Hey guys, new XKE owner here (1964 Coupe). I bought the car in New York and am registering it in CA. On the title the engine number is listed as the VIN and for that reason, the DMV has referred me to the CHP to verify the car. I'm afraid they will want to put a new VIN tag on the car instead of just registering it with the original numbers. Anyone have experience with this situation and advice for making sure the CHP/DMV use original numbers?

Thanks in advance.
Mark

 

I went through the VIN check at our local CHP station, for my Silver Dawn, and they just looked at the Tag on the firewall which does in my case match the engine and various other components on the car. What I would do in your case is ask the CHP to verify the VIN on your chassis tag, explain that the engine has been replaced (or does not match the chassis number as a matter of mfg practice) but that you want to use the chassis number for registration purposes not the engine number, and they should let you change it on your title. You might want to start at DMV (or AAA) in case they have a form you need to take to the CHP.


You might also want to run a VIN history for both the engine number and the chassis number first. Also suggest you poke around the DMV website for any other info or forms that might be relevant. https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/de...r/nmvtis_check

 

Thank you for this. The engine is the original engine - so never swapped - I just think in 1964 the XKE's only had a CAR number, not a VIN, so when the car was originally titled, they used the engine number - and it's the same on the data plate in the car...but since it's the engine number DMV wants CHP to verify. Maybe they will just look at the data plate and be good with it. Just don't want an assigned VIN to this classic...

 

I believe that you can have ANY unique number assigned as a VIN (of course I could be wrong !). It sounds like your chassis number on your tag does match the registration, so you should be fine. Reason I say that is my Silver Dawn chassis number was assigned as the VIN on the registration, but it is only 5 digits long SVJXX where XX is the production number for that SVJ series. Unfortunately this short VIN does confuse the DMV computers every year as far as the automatic insurance verification, so I have learned to go in and have AAA manually enter the renewal and proof of insurance every year. I tried requesting they add leading Zero's to fill in the blanks, but they claimed that could not be done.