It just became a little bit easier to restore a pre-1981 classic car in the state of Arizona, all thanks to a campaign backed by major collector car auction company Barrett-Jackson.
Following a unanimous vote from the Arizona House of Representatives and State Senate, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has signed House Bill 2480 into law, allowing for the VIN plate on pre-1981 vehicles to be removed and re-attached during the repair or restoration process. This new statute came into effect on July 22nd, 2022.
Barrett-Jackson President Steve Davis told Classic Car that his company began campaigning for the law to be modified last year and eventually received support from Arizona House Transportation Chair Frank Carroll. This helped the bill pass through the Arizona House of Representatives and the Transportation and Technology Committee in the Arizona State Senate before it was unanimously passed by both of the state’s governing bodies.
While it was illegal to remove and reattach a VIN plate to a different vehicle of the same make and model in Arizona, this practice is federally legal in cases where certain repairs to a vehicle may be necessary. Barrett-Jackson used language from the federal law to ensure the bill would pass in Arizona, with Classic Car noting the scope of the revised statute is quite narrow for this reason. It’s still illegal to reattach a VIN plate on a post-1981 vehicle, for example, as this was the year that VINs became more standardized across different vehicle makes.
Craig Jackson, chairman and chief executive of Barrett-Jackson, hopes the bill can one day be amended to include a wider scope of vehicles.
“As the collector car community evolves and expands to future generations and more makes and models, this cut-off may, at some point, need to be reconsidered,” Jackson said, as quoted by Classic Car.
While rules surrounding VIN plates for restored vehicles may seem somewhat arbitrary in the current day, these laws were written in the 1940s and 1950s, when many lawmakers would not have known that the vehicles of the day would become collector’s items. Some enthusiasts living in states have had their vehicles impounded and crushed after they were found to have illegally removed and reattached a VIN plate during the restoration process, and a similar fate almost happened to the buyer of a restored 1959 Corvette in Kansas. Jackson hopes the new law in Arizona will prevent this from happening in the future.
“This is a precedent-setting moment that people will look at and then want to emulate this legislation in their states,” he said.
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Comments
I bought a car with a replacement VIN plate that was attached in a different place than the original. The title was clear so I guess that’s why I didn’t suffer any headaches with buying or selling it. I owned the car for thirty years without any issue or claims against my ownership.
…If someone has to take the VIN off to repair a section where it is attached this should be registered beforehand and notarized by a lawyer or a notary public and a letter sent to local police advising the fact. Failure to do this will encourage thieves, insurance fraud, and worse of all stigmatize legitimate cars. Could this be the real reason they are doing this? Wake up and smell the coffee…Gone in 60 seconds, Cartheft papandreas…will become a reality. Either that or consider making your classic into a doghouse for your German Shepherd so the dog can keep an eye on it.
Most of these VIN replacements occur on RESTO-MODS
– basically putting a 90’s vintage frame and driveline under a 50’s / 60’s body
– the VIN on most of these RESTO-MODS is the VIN 50’s/60’s body
So now, I can grab a VIN off of a wreaked classic car and attach it to a new aftermarket new steel body, build the car as original and sell it as a historical collectors car. There are steel bodies produced for a lot of the old classics, Mustangs, Camero, 57 chevs, Ford Pickups, right back to the old three-window coupes. Stolen pedigree.
Beyond stolen pedigree. It’s sacrilege. These aftermarket bodies are all stamped in China.