Dan,
Just because you bought the car legally doesn't mean 5 owners back didn't get duped in 1978. It won't matter, if it's proven stolen, the car goes back to the owner it was stolen from regardless of any receipts you produce. It's not legal to buy vins from a yard in any state I know of so I'd suggest either getting your money back if you paid psycho goat convertible money for the car, or keep it and drop off the radar if you like it and want to drive it. At this point, you are your own worst enemy if you draw attention to the car with title searches and such on the original vin#. I can see no other reason for anyone to swap a lemans vin tag onto a GTO other than to hide a theft car and get it back into the system. The magic 24267 numbers weren't in anyone's mind back in the day so it would be alot easier to pass the car off to an unsuspecting buyer. I guess there's a third option of pursuing it through a title search, if it proves out to be stolen you might ask for a reward from the rightful owner for doing the right thing. (I wouldn't hold my breath that it would cover your costs.) You're in a tough situation, and I don't know if you have the option of returning the car for the money, but the value of that car is officially off the GTO convertible list -- do a search on this forum for Vin tag swapping and read the thousands of posts about it. General concensus is car becomes no better than a clone and legal action will probably ensue if you don't disclose this and the new owner finds out. Good luck!!
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