I am trying to sell my Triumph Tr 4 and realized that there were 7 digits in the vin number on the title I had. I went and checked the Vin number on the car and it had 5 numbers and was not the same numbers as was on the title. I took my title to the local DMV and tried to explain to the lady there that there was a mistake made when the title was issued to the former owner of the car. She was more than sympathetic since she Knew what a Triumph Tr 4 was since her husband had owned one when they were growing up in another country. Long story short she called the state and told me that I had to contact the former owner and get an affidavit from him on a correction form with his signature and then submit to the state for consideration.
The former owner cannot be located since it has been 20 years since I purchased the car so i was out of luck in trying to get it done through the state. When I thought that the situation looked bleak i came upon some pertinent information when i was cleaning the car. Inside the glove box was the original owners manual and also there was a Triumph service schedule book dated 1965 with about 30 pages on it. on opening the service scheduling book the inside cover page had all the original sales information was filled in under the heading Memorandum. According to this information the car was originally sold by Kramer Motors in Santa Minica Blvd in California in May 14 th of 1966 which was given as the purchase date. The original owners name and address was also filled in but the Commission number and registration number was left blank. However the engine number was filled in and it had 7 digits with a L at the end. I checked this number with my title Vin number and to my surprise they matched exactly. So the car when New had been registered under the engine number and not the actual VIN number of the car by Kramer Motors and subsequently sold with the engine number as the VIN number.
My question is as much as i know this was a mistake but a common practice in the sixties, how do i correct this situation and get a proper title with the corrrect VIN nuber ? Like I stated earlier the former owner cannot be located to sign any corrected papers.
Secondly There are provisions in the same Memorandum in the Maintainance schedule and there is a place for a commision number and a registration number to be noted down. Both were left Blank and only the engine number was filled in. This I can understand because it was a Mantainance schedule and they only needed the engine number for servicing the car. But what excatly is the difference between the registration number and the comission number of the car and which of these should also be the same as the Vehicle identification number of the car ? ( VIN number )
The former owner cannot be located since it has been 20 years since I purchased the car so i was out of luck in trying to get it done through the state. When I thought that the situation looked bleak i came upon some pertinent information when i was cleaning the car. Inside the glove box was the original owners manual and also there was a Triumph service schedule book dated 1965 with about 30 pages on it. on opening the service scheduling book the inside cover page had all the original sales information was filled in under the heading Memorandum. According to this information the car was originally sold by Kramer Motors in Santa Minica Blvd in California in May 14 th of 1966 which was given as the purchase date. The original owners name and address was also filled in but the Commission number and registration number was left blank. However the engine number was filled in and it had 7 digits with a L at the end. I checked this number with my title Vin number and to my surprise they matched exactly. So the car when New had been registered under the engine number and not the actual VIN number of the car by Kramer Motors and subsequently sold with the engine number as the VIN number.
My question is as much as i know this was a mistake but a common practice in the sixties, how do i correct this situation and get a proper title with the corrrect VIN nuber ? Like I stated earlier the former owner cannot be located to sign any corrected papers.
Secondly There are provisions in the same Memorandum in the Maintainance schedule and there is a place for a commision number and a registration number to be noted down. Both were left Blank and only the engine number was filled in. This I can understand because it was a Mantainance schedule and they only needed the engine number for servicing the car. But what excatly is the difference between the registration number and the comission number of the car and which of these should also be the same as the Vehicle identification number of the car ? ( VIN number )