Pinto Car Club of America

 The last time I took my Pinto for inspection the first place said they couldnt read the vin, but the second place I went to didnt mention any problems with it. Now today I had to get some roadside assistance under my insurance, and they said they couldnt read the vin tg they tried rubbing it with their thimb that sort of bugged me why make it worse. But they got the number off the door jamb instead.

My main question is  what can I do about this as it gets worse? I have owned the car for 26 years and Im sure my state has records of my registering as far back as they can probably check.

Do I contact the state troopers station? What can be done for this issue?

The door jamb tag is the same. If you want check with your D.M.V. and have a new tag stamped.Also you can clean the dash pad number and use some whiteout to make the numbers visible. Apply the whiteout and clean off the excess, it used to make markings on weapons and other military equipment stand out.

you can actually buy a blank vin plate from ford and re stamped your self and replace it, as long as the vin plate is on its original place they wont say anything they will actually wont event know the difference. however keep the original plate just in case.
at list in Florida you dont have to go to the dmv to get a vin tag re stamp.

 Thank y ou both for responding. The place I went to get it inspectede actually pretty much came out and said they believed it had been `tampered with`. I know thats not true, but its a little troublseome to deal with.

I read one place to just use a paint brush and ish soap to clean it, another place they talked about wiping it with some diluted hydrochloric acid. The dish detergent probably couldnt hurt the acid thing sounded like a last resort even if its really diluted down.

I have taken those off in the past and they are very thin and fragile. I think even a little acid would be fatal.