Titles

[The Griff]

Ok, well, I'll try this again, and hope my Shinternet holds out.

A buddy of mine pulled a 76 K10 out of the weeds at his grandpa's, It had been parked since 96, when the trans started slipping. The body is pretty well destroyed, no floor, no rockers, no wheel wells, no cab corners, the tailgate fell off when we opened it. Runs pretty damn good though. It hadn't been started since 97, But it had plenty of all it's fluids, so we hooked up a battery and put a little gas down the carb, she fired up like it been sitting 15 minutes. smoked for about 20 seconds, and cleared right up.


Now a guy called him the other day who want to trade a truck for his fourwheeler.
It's an 82 6.2 K10, the body is all but rust free, a few dents, some of the trim is peeling off, and the windshield is cracked. It is one of the best starting 6.2's Ive ever seen, three cranks and vroom. It drives as good any of these old trucks I've seen.
Buuuuut, this truck hasn't got a title.


You see where I'm going? What do we need to do to make a good legal truck?
Put the diesel's body on the 76 frame? If we do that what all do we need to keep from the 76 body?

 

[diesel4me]

What some of my friends did in a similar situation was have another friend who owns a service station apply for a "mechanics lein title"on the vehicle,and hope it has no previous leins on it...after a vehicle sits at a repair shop long enough ,its considered "abandoned",and as long as the mechanic tries to contact the former owner by registered mail ,if there is no response after 30 days,he can apply for a title for it so it can be sold...
It'll cost the amount of the title,the registered letter,and whatever "ranson" the mechanic wants for helping...its complicated,but they got a legit title for their trucks eventually and were able to register them legally..

Beats taking two trucks down to the frame and rebuilding one out of both...

Of course,there is always the tag swap and two pop rivet "title swap" too,thats been done numerous times by lots of people...on old vehicles the registry usually doesn't require them to be "re-inspected" by an official if the title was "clean"...but it could backfire too...

 

[big dan]

Check with your dmv office about a bonded title. Its a lot of paper work and takes a while but you end up with a clear legal title. Make sure you get a bill of sale from the seller that states there is no title to the vehicle. Then you'll need to check with the sheriff's office to make sure its not stolen.

Not sure how it works in other states but Ive done this for 3 vehicles that I own. Changing vin plates is do able but not exactly legal, at least not in Arkansas. I would rather just do the paper work and know that everything is legal.

 

[The Griff]

I'd mentioned the idea of a Mechanics lien, but I don't know any legit mechanics well enough to get a favor from.

And, since this is technically my buddy's project, it should be worth mentioning that he has the attention span of a gnat.
(this is the same guy who had the white 99 or 2000, that he was going to put a 305 in) So he wouldn't be interested in anything that would take more than a week and cost more than $100. (I know and I've told him)

He's not sure if he wants to trade for the diesel, because his old truck is "on the market" as in if he doesn't trade for it, its getting scrapped. A 92 K1500 that had 320 something thousand miles, no reverse, 4-wheel drive, or wiring from the cab back and was about ready to break in two. And the guy who has it wants to trade for his fourwheeler too.
And theres a very real possibility of him going for his old truck, he LOVED that truck, he swears up and down that it "can drag the ass of any truck in town no problem"

I want the diesel though! and he told me I could have truck if doesn't get around to messing with it.

What to do, What to do.

 

[diesel4me]

There are other ways to get around the title problem,but all can be risky and or costly..depending on the value of the truck and how much your willing to spend to get it on top of its selling price is what determines if its worth all the BS..

Some guys I know have bought a truck with no title and had someone in another state that does not require a truck to have a title after a certain time period (usually 10 years),write them a bill of sale,then they can apply for a "clean" title from MA...here all trucks regardless of age must be titled,even if its a '29 Model T truck..If you do that,and they find the truck was titled previously,your screwed,you cant get another title for it...ditto if it has any leins on it..

If a truck was sitting in a boneyard 30 years and was junked before they required all years to be titled,you can apply for a "new" title,but the RMV made the forms to do so, very hard to impossible to get--one guy I know had a insurance company employee he know photocopy the form and that seems to be the only way to get one,if your lucky enough to find someone who hoarded some away...
(Rules change here often and this might not still be the case too!--the RMV has made it tougher to get old vehicles back on the road once they have "dissapeared" and sat in some barn 30+ years..)..

My friend that hauls junk cars in for scrap has run across some really nice vehicles that were abandoned, or titles were lost after the owners died,etc,and he was able to track down the former owners name and adress,and apply for a "lost title" replacement--this entails a trip to the RMV in Boston usually,or a long wait for one to come in the mail,but once you get it,you can then sell the car,to yourself or whoever else wants it...but titles here cost 75 bucks and I'm not sure what the fee is for replacing a lost one,probably close to that...and you'll wait up to 90 days if you do it by mail..

When I worked at a junkyard,more than one truck we sold with a title for the cab when a customer said they wanted a cab with little to no rust,was never picked up,after they paid for it and got the title in hand..and the numbers on the cab vanished mysteriously "overnight"...we assumed they just swapped the tags and used the clean title...it hurt watching those good cabs get squashed in the crusher!..

 

[kennyw]

No title generally means RUN AWAY. Someone most likely didn't pay off a loan and hid the truck from the bank.