by sportsterpaul » Sun Sep 13, 2015 2:07 pm
Be aware that in California at least, tampering with numbers is a felony. I am told the usual way that works out is that after you spend $15,000 restoring the entire bike, when you go to title it at the DMV they send you to the CHP (California Highway Patrol) who then tells you you can give them the entire bike, since it all must be stolen, or you get charged with a felony. Kirk, the Sportster Specialties guy in LA actually got a bike titled in California, and when he went to ship it overseas, the US Customs people use a more comprehensive list of stolen VINs, and they wanted to confiscate the $18k bike. I think Kirk said he had all the receipts, so they let him keep all the new stuff. Kirk is a great guy, I met him at the Cow Palace swap meet decades ago, and he is the kind of guy that will talk to you on the phone about your K-model for an hour, where you learn of the California horror stories.
Now, that being said, number stamps are cheap, so maybe you just blast some plausible numbers where they should go. Wouldn't it be Shakespearean if the numbers you guess at happen to be on the hot sheet? Bear in mind, that does not fix anything, if the CHP inspector can detect it is re-stamped, then you probably pull two felonies, one for tampering and one for fraud or conspiracy. Another angle is to leave the engine blank, and then stamp a VIN on the frame. Most CHP know the engine is supposed to have a number as well so you are probably screwed.
One possible play is to stamp numbers on other side of the engine, like later Sportsters. Then pray the inspector does not want to look at the other side of the engine. It is not illegal to stamp numbers in and of itself. My buddy Ralph the Mouth had two VINs on his bike frame, since he used two different engines in the frame. when the DMV asked "Did you stamp those yourself?" Ralph said, "Sure did, I want to protect my property." The DMV guy nodded and gave him the paperwork.
Now if you don't live in a vicious Third-World state like California, such as Florida, where I just moved, the DMV told me I can get a notary public to come over to the house to inspect the motorcycle and they can title it based on that, as long as there is a bill of sale or some record that I paid for it and am "the true owner".
No matter, the important thing is to get the paperwork done before you spend any money. Of course, there are other things, mildly felonious, like just slapping this engine into an already titled bike. In California I had a Santa Clara cop actually inspect the engine numbers when he pulled me over for having long hair. So once again, if you are in a third-world state, you might lose the bike anyway, but at least you can ride it for a few years.
If you do live among the decent, the South or the Midwest, I would just drag the cases to the CHP and ask them if you are screwed and can not keep the engine. I suspect that is what they will tell you. Maybe, just maybe, you can show them a bill of sale, talk about the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) where if you buy a vehicle in good faith you get to keep it and if it is stolen they start working up the chain until they find the thief.
Bear in mind that the CHP and DMV will be very interested in who you bought it from, since if you convince them you are not the felon, then they might just go on a quest to find the one who is.
OK, so the first thing, you must be mistaken. The numbers have not been removed. You must have a service case that the factory sold to dealerships as a replacement. And the dealerships would stamp the original numbers on the case and destroy the old case. Yeah, that's the ticket, its a service case. That is much better than a felony case.
I can't help with the model year, but there is sure to be some enthusiast here who will help, its a great bunch of folks here. (Ha! in the time it took to write this, the answers are in. What a country, America,)