Club Cobra - Arizona DMV - Expert on kit cars

Quote:

Originally Posted by RAMRobAZ (Post 1458502)

I have an appointment for a Level III paperwork review on Wednesday. The Chandler office woman said its either a 69 Cobra as registered, or a 65 Cobra Salvage. Yikes!! Better to get the inspector to approve the paperwork first.

Ask them if they could issue a new title with the 65 model year against a Bond (as Unique427 suggested earlier in this thread), instead of doing a salvage record. The Surety Bond will cost you some extra $$, but it keeps the title clean. A salvage brand is a permanent scar on a vehicle title record, and is something you are required by law to disclose to potential buyers when you go to sell the car later on down the road (DMV should have told you this)... It is considered fraud if you don't disclose a salvage brand on a vehicle title.

I bought a 54 Chevy pickup last year, that I had to dig out from under a Palo Verde tree out in the desert, where it had sat since 1987, and the seller had lost the title for it long, long ago...

When I towed the truck to DMV for inspection, my choices were to do an abandoned vehicle (salvage) title restoration, or to purchase a 3 year bond against a new title (The Bond price is usually 1.5% of whatever DMV declares the market value of the vehicle to be- In my case, they decided the truck was worth 10 grand, and my bond was 150 bucks)

The bond title process also takes about 3 weeks, because you have to write certified letters to every known former-owner of the vehicle, asking them to provide a title document. When the certified letters come back to you unresponded 15 days later, they become legal evidence for DMV that the vehicle has no authentic claims of ownership, besides yours.

In spite of the extra expense and headache, I chose the bonded title for my old truck because A) it is a clean, fully transferable title (the bond drops off the vehicle record automatically after 3 years, but I could legally sell the truck at any time, even with the bond in place); and B) They were able to use the original serial number stamped on the truck's door jamb plate as the vehicle ID number on the title, which is a lot cooler than having them drill holes to rivet one of those little blue number plates on the truck