Jay Jay, thanks for your comments. when i started thinking about this project i was going to move the body. as i thought about the body issues made me think about moving the engine and drive train.
I plan to move the engine and drive train. Please advise as to this plan.
1.remove the engine , drive train and rear end from the coupe.
2.remove the engine/transmission from chassis and install in coupe
3.remove rearend and OD from chassis and install in coupe.
4.remove old frontend from coupe.
5.Remove front end with new brakes and install in Coupe.
frontend, brakes and rearend have ll been rebuilt.
thanks for any comments.
frank
Frank - this seems like a reasonable approach.
As far as DMV: a few comments. All of the below are with the caveat that I know absolutely nothing about how Kansas titles or registers automobiles. My experience is solely within California.
As you'll see by searching any of the many threads on this subject, Model As did not originally have "VIN". The "VIN" is a construct that came onto being in the 1950s, well after Model As were manufactured. Ford initially designated the engine number to be the serial number of the car, and in most (but not all) cases stamped that same number onto the frame on the assembly line. That number followed the car, and presumably was used to establish titles in those states that titled cars.
Over the years many, if not most, Model As had their engines swapped out even if the original frames remained with the car. At the same time, the concept of "VIN" became a number that was permanently attached to the structure of the car, be it firewall, frame, top of the dash panel, wherever. Attempting to match the "VIN" on the title is trivial when the engine number matches, but not so much if the engine has been swapped out. The number stamped on the frame is not at all easily seen without removing the body.
I would suggest that the first thing to do would be to find your title and see what number has been entered into the space for "VIN". There are several possibilities.
- The number there is the same number that is on the old engine.
- The number there is not the same number that is on the old engine, but it looks like a Model A engine number.
- There is some completely random number there.
In the first case, if you want to keep square but use a new engine, you will either go through a very involved process to update the title to the number of the new engine, or else grind off the number on the new engine and restamp the old number.
I freely admit that some folks believe the latter approach to be illegal or at least unethical. My opinion, and solely mine, is that you are not misrepresenting anything about the car, you are simply stamping a number into a piece of cast iron. But that is your decision.
In the second case, likely the engine has been swapped out sometime in the past (as I noted above, not at all uncommon). Your title does not match the engine anyhow, so changing the engine again doesn't change this situation.
In the third case, likely somewhere there is a stamp or plate with this assigned VIN on the car. If this is the case changing the engine is irrelevant, the "VIN" on the title follows this stamp/plate, not the engine number.
As an aside, if the car is currently registered then I find it very difficult to believe that anyone is going to look or even care what the engine number is.
And unless Kansas DMV is way, way different from California DMV, I would NOT suggest going to DMV and asking any questions. As you saw from your experience trying to add "Sr." to your driver's license, the quality of DMV employees tends to be quite inconsistent.
