Ok i wrote last night that i just purchased a 67 RS SS350 4 speed car.Cowl tag codes?:67-12437 NOR121816...760-z n-n....wL 2Lgs 3L... 4p.The vin in the door jam is 123377n139415,the hidden vin under the heater cover is n221754.Can someone tell me what the heck i have?I dont have a good feeling about this.

It sounds like the vin on the door matches your title and the hidden vin does not......get your money back

The 221754 VIN number is inline with the cowl tag, so what you have is an RS/SS car with a swapped VIN plate. Only reason I see for such a thing is that the car was stolen sometime in it's past. Get it back to the guy you bought it from and get your money back.

Ok, so the hidden vin mathces the cowl and its an RS/SS car. A nicely optioned desirable car. If he wanted to keep it how would you go about fixing the vin mixup and making it right for ownership? Actually, i suppose as long as your happy with the car if you never said anything about the hidden vin no one would ever know and all would be ok. Correct?

Every states different but here in CA the car would be impounded until the vin was resolved if it got detected. It could be detected in many ways, getting it registered an inspection could be required. A ticket and the officer suspects the car doesn't have the proper smog equipment and he can send you to the smog ref where the numbers are checked. Future sale, the list goes on. Give the car back and if you really want it, make the seller clear the VIN through your states DMV and then offer the seller less for the car...

that's radical, Dennis... Here in Illinois, an inspection of the phyical car is flat not done. If the paperwork (title) is in order, you get registered, no problem. If you wanted a stated value insurance policy, the insurance company might want to verify that the vin on the title matches the vin plate, but no one but us, a pro appraiser, or a fellow collector would ever think to check the hidden vins.

What states require a physical inspection in a straight forward used car title transfer and registration? are there any, really?

I suppose all that's beside the point, which is that something is definitely somewhat fishy in Denmark. It's not nesessarily stolen, could be a somewhat paperwork challenged salvage kinda thing.

I think the first thing to do is run the hidden vin past the state dmv, see if anything shows up.

Jim the laws are not intended to handicap the hobbiest but in states like CA more cars are stolen in a day than you can imagine. Here in CA our old cars are exempt from smog inspection but still must comply to current smog laws. Here a non-op'd vehicle (one legally taken off the streets through the DMV) requires an inspection prior to being allowed registration when you are ready to put it back on the street. Both vins are checked at that point as a routine measure to properly document the vehicle.

It's a pain but not as bad as it could be...

Even though my Van Nuys Z is from CA I had to do the verification because it had not been registered in 20 years..the DMV has a form .. you either go to the DMV with the car or find a police officer to do the VIN verification.. they even ask for an engine number if available....

ok I have a friend thats a police chief and hes going to run the hidden vin and see if its stolen.I called the guy today and provided the information you guys gave me about the 123 being a 6 banger car and he lives about 3 miles down the road and didnt even want to come over to check it to make sure I knew what I was talking about"I think I would want to see for myself".All he said was I believe you.So I think he knew about this vin not being right.
Either way hes going to have to deal with the law tomarrow because I'm cleaning this dirt off my hands.Just think if I restored the car to sell like i planed to do without knowing about the vin,It probly would of been a hard sale Camaro guys like yourselves would of spotted the vin being a 6 banger in a minute.How much would this car of been worth If i had scored and did finished it?Non numbers matching but i have a 67 muncie and a 396 i was going to but in it to hopfully make up the difference.Long story short:we are having our first child and I needed to score a real money maker to restore and sell to get us off on the right foot..instead I may loose alot of money over this.
Thanks for your help guys!!!!!!!!

USRC--United Socialist Republic of California. Man, i dont know how you guys put up with all the wacked out laws and regs in CA. New York is ridiculous enough, but not as bad as CA. Also, is it possilbe to buy, restore, and turn around and sell a car for a nice profit...news to me. Always seemed to me and hearing from others that its tough just to get out what you put in. Good luck.

USRC--United Socialist Republic of California. Man, i dont know how you guys put up with all the wacked out laws and regs in CA. New York is ridiculous enough, but not as bad as CA. Also, is it possilbe to buy, restore, and turn around and sell a car for a nice profit...news to me. Always seemed to me and hearing from others that its tough just to get out what you put in. Good luck.

I don't see how that is possible with semi-documented Z's bringing 75 grand.

You can half ass restore one, and if its got a matching motor and tranny you will get 50 grand for it, easily. These cars are being gobbled up quicker than you can say CLONE.

Speaking of which..there are clones everywhere..and they still bring 30 grand easily.

I don't see many Z's bringing 75 K no matter how much docs they have... about livin in Ca.. it is tough sometimes....it can almost be surreal.....



I don't see how that is possible with semi-documented Z's bringing 75 grand.

You can half ass restore one, and if its got a matching motor and tranny you will get 50 grand for it, easily. These cars are being gobbled up quicker than you can say CLONE.

Speaking of which..there are clones everywhere..and they still bring 30 grand easily.

I don't see many Z's bringing 75 K no matter how much docs they have... about livin in Ca.. it is tough sometimes....it can almost be surreal.....

I have some friends in CA..I know what ya mean.

I have watched 3 auto auctions, and picked up several sales books- I can tell you theres enough Z's out there bringing 65-75 grand that it gets your attention.

I know of a shell- a SHELL..no doors, glass, hood, -vin tag and cowl tag were there..not much else-but a rust free 69 RSZ/28 shell that a guy was asking 15 grand for. I called out of curiosity and the guy had sold it the morning after he listed it. 15 grand for a shell? A clone in the making- but thats not the point. Its the money being thrown around.

I don't get it.

People do some strange stuff with VIN's.
A few years ago I bought a "yard find" 68 big block camaro that had a 67 VIN in the door jamb and it had been registered in Ca as a 67. The funny thing was the car also had been impounded by the police before I got it. It had the police impound writing on the windshield when I bought it.
The police obviously never looked too closely at the car as the original VIN was still on the dash.
Yes two VIN's on one car.
I did get the car titled to me as a 68 using the real vin# eventually.
I knew of the title problem when I first saw the car. I bought it from the deceased owners son, so there was no info available and I did it knowing in the worst case was the car was coming apart.
But at least I did have the original VIN to work with.

The police will not notice it. Ca. wants a double vin verification if you bring a car from out of state. It depends on what you paid for the car as to what I would do with it. I probably wouldn't worry too much about it. But now it's public and it's value will be greatly hurt by this knowledge. If you know someone at the DMV or a police officer that can check the hidden vin for you. You can see whats up with it. Don't go to the local donut shop and ask around or anything! There has to be some funny business going on with it. Who knows, some people are scared of registering things with problems? Maybe it's an Innocent thing? Just a vin swap for a dumb reason?

Missouri does the double VIN check if you bring in a car from out of state also. If you buy it instate do your illegal voodoo to it and then sell it in Missouri, as long as the public vin and title match, it is not checked.

I too know where there is a 69 X33 D80 shell sitting and rotting away and the owner does not want to sell it. It does include the subframe with power discs and power steering and the 12 bolt with drums. There are no doors, no seats, no floor or trunk pan (or at least not much left of each). The glass is still intact as well as the gauge cluster with the correct original tach. It would be a great project to find a date correct engine and trans for. Maybe someday I can convince him to sell it.

But now it's public and it's value will be greatly hurt by this knowledge.
So be it.I thank the guys from this site that helped me by figuring out what was up with this car being there are so many"fake ones"!I did not know a thing about camaros and if you read the first thread i was confused about the vin plate not matching the body tag number.And you guys figured out everything for me and taught me alot about camaros.Guess I should of asked you guys for info before I purchased it?
The hidden vin was ran in all surrounding states and came up clear.The guy has not called me as of yet so I realy think he knew all about this and might have even done it?And last time we spoke he had no money,sad story of being out of work from an injury(which is true) and used that money to pay the morgage.Seems theres no quick way out of this for me.?.?