How to get a title for a 31 ford

Here's the deal, My Husband traded a corvette for a 31 ford at a car show. No money exchanged hands they just traded vehicles and titles. This was about a year ago, we did not have the title changed to his name, partly because the car was in the shop for about 8 months and the other part stupidity I guess. But anyway, my husband had the title in his pants pocket and I washed his pants. No part of the title is left. Since it's a 31 it doesn't have a vin number, and we don't know the previous owners name. The car has been rebuilt. It has a chevy front end and a ford rear end, new motor and other modifications. We live in Tennessee in case that matters. Is there anyway to get a new title?:runaround:

A longshot (that I have never had to do so I don't know for sure) You may be able to use the VIN number off the Corvette to look up who you sold it to. (if you kept anything with that VIN number on it, that is...)
That would get you back in touch with the seller and an original title.

Another thing you could do... (depending on local/state laws) Here we can take a vehicle to the Department of Transportation shop. There, State Troopers (and whoever else) will inspect it to make sure there are no stolen parts and make sure if it came with emission control devices, it still has emission control devices.
Here that gets "rebuilt salvage" added on the title :frown: (regardless of what happened)
If it does not have a VIN number they issue one. Trouble with that is, its titled as a current year self assembled vehicle.......No more 1931 Ford. :frown:

I find it strange that there is no vin number. I have a 1917 Olds 7 pass. Touring Cabriolet V-8 that has a vin number. It was a brass plate on the passenger side fire wall and also had the engine ID number. I had to have it verified by the Police as our title had been miss placed while the car was in storage for 47 years. The officer called his dispatcher for a vin number check and it came right up in the system. We went to the license bureau with the paper work and filed for another title.

I worked with a guy whose family had been in the salvage yard business for many years. An old hobby they had was collecting items from old cars including titles. stickers, plates, other registration items, etc. They had a small booth at local car shows and sold and traded these items. I asked him one day about it and he told me that in some situations, similar to what the OP posted above, someone would need a VIN or other registration material to put a vehicle on the road that didn't have it's current VIN or other identifying items. If they had a title or VIN to match the year make and model, it could be used to register that vehicle in our state (NY) , I guess it was legal to do if the vehicle was made prior to a certain year,( not sure but I think it was sometime in the '60s. I wonder if that could be done in the OP's situation, getting a VIN or registration material from another '31 Ford that has been junked but not recorded and used on the other vehicle?