We seem to go through this about once a year for the last 8-9 years. Usually it ends up with everyone scratching around on their frames looking for stamped numbers. I think the last time we did that, the oldest trucks we found with numbers stamped on the frames were from the task-force era. Early cars and trucks (pre-war) never had what we now call a VIN system. The manufacturing companies identified their vehicles with whatever system they wanted, which was by no means standardized and was mostly for their own use. Usually they identified them by the serial number stamped on the engine block. States titled the vehicles with whatever numbers they wanted, usually the engine number, but sometimes the number from the data plate. Some states didn't even have titles, only bills of sale. I have a bunch of '39-'46 trucks titled in my name. I would say more than half are titled by the engine number, but it depends what state the truck came from as to what number they used. The ones titled by the data plate number are fine. The ones titled by the engine number are a pain, as the original engine is usually long gone. Same problem the rodders run into when they pitch the original 6 for a V-8 and find that the number on their title no longer matches anything found on the truck as the number on the title was the old engine number.
Problems like this was why the federal Gov't. moved to a standardized VIN system in the late '50's or whenever. The manufactures had to permanently affix a serial number tag that stayed with the vehicle and was used to title it. Our arch rival (Henry Ford) was actually ahead of the game in the '20's, '30's and '40's, as he had the same number stamped on the engine, trans. and frame. (top of left front frame rail) Chev. trucks of these same years had no numbers stamped on the frame and the number stamped on the trans. does not match the engine number. The serial numbers and date codes stamped and cast on the engine and trans. were more for GM's record keeping and use in troubleshooting manufacturing problems than for easy identification of stolen parts or titling. I don't think parts theft was the problem in the '40's that it is now. By around 1950, Chev. trucks had the VIN tag permantly affixed (riveted) to the cab, and a matching number stamped in the frame by the late '50's. This number was then used on the title. Definite improvement over the old way. The modern 17 digit system is even better and tells much about the vehicle. Many times you need this number when ordering parts to properly identify the vehicle's engine etc..
I know this is getting long, but a quick story here, A few years ago a friend of mine decided to track down the Model A coupe that he had as a teenager. ('63 or so) He tracked the car from owner to owner and found it in a barn with no engine. It had been there since 1972 or something. He bought the car back and transferred the title and started to restore it with a replacement engine that he rebuilt. Soon he got a call from our state saying there were now 2 Model A's both titled using the same number. Turns out that someone had taken the engine from his old Model A and rebuilt it as a replacement for their Model A 20 years ago or so. They had back then had the state retitle their car using the new replacement engine number, as the engine no longer matched the frame. My friend offered to buy and/or trade engines with this other Model A owner to get all the correctly numbered parts back on his car, but no go. The state had to step in to settle it and ended up siding with my friend who had the matching frame and title, but not the matching engine. The state then told the other owner he would have to retitle his car again using his frame number, which is what he had in the first place over 20 years ago. He was not happy. Titling by the engine number was (and still is) a very confusing thing.
