I bought a 1981 Spider from a woman in NY and because I live in CT, I filled out all the paperwork to register it here. There was a VIN on the door and 2 under the hood - all matching. When I went through the VIN verification process (a part of the registration when purchasing a vehicle from out of state) the inspector wouldn't approve me because on 1 detail -

I didn't have the public VIN plate on the dashboard!

Despite having all the other VINs in place and all matching, now I have to go through the process of VIN reassignment in the state where it was purchased because one of the 2 VINs needed had to be the public VIN.

So, for what it's worth, if there's work done behind the dash or if the dash is replaced, consider keeping that public VIN plate in tact to avoid the hassle that I had to go through. It's a great car, but I could've enjoyed it sooner if the guy who worked on the car before me had taken the time to be more careful.

Could you not make one of those aluminum tags and re-attach it with your matching VIN so that you are in compliance??

If you can, I can give you exact dimensions of mine. I have it off the car.

Are you sure it's not folded down under the dashboard? The aluminum dashboard tag has a longish thin aluminum tail. Mine was bent and jammed under the dash by a PO.

I just went through a similar re-titling process, having bought an untitled car from out of state. At least I didn't have the problem with the VIN tag. However there was some confusion as to what year my car really WAS / IS.

It was advertised as a '66. It clearly was NOT. big-bumper, bump in the floor for the cat, etc etc leads me to beleive it is an early '78. it has been titled previously as a '66, a '76 and a '78.

baltobernie wrote:Are you sure it's not folded down under the dashboard? The aluminum dashboard tag has a longish thin aluminum tail. Mine was bent and jammed under the dash by a PO.

It's definitely NOT folded down. I took the dash apart and it looked like it may have been folded down at one point, but now it's sheared off. Just the riveted end remained.

seabeelt wrote:Could you not make one of those aluminum tags and re-attach it with your matching VIN so that you are in compliance??

It'd be nice if someone had blanks of these laying around along with the correct stamps...but no.

You dont need a blank. Just get one with a different vin and flip it aroud to the blank side. Then have your vin stamped onto it. I always save these pieces when taking a car apart. I know I have a box of then in the garage somewhere.

hey i think Lee putnam is tying to keep a registery of all the dead spiders. So try to write your vins down before passing them on

I’m personally responsible for the demise of at least 1000 spiders in my life time

spiderrey wrote:You dont need a blank. Just get one with a different vin and flip it aroud to the blank side. Then have your vin stamped onto it. I always save these pieces when taking a car apart. I know I have a box of then in the garage somewhere.

I thought of that too Rey,
Then thought, what if they turn it over. Then it looks like your up to something no good. Maybe the old vin could be lightly sanded off, then use the blank side.

spiderrey wrote:You dont need a blank. Just get one with a different vin and flip it aroud to the blank side. Then have your vin stamped onto it. I always save these pieces when taking a car apart. I know I have a box of then in the garage somewhere.

Actually, I tried that. Unfortunately, the stamping goes through from one side to the other. That means, the back side isn't "clean" enough to present as a close to original public VIN tag.

Of course the inspector hasn't seen very many spiders so he won't be able to tell if it's "aftermarket" or not. Remember: he's just making sure all the spots on the form are filled in.