I'm disappointed in the direction this forum is headed

[theastronaut]

The main purpose of a vin is to identify and register the vehicle to the legal owner. These are 60 year old trucks and a lot of them didn't survive intact. They're often missing major parts, assembled from parts of many other trucks, rebuilt from reproduction parts (including repro cabs and frames built from scratch), modified into something it never was (long to short, 2wd to 4wd swap, etc). As long as the parts were sourced legally then I see nothing ethically wrong with using the vin and title from a donor truck if you're making a hodgepodge of parts into a running/driving vehicle, especially in states where it's not easy to get a new vin assigned. It's not like we're stealing trucks and swapping vins to cover up the crime... that's the kind of reason why vin laws exist, not to punish the guy that's trying to rebuild his vintage truck.