VIN and Fender Tag dont match up, Do you SUE or what?

[SimoHoss]

Folks, I ran into a major issue with the 1970 Plymouth Road Runner. I am prepping the car for a rotisserie restoration. The paint under the dash and the paint code on the fender tag are different. No one ever took off the dash so I know it is original. Also, the stamped VIN number on the radiator support matches the vin # but both of the Mopar experts say is it NOT original. The VIN tag on the driver side of the trunk does not match the vin tag. My question is what should I do? Should I take legal action against the seller of what? I think this car was retagged from something else. I just dont know what it was. I stopped all work on the car because I am stumped. I need your guys advise.

 

[davek]

All I can say is get a hold of the seller and ask whats up. Go to DMV and ask about the title. Go from there.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

Your supposed to do the research before you buy the car... And certainly before you tear the car apart.... Contact the seller but don't be surprised when you get no response...

 

[davek]

Your supposed to do the research before you buy the car... And certainly before you tear the car apart.... Contact the seller but don't be surprised when you get no response...

I did not have the heart to say it.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

I did not have the heart to say it.

Sorry but I'm getting grumpy as I get older... I never got burned when I was younger cause I made sure I knew what I was buying.... With the cost of this hobby these days you have got to protect yourself... Lotta scammers out there & too damn many of them have being doing it for a lot of years so they've gotten good at deceiving people who haven't done their homework...

 

[Mopar Hunter]

I don’t know the whole story, did you buy it online?

 

[Dennis H]

Caveat Emptor. Going nowhere.

 

[dadsbee]

Do like everyone else. Grind the trunk stamp clean and say it's AMD.... carry on.

 

[WileERobby]

I'm sorry, I got to agree with the folks here. You're not the first one who got hoodwinked, nor will you be the last. The key is... not getting hoodwinked. An acquaintance of mine is out $43k only because he didn't contact me before he got hosed. I would've saved him his loss in 5 seconds. Law enforcement advised him the seller's trail vanished. You should've used your Mopar experts before any purchase consideration.

 

[Pistol Pete]

I don't know the guy you bought it from, but keep in mind, he may not have known either and only told you what he was told. **** like that has happened waaaaay before anyone cared about such things. Many moons ago I had a Challenger dash pad recovered through Year One Inc. They told me explicitly that if I didn't remove the VIN tag, I was not getting it back. So I drilled out the rivets and when it came back, I riveted it back on. With hardware store pop rivets.

I'm quite sure, years later, somebody somewhere is hopping up and down saying the car is a rebody because of the rivets.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

I don't know the guy you bought it from, but keep in mind, he may not have known either and only told you what he was told. **** like that has happened waaaaay before anyone cared about such things. Many moons ago I had a Challenger dash pad recovered through Year One Inc. They told me explicitly that if I didn't remove the VIN tag, I was not getting it back. So I drilled out the rivets and when it came back, I riveted it back on. With hardware store pop rivets.

I'm quite sure, years later, somebody somewhere is hopping up and down saying the car is a rebody because of the rivets.

Yup, lotta cars got back-halved in the 70's & 80's.. No criminal intent just doing the best repair possible for the lowest cost.. Fifty years later a man who knows nothing about the past history sells the car & he's the scum of the earth....

Maybe he knew, maybe he didn't... Can't prove it, you didn't know until you were deep into it... Fix it & move on...

 

[QuickBpBp]

Yup, lotta cars got back-halved in the 70's & 80's.. No criminal intent just doing the best repair possible for the lowest cost.. Fifty years later a man who knows nothing about the past history sells the car & he's the scum of the earth....

Maybe he knew, maybe he didn't... Can't prove it, you didn't know until you were deep into it... Fix it & move on...

Exactly this. I saw a loaded T-top Camaro back in the 90’s repaired by cutting the car in 1/2 and getting whole rear clip from a salvage yard. It’s just what they did ALL legal and done through an insurance company and a body shop.

 

[70runner]

Fell into similar pothole when I bought my first 70RR hardtop project in 86. Seller advertised as matching # engine. Later learned it had been restamped, rather poorly, but I was a novice at mopar numbers stuff. Seemed odd at the time someone would do a restamp on a 383. When I asked seller about it, he denied of course. Bought it through Hemmings, so I notified Hemmings and they said they would block future listings from seller. He was a very active mopar seller at the time in SOCAL. Learned a good, not too painful lesson. Prices in those days weren't bank breakers.

 

[Detective D]

Folks, I ran into a major issue with the 1970 Plymouth Road Runner. I am prepping the car for a rotisserie restoration. The paint under the dash and the paint code on the fender tag are different. No one ever took off the dash so I know it is original. Also, the stamped VIN number on the radiator support matches the vin # but both of the Mopar experts say is it NOT original. The VIN tag on the driver side of the trunk does not match the vin tag. My question is what should I do? Should I take legal action against the seller of what? I think this car was retagged from something else. I just dont know what it was. I stopped all work on the car because I am stumped. I need your guys advise.

I feel for you man. But if you call the seller and start out with "IMA gonna SUE!!" I doubt he will be of much help....
I would contact, and have a conversation. Maybe he knows some history of the car, or maybe he doesn't know any of it. Maybe he won't say.
You need to go into it with the mindset you have what you have now, and see what you can do with it.

 

[Detective D]

Old cars!
One nice thing I can say about my fleet of delapidated junkers no one wants is nobody cares enough to try to do a scam on any of it lol. So long as the title matches some VIN it's good to go for the most part when you are talking about stuff worth less then 10k.

I agree with others when you start upping the ante on costs, slicksters abound out there now days you have to have all the numbers and such you need when you go to look at the car.

 

[4speed68rt]

I think we all want to know, just how much you paid for it and what you thought you were getting. Is it a hemi, or just a 383 roadrunner? I say carry on with your restoration, it's what you have and what you wanted to do. Any 70 RR is worth saving.

 

[69Coronetrt]

Also, the stamped VIN number on the radiator support matches the vin # but both of the Mopar experts say is it NOT original. The VIN tag on the driver side of the trunk does not match the vin tag. My question is what should I do? Should I take legal action against the seller of what? I think this car was retagged from something else. I just dont know what it was. I stopped all work on the car because I am stumped. I need your guys advise.

We can help.
Pictures help us clarify many misunderstandings.
Show us pics of the VIN and or fender tag, the radiator stamping and the trunk rail stamping.
Could be several things but show us pics so we can see what you see.

"Both of the Mopar experts"....I've been on the boards for more than 20 years. I can assure you there are more than two 'experts'. ;)

 

[eldubb440]

in 1988, before I knew about the trunk gutter numbers; I replaced the entire quarter panel on my GTX, including the gutter......... sh#t happens sometimes

 

[SimoHoss]

Before I purchased the car, I reviewed the fender tag, found the radiator stamp and compared it to the vin #. The fender tag called out a 383 and the engine was a 440. I am OK with that. The paint color was Violet with an air grabber and all the items on the tag were on the car. Everything matched except the engine. After I removed the dash is when the lime green paint was exposed. I did everything before the purchase to verify this was not a fraudulent car. I used to own a used car lot for 20 years so I know how to research the cars history.

What I am doing to the car is turning it into a Superbird tribute and restomoding the car. So originality of the car is not important but its the point of being scammed. I know the only ones who wins in a lawsuit is the scumbag lawyers.

 

[AR67GTX]

Exactly this. I saw a loaded T-top Camaro back in the 90’s repaired by cutting the car in 1/2 and getting whole rear clip from a salvage yard. It’s just what they did ALL legal and done through an insurance company and a body shop.

Same here. I remember one guy that had a pretty regular business going in the early 70s buying wrecked Japanese cars and cutting them right across the middle to match a good front half with a good rear half, and then repainting it and selling it.