That's not a problem as long as you reside in that state but if you move, you will have a non-matching numbers title, especially if the engine's been changed , or you've subframed or changed the frame on it. Most people at your local DMV or police department are either too young or weren't born when cars were titled this way.

Fords are generally safe from that. Every old Ford product I've had was titled by vin #.

Also you need to watch out on trucks that had the vin tag on the door. Recently I looked at a nice '66 F250 which apparently had a door change in its life due to an accident or mishap. The numbers did not match his title and I had to walk. Too bad, it was nice for the $1500 he was asking.

 

Thanks for all the info guys! Im just lloking around for now and thought i stumbled on something, but oh well. Its just seems so damn hard to get into one of these projects with out a hassel. Guess ill just keep my eye out and see if somethign else comes along.
Thanks again

Jon