In many cases old vehicles were registered using engine no.s and, of course, when the engine wore out and a new one was put in, the no.s didn't match anymore. If the title is clear, you can buy repopped vin tags (blank) for your year and stamp the no.s on yourself. I've heard that vin no's were sometimes put on the frame, drivers side, in the area of the steering box but my '53 has no such nos. My truck sat for years, title was lost, it was reregistered about 10 years ago and the DMV just assigned a new number to it. I've got a new vin plate with the new number on it, as long as DMV is happy, I'm happy!
