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I hope this long post will clear up some of the issues here.
In the 1980's I was collecting Pontiacs and found several, (7 as I recall) in an old salvage yard. I bought them all. Most of them were just rollers with no motors or transmission. Some had titles some didn't but I got a Bill of Sale for all of them. One in particular was interesting as the vin had been removed but the trim tag was still there. The body had no dum-dum and the battery had been relocated in the trunk. The body has some rust especially around the rear wheel openings. This had been caused by using a "Bleach Box" to do burn outs. I started sanding on the car and noticed that it had racing stripes down the hood, roof, and trunk. About the same time I saw a advertisement that a rare Pontiac was being offered for sale in the immediate area. I viewed the car for sale and took photographs. The dealer said the car had just been sold and was going up north to a collector. I returned home and contacted National Auto Theft Bureau and requested that they come to my home and pull the "hidden number" off the frame and document it. They came and pulled the number and I told them about the "fake" that had been sold. They went immediately to the owner of the "fake" and asked to inspect the vin number on the door jam. They matched the vin number(metal tag) off the fake to the frame and car I had sitting at my house. The owner of the fake confessed and told them that he had taken a "granny car" that was rust free and an easy restoration and pulled the vin number off the real car and made a clone. He was given the opportunity to remove the vin tag which he wisely did. This option is not available now as I understand it.
I loaded the real car on a trailer and took it to MVD. They took
photographs, pulled the number off the frame again, took all my documentation and the documentatin of the NATB and put an assigned vin number on the door jam. They put the original vin number on the car. A very reputable collector bought both cars and spent a lot of money restoring the real car. The car that you see today at POCI Conventions is the real car. It is worth a lot of money and will continue to appreciate.
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