My A-H 100 is missing its number plate. The older 100s have
the plate fastened to the top of the frame rail on the right
side of the engine. Some book I've got that has a paragraph
on how to identify your car mentions that these plates are
often missing because they are somewhat exposed. At some
point A-H moved the plate to the firewall.
Does the car I've got actually match the title I've got?
Hard to be sure, really. I don't know any of the car's
history before the guy I bought it from. The number on
the title makes sense for the car I'm looking at. And
the title was a good New Jersey document.
I bought a correct blank VIN plate from Vicky Brit, and I
just plan to find some punches and make up the plate and
pop-rivet the little sucker on. I don't suppose this is
strictly kosher, and I would rather not do it this way, but
as Bill Sohl said, trying to go through the NJDMV makes life
just about impossible, and just isn't worth it. It's not
like this is a high-bucks car, anyway. (Of course it WILL
be such a car, after I get through with it, and replace
just about the whole car :-).
I had a Model T Ford for a while, that I bought from a guy
in Buffalo, NY. The number on the title didn't match the
number on the engine (and old Henry didn't believe in wasting
time putting numbers on chassis, so the engine number was
used as the vehicle ID). Now after 60-some years, the odds
were against having the original engine in it, plus it was
a Speedster, made up out of who-knows-how-many Ts, so it's
history was vague at best. I wrote a letter to NJDMV and
tried to explain the engine number business, but they just
didn't seem to understand, and I couldn't see any way to
make them happy and get the number I wanted on the title.
So I went through that title company in Alabama, got an
Alabama registration and title with the number I wanted,
and then got a new NJ title that matched the car. I really
felt kind of sleazy about doing it, but it was just SO MUCH
EASIER than the state beauracracy that I held my nose and
went ahead. Can anybody suggest better alternatives?
Jim Beckman AT&T, Middletown, NJ att!mtqua!jeb
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