Now thats just wrong

Yessir. Lots of folks no title is a TURN OFF!!! Gets the seller to dropping the price. Sure the first time you got to hoop jump with what your state wants, its a bit daunting. But after that, you know the ropes, forms, and where you have to go for it all. After that, it becomes "old hat".

I do however ask the seller if they dont have a title. I ask them what they know of the vehicles past owner history. I tell them i will need a written bill of sale. I ask them if i can give them an in writing refundable deposit if i'm serious. I also ask them if i can run the vin thru the state database to check for theft or a leinholder. If they have nothing to hide they will let you do that because all your trying to do is C.Y.A.

Heres the other thing. If the vehicle has been sitting so long on the owners property that it was registered last when the state held those records in paper, then its probably been purged from the states database when everything upgraded to digital record keeping. So checking the vin on something thats been sitting 30 plus years may not yield anything.

This is why its good to pay an insurance company a couple hundred dollars bond the title. You may have pulled that old car out from behind a barn, checked the numbers, done the bill of sale thing, gotten a title yackity smackity. Then somebody going thru their dead grandpas old things finds a title to a vehicle, and checks with motor vehicle. Now that you have gotten a title, that vehicle number is now loaded back into the system. They may now want the car back. And that is their legal right. At least for the number of years the state requires the bond to be on the title it is.

This is why i say do the leg work. And definitely get a bonded title. Then start collecting up your parts, build up a killer engine for it, etc. but dont do a damn thing to the car, or store anything in it that didnt come with it when you got it. Maybe toss a cover over it to protect it from further deterioration. If you have a place out of the weather to keep it thats fine too. But do not start repairing it or putting ANY parts on it until the bond runs out.

If this happens and "Joe Schmuckatelli" comes looking for gramps old mopar with illusions of grandeur. Since nowadays everybody thinks all old mopars are worth gold. He will find a broken rusty piece of **** typically missing a bunch of parts. Anything you bought for it doesnt legally belong to it if you have not put the parts on it yet.

Usually ole Joe Schmuckatelli will leave you with the "junk car" and take the bond money instead. If they take the bond money then they are surrendering their right to the vehicle. With a bond they effectively can have one or the other. Not both.