Tough car title situation

[loudandgreen]

A friend has a car he just got back out of his mothers barn due to parking it there and forgot about it. He's been slowly putting money and time in this car the last few months and then realized he may still owe on the car. He thinks he may owe a little under $1k on the car from a used car lot.

Here's the problem

We're in NC, It's been over 10 years since he made a payment on the car and being it's been so long we don't know if there would be interest on the balance due and if so we don't know if the car would be worth keeping at this point. He really wants to keep the car being he's already put money into getting it back to road worthy. Is there a way to get the title paying little as possible?