The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk 1955 Task Force VIN question - Oakland vehicles

Hi all,

I know that there are lots of threads dealing with VIN's but I don't see this one addressed. I am preparing documents to attempt to get an Illinois title for my 1955 burb.

The doorpost and chassis VIN's match with one exception and appear to be original and unmolested. The VIN format is four characters,in my case H255; followed by a single letter origin character; ending with a six digit vehicle number. Since my burb started life in Oakland the fifth character should be an "oh" not a zero. That is how the chassis is stamped. The doorpost VIN has two identical characters following the H255 which appear to be zeros. This doesn't bother me a bit; but I have become more than a little wary regarding the DMV. Is this common and is it documented anywhere?
The current title references an engine number because that was how the California title was issued. Since the original engine is no longer in place I am trying to avoid problems in case an overeager official does an impromptu VIN check. There are probably insurance issues also, but this one first.

My thanks to anyone who can help. John

the 55-57 numbers all started at 001001 at every plant, so your Oakland number would have an O for the plant and a zero for the 1st digit of the sequence number .....look at this closely > H255O001xxx

Bill

John,

If all else fails, print this out and take it with you to the DMV.

Thanks for the document Tim. I've printed it and added it to the file.

Bill, I keep looking at the pillar VIN and I'm sure that If I put a caliper across the two characters that they would measure exactly the same. Not so on the chassis. The question is whether or not my vehicle is the only one like this or did the factory just not care?
My only concern is that the IL DMV seems to find criminal intent in any discrepancy and I'm trying to avoid potential issues.
I don't know how many similar vehicles are out there but If you have one I would appreciate your letting me know what yours looks like.

Thanks for your time and interest, John

my 58 uses the later scheme where the numbers all start from 100001, isn't from the Oakland plant, and was missing the door post plate ... the numbers were stamped for the door post tag during assembly of the body, following the frame number, which was done at the head of the line - might be that the zero stamp didn't get as much use at the Oakland plant because they always had the 'O' in hand, I can't imagine the DMV guys would notice any discrepancy in that

Bill

We have many times seen Os and 0s used interchangeably on engine serial numbers. I agree with Billl that is quite possible that the same was done with the cab ID.

Hi John,

Just went out to check the door pillar plate on my 55 2nd 3200 Oakland built truck. The oh and the zero to my eye are identical. There is also another zero in the production sequence portion of the number. Again identical.

Hope all your homework makes this go as smooth as silk.

As long as you have a clear title, you should be ok. Illinois is nowhere near as bad as some states, especially California as far as dealing with the DMV.

Thanks for everyone's help. I'm pleased to know that at least the numbers on my burb are as it left the factory. As far as being home free with the DMV I'm not so sure. When I purchased my vehicle I was aware that the PO had a CA title based on engine number. I also knew that the original engine was no longer in place. Since I, and presumably the IL DMV, knew that in 1955 CA issued titles based on the engine. I headed off to their office with the expectation that they might have run into this issue before.
I presented all the documents and asked their advice. They stated that the only title they could issue would have the same info as the title that I turned in. I explained that there was now no number on the vehicle that matched the number on my title. They restated their position. I couldn't see any option at the time; so I processed the paperwork.
The result was a title with my name spelled incorrectly and, as it turned out, they had created a new variant on the engine number - a point I didn't notice until later. This was followed in a week or two with a letter claiming that I had misrepresented the value of the vehicle and owed another $775 in taxes and penalties since they had determined that it was worth at least $15,000.
I believe that I have resolved the latter issue even though there was no written reply. At this point I am preparing the documents to obtain a bonded title; as that seems to be my only recourse. Why am I not overly confident?

John

The rumors are that Illinois is getting better or easier for us old truck, car and hotrod guys - but maybe not.
You should NOT have to go the bonded title route. It's just stupid! But typical bureaucracy.
Good luck.