Is there any other place that a VIN would be located other than the drivers door? Is there one possibly stamped on the frame somewhere? I am looking at another truck to buy. According to the VIN on the drivers door and the title it is a 1977 but everything else about the truck is a 78-79. I am assuming the drivers door has been switched sometime which is fine but I would still like to know if the truck is a 78 or 79. I know the steering column and transmission is a 78-79 because the neutral safety switch is on the transmission instead of the column. Plus all of the steering linkages are 78-79. The grill etc is 78-79.

 

On the frame under the passenger footwell and by the passengers exhaust manifold.

 

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...rebuild-2.html

Pictures from 77/79250 in post 26 in the above thread

 

May need to wire brush to find

 

X2 on ck out that thread, there are pics to help you. Pretty sure you can get a late year made 77 and it can have some 78/79 items.

Is there a Safety Standards Certification sticker (white color) on the dvrs side B pillar right below the door striker? Should have the VI# also. Also ck the eng compartment for a "buck tag".

Marti auto can get you replacements for both the Warranty plate and the Safety Stan cert sticker.

 

I found the VIN on the frame below the passengers exhaust manifold. Just as I suspected. It is a 79 with a 77 drivers door. Thanks for your help 77&79F250 and gijzabo!

 

So does your paper title VI# match the frame VI # or the dvrs door warranty plate VI#? Like I said, here is where to get a reproduction w/actual hollow style mount rivets.

Marti Auto Works - Concourse Quality, Hobbyist Price

 

Fat fingered it.

 

I have not bought the truck yet but supposedly the title matches the drivers door plate. Thank You for the heads up on Marti Auto. I will check them out.

 

If you do get the replacements, Marti does excellent work.

 

The door tag is technically called the warranty plate. The VIN, for legal purposes, is the number stamped in the frame.

When I moved to Arizona, the Port of Entry required I show them the frame VIN.

If the title matches only the door plate, the truck DOESNT have a legal title...at least in this state...

 

When I bought mine I did not know this.... With a cab and engine swap I'm just glad my PO kept the original doors. Even if they were in shoddy shape.

 

Marti Auto reproduces both tags that people generally look at when they want to see the VIN. The tag on the pillar and the tag on the edge of the door. Marti even makes the rivets to hold the tag on. That's great for restorers, but Marti will also put any number you want on these tags.

Without the official VIN stamped into the frames, it'd be super easy to steal a truck, change the tags, and claim it as ypur own. And you'd have a title to support your claim

That's why the tags are not the VIN. THe VIN stamped into the frame is harder to modify or obliterate. Plus, there's a second location, under the cab, that acts as a backup

 

The situation becomes even more precarious if you live in a state like Georgia as I do. This state did not issue titles until 1986! The only exception to this that I know of is the case where you bring a pre-86 vehicle into this state and surrender a valid title from another state. Then, you get a Georgia title for that older vehicle.
So what happens in Georgia is that buying a dent or any pre-1986 vehicle almost always involves a bill of sale presented to the local tag office along with proof of liability insurance in exchange for a tag and registration. In my experience, that bill of sale needn't even be notarized.
This is not a big deal in the case of a "beater" that has little market value (which is what the tag office usually assumes) but if you're heavily invested in your Georgia-based truck (sweat equity, money or both), it can be a source of concern. One might think that it would be easy to steal a truck, bring it to Georgia if it wasn't there already, get it registered and, finally, take it to a title state and get it titled based on the Georgia registration and tag. Kinda like money laundering.
Not so fast. In sorting out the discrepancy between frame and warranty plate VINs on my Georgia-based '76 F-150, I discovered that my local tag office was able to look up my VIN in a database that revealed that the true (frame) VIN had last been registered in the late 80s, hadn't been reported as stolen etc. I am not sure whether this database is national in scope or not. Maybe someone with more background than I will chime in on this point.
So, protect your investment by making sure that both physical and digital evidence clearly and unambiguously establish your ownership. We can hope that it will never be necessary to use it but there is no assurance that it won't be needed at some point in the future, either for you or your heirs.

 

That's crazy to me. I bought my truck in MO and registered it in OH so my dad could re-register while I was gone. Would have thought I was asking to borrow the declaration of independence with the amount of nonsense I had to do. It all would have been easy for something that was driving, but Ohio makes it very hard to transfer and title a non-runner.