Legalities of changing a truck cab

we did that one time at work with a wrecked truck, best that I remember it took a bit of tag and title work at the county level, and I believe we had to bring it back to them to view when done. A quick call to your tag office Tuesday would let you know if it’s gonna be a pain. Don’t forget that you’ll have to advise your insurance company as the VIN will change.

jaybmiller wrote: NO ! Take VIN tag off old cab (drvrs side dash at window )  and tape on top of new one. Also DOOR info has VIN, need to remove that one so it can't be scanned !!!!!!! Take pictures of what you do, print a copy , store in glovebox Actually should cover up the dash one. Thieves scan and get keys ,or ownerships  using it. SOBs....

I plan to use my doors and vin if possible.
I’ll call the tag office Tuesday like Joe says.
I’ve done this a couple times when I was younger but made no effort to do the paper work. I don’t want to do it wrong this time.

Neighbors in Wisconsin did a cab swap on a class 8 truck decades ago. Got corrected title, tags, insurance, the whole 9 yards. Lo and behold the Wisconsin State Patrol officer that lived in the area, pulls the truck over for a ‘random inspection’ and he about has a stroke with all the paperwork, found two different VIN numbers, inspected that truck from top to bottom, front to back, inside and out, had them on the side of the road for 3 hours, phone calls to the truck insurance company, phone calls to WI DMV, the officer was accusing the owners of theft, although he had seen that truck on the roads for over a year. Finally a Sheriff’s Deputy shows up, and State Patrol officer and Deputy have a 30 minute conversation, after all that the truck owners got a citation for one brake chamber out of adjustment, and ‘loose articles in driver’s compartment’.

My nephews changed just about everything but the VIN number on the old square body Chevy I gave him. He uses it for street "stock" truck pulling. Still has to have a vin and he put a collector plate on it. I had an old cabover that the previous owner did a cab-frame swap. I got stopped for speeding with it. When the officer went to check the VIN with the registration they didn't match because we couldn't find were the tag was on the cab. Found out it was inside the side compartment door. Anyway told him I got the truck from a local guy that had multiple trucks and he maybe gave me the wrong title and nobody checked it. After some phone calls the VIN was the right number for the cab. Officer had me get a new vin tag issued from the state. Had to rivet it on and have it verified by an officer.

Edited by DanWi - 10 Nov 2024 at 9:52pm

jaybmiller wrote: NO ! Take VIN tag off old cab (drvrs side dash at window )  and tape on top of new one. Also DOOR info has VIN, need to remove that one so it can't be scanned !!!!!!! Take pictures of what you do, print a copy , store in glovebox Actually should cover up the dash one. Thieves scan and get keys ,or ownerships  using it. SOBs.... LOL! Jay I dare say this is regulated by state law here in the southern 50 states, but your suggestion would be highly frowned upon in many, if not all states and could lead to real legal problems....at the very least lots of legal costs.

Edited by LouSWPA - 11 Nov 2024 at 8:18am