URGENT title help needed!!!

patgizz wrote: i'd buy a junker with good title and do something to make that title appear on the car i wanted before i would ever consider going through one of the title laundering services. i think one of them got caught up in the whole boyd coddington thing where they were washing titles and applying them to new car builds. some states are more friendly to lost or missing titles on old stuff than others. ohio doesnt seem too friendly.

what you are saying is clearly illegal. A title service is operating in the gray area but they are not as shady as your plan.

was just giving a reference of how far i would go to not deal with one of those services, not that i would ever in reality do/have done/recommend it.

like the "i'm selling a 1969 Z28 with title, $4,000" ads where you get a section of the cowl from a rusted out hulk, with a clear title, and you are to "rebuild" the "car" around that piece of the original car by "installing new floors, quarters, roof, framerails" in the form of a new dynacorn body.

Title Washing got a report on the local investigative TV station. My state being one of the few where that car you fished out of the gulf after the Cat5 Hurricane becomes a trusty used car with a simple title change.

Link to report

Tennessee used to be the title wash hub for the Southeast. In the big Midwest floods of the 1990's a LOT of cars were retitled and sold at auction. I personally saw an Escort GT which still had about 1/4" of sand under the carpet. It had come from the auction with a Tenn title. That had a lot to do with why so many states tightened up on the whole title thing.

I just got the title to my XS here in SC. Basically, I filed a mechanic's lien against the bike (3 years' storage) the title company went to the magistrate and filed my claim, the magistrate's office notified the last owner and gave him 30 days to retreive the bike (to do so he would have to pay my lien) and after the 30 days was up the bike was auctioned and awarded to me for the storage fees. I got a magistrate's sale letter which I then took to the Highway Dept and traded for a real live title in my name. It cost me $135, I probably could have done it myself but it takes a fair amount of time to do all that so I paid him instead.

So what you can do is buy the car from this guy, get a bill of sale, move it to your property and start charging, say, $10 a day storage. Don't forget to add in your towing costs! Let it build up for 3-4 months then go after the title through the State of Washington.

In reply to DoctorBlade:

That article HAS to be an automated attempt at closed captioning. Otherwise, wow, just wow.

patgizz wrote: i'd buy a junker with good title and do something to make that title appear on the car i wanted before i would ever consider going through one of the title laundering services. i think one of them got caught up in the whole boyd coddington thing where they were washing titles and applying them to new car builds. some states are more friendly to lost or missing titles on old stuff than others. ohio doesnt seem too friendly.

I would go through a title service before doing a vin swap...from what I understand you'll be in a lot more trouble if you get caught vin swapping.

As far as a title service. I know a guy who recently used one with very good results.

Curmudgeon wrote: Tennessee used to be the title wash hub for the Southeast. In the big Midwest floods of the 1990's a LOT of cars were retitled and sold at auction. I personally saw an Escort GT which still had about 1/4" of sand under the carpet. It had come from the auction with a Tenn title. That had a lot to do with why so many states tightened up on the whole title thing. I just got the title to my XS here in SC. Basically, I filed a mechanic's lien against the bike (3 years' storage) the title company went to the magistrate and filed my claim, the magistrate's office notified the last owner and gave him 30 days to retreive the bike (to do so he would have to pay my lien) and after the 30 days was up the bike was auctioned and awarded to me for the storage fees. I got a magistrate's sale letter which I then took to the Highway Dept and traded for a real live title in my name. It cost me $135, I probably could have done it myself but it takes a fair amount of time to do all that so I paid him instead. So what you can do is buy the car from this guy, get a bill of sale, move it to your property and start charging, say, $10 a day storage. Don't forget to add in your towing costs! Let it build up for 3-4 months then go after the title through the State of Washington.

Do you have your own business? I looked into this in TN and you have to have your own business to file any type of lien. So, in my case being a private individual, even though I was storing cars for someone and he basically abandoned them I was E36 M3 out of luck.

patgizz wrote: i'd buy a junker with good title and do something to make that title appear on the car i wanted before i would ever consider going through one of the title laundering services. i think one of them got caught up in the whole boyd coddington thing where they were washing titles and applying them to new car builds. some states are more friendly to lost or missing titles on old stuff than others. ohio doesnt seem too friendly.

I know a guy that used to do that with JDM cars. He lives outside of the country now, at the request of the immigration department. Not a smart thing,

Was this ever resolved (OP)? What car was it, anyway?

Holy nercothread Batman!

Yes, it was resolved as it turned out the original shop owner did get the lein and all paperwork, and the seller had all of that (notarized) plus his paperwork.

The car should be immediately familiar.

Cotton wrote:

Curmudgeon wrote: Tennessee used to be the title wash hub for the Southeast. In the big Midwest floods of the 1990's a LOT of cars were retitled and sold at auction. I personally saw an Escort GT which still had about 1/4" of sand under the carpet. It had come from the auction with a Tenn title. That had a lot to do with why so many states tightened up on the whole title thing. I just got the title to my XS here in SC. Basically, I filed a mechanic's lien against the bike (3 years' storage) the title company went to the magistrate and filed my claim, the magistrate's office notified the last owner and gave him 30 days to retreive the bike (to do so he would have to pay my lien) and after the 30 days was up the bike was auctioned and awarded to me for the storage fees. I got a magistrate's sale letter which I then took to the Highway Dept and traded for a real live title in my name. It cost me $135, I probably could have done it myself but it takes a fair amount of time to do all that so I paid him instead. So what you can do is buy the car from this guy, get a bill of sale, move it to your property and start charging, say, $10 a day storage. Don't forget to add in your towing costs! Let it build up for 3-4 months then go after the title through the State of Washington.

Do you have your own business? I looked into this in TN and you have to have your own business to file any type of lien. So, in my case being a private individual, even though I was storing cars for someone and he basically abandoned them I was E36 M3 out of luck.

No business license etc needed in my case. I wrote a statement that I had been storing the bike at my house, had attempted to contact the owner to get the title and he did not respond. After that it was all in the hands of the title dude.

And my dog, I never looked at the dates of this thread.