Uh...that's not always the case.

The LA Times had a story recently about a (retired) airline pilot that got his 1955 Thunderbird back after reporting it stolen in 1979!

Another CA resident bought it at an auction in the midwest, then when he tried to register it in CA...by the frame VIN it came up stolen.

He's now suing the auction company to try and get his money back.

 

I once saw what I thought was a '56 at a car show, but the info card said '57. I started talking to the owner when he came over. He showed me the serial number on the frame, and the plate on the door frame, they both matched. The sequence number was really low, I don't remember the exact number. He said that his dad bought it brand new off the showroom floor. According to him, it was built in '56 at the start of production for the 57 model year. They must have had some extra '56 parts floating around and threw them together as a '57. Now, I'll admit, I don't know the guy, and he could have fed me a line, but it sure looked legit. What's the sequence (the last string of numbers after the last letter) of the serial number in question? Maybe this is a similar story.

 

Sometimes with the larger trucks, larger than an F-600, they used the old cabs for the newer year. I've seen a '56 F-700 with a slant cab.

The '56 is a unique year. They share the same front and bed as the '53-55s, but they have a wrap around windshield and vertical 'A' pillars on the doors. In '57 they changed body styles and though they still had the wrap around windshield and vertical pillar, they got rid of the curves and huge fenders.


To each their own, but for me the '56 is perfect, I don't just mean Ford, but every truck I looked through, and went through a lot. I didn't want to ever see a truck that I liked more than my own, so I did some serious research, it just happened to be a '56 Ford. Then I spent a year looking for a '56 Ford, I found everything else, lots of slant cabs even in this tiny town, but eventually I found my truck. If it doesn't make any difference to you you'll be able to find a '53-55 slant cab easier because they where made for 3 years verse 1 with the '56. If you prefer one over the other, honestly, don't compromise, you'll regret it later on. Takes a lot of time, energy and effort to build one of these, make sure you're putting it all into what you really want to!

If you're planning on chopping the top, the slant cabs are MUCH easier to do this with. I've seen some custom made sun visors for those and in my opinion it makes them look very very sharp.



There are a lot of neat trucks out there, I'd still love to build a panel truck one of these days, ironically I prefer the look of a '53-55 panel truck over a '56... not sure why, lol.


Don't buy anything without a title (unless you want it for parts), or at least be very very careful. A local guy bought a '72 Challenger, put thousands into it for racing, left it somewhere he shouldn't, the cops checked the vin and found it was stolen about 2 weeks ago. He lost it all, the guy who had it stolen from him about 7 years ago was thrilled to pick it up. He who owns the title owns the vehicle, and sometimes "lost" isn't really all that lost. I'm not saying if a title is missing that its not a good deal, or stolen or whatever, but if you can find one with all its ducks in a row, it will make your life much much easier.

Good deals pop up more than you'd expect if you're willing to wait or search a bit, so if the one you're looking at doesn't feel right, don't be afraid to walk away or take some time with it. I'm all for being eager to work (i literally searched EVERY day till I found mine, for a year), just remember a little patience can make for a much better start, a much more fun build and a whole lot less amount of head aches.

Cheers ^_^

 

Only if the VIN doesn't match the DATA Plate.
What I a lot of States do, is that the Vehicle is Registered as the Year that it was sold in.
As in a '55 setting on the Lot & wasn't Sold till it was already '56 & Had to be registered as a '56 or a '56 Manufactured in '55 & Sold in '55 had to be Registered as a '55.

there are all sorts of Special Order Trucks floatin around, mate. You just have to keep an Eye Peeled for them.

 

There was/is a thriving business selling "laundered" titles, titles and sometimes vin plates to vehicles that were scrapped but matched the year and model of vehicle trying to get titled. There were pages of listings for these sellers in Hemmings and other enthusiast magazines. Even Boyd Cottington bought these titles for the cars he built for customers including fiberglass repro bodies on new chassis. Since CA charges tax on the vehicle value, there was a much smaller bill on an "original" 1934 Ford coupe worth on the DMV charts as 1000.00 and a 250,000.00 hand built one of a kind top show car, the owners were happy to pay the much smaller tax bill when they registered their BC built car. Suddenly American Hotrodder, the car auctions etc appeared on TV and they kept hyping how much money these cars were worth. A lawmaker happened to tune in and it entered his fuzzy mind that just maybe there were some people with too much money avoiding the tax.
One day the police arrived at BC's office with search and arrest warrants in hand. Sure enough, the records show that ol Floyd is not a "body shop" doing repairs, but a new vehicle manufacturer providing customers with false paperwork for the purpose of tax evasion and circumventing new vehicle air quality testing and certification!
Floyd plea bargained a guilty plea to lesser charges and was slapped with a huge fine.
Other states got wind of this practice (NC being one) and did their own investigation,
finding similar situations.
The VIN # stamped on the frame is the legal vin # for that vehicle no matter what the vin plate, body, paperwork etc says. If it is checked, and doesn't match, you are open for a citation for at best possesion of plates not registered to that vehicle, no insurance, etc. To laundering and conspiracy to commit interstate fraud (If your bogus paperwork came from another state) a Fed Rico act beef and VERY serious charges.

 

That's very possible - and I should have been more specific I guess. I was talking about regular vehicle resistration. Stolen vehicle records are an entirely different matter. It's always a gamble with the Ca DMV. They are conveniently stupid when it suits them and conveniently shrewd when it suits them.

And with the attitude this state has take regarding it's citizens (they exist to pay the budget defecit the politicians created by self serving spending), it's not difficult to understand why people are searching for self appointed (and illegal) tax relief!

By the time The State of California gets done with this case, the poor airline pilot will be indicted for insurance fraud, the buyer will be in jail for accepting stolen property, and the 55 Bird will be sold to some drug runner for $300 at a state run auction.

 

Just paid your state taxes????

 

well since my 59 and all the other parts im using with it came with now title, (pretty much every thing was sitting in fields for the last twenty years) Im going to get a custom title. here in wyoming if you can find someone willing to help you at dmv you can have the vehicle inspected by a law enforcement saying that the vin# dont exist or dont match and the state will issue you a new title and vin #