California Title Help

Posted by 600miles On 2014/2/22 23:10:03

My girlfriend and I bought a 1954 Packard Clipper Deluxe 4 door sedan. It had been parked since 1994. With the normal things one must do when a car has been parked we got it running after about 2 weeks of ownership and we started doing the brakes.

We bought it from a reputable seller/friend and it came with a clean California title. The problem is it was registered with the engine number as being the VIN but there is no engine number on the engine.

Along the driver side raised portion toward the back of the engine it is just a lumpy casting. In California when a car has been off the road for X amount of time we must have an officer match the car VIN with the title or we can lose the title and get the vehicle inspected with just a bill of sale.

My question is then if there is no engine number, what number should I use on my new title? I have the stainless steel Packard tag with the 4 & 4 digits, I have the Briggs body number and I have the Anti-Theft number.

Currently:

Vehicle ID Number M301163
Body Type Model SDTR5492

I have a similar problem with my 1940 Nash but I did find the VIN tag rivetted to the chassis after a bit of searching.

Miles
(Santa Cruz Mtns,California)