[Licensed to kill]

Interesting question. It was fear of mine with my '31 fordor. I knew the motor had been changed and was afraid that, when I went to register it that somebody may be using the motor/reg already. Don't know what became of the original motor and the car hadn't been registered in many years. Turned out to be no problem but still. On another, only vaguely related, I had bought an '04 short box quad cab 3500 Dodge, cummins that the body was smashed but not reported to insurance so not written off. Then bought an '04 Dodge 1500 quad cab short box that had the motor blown and put the 1500 body on the 3500 chassis. It had to be registered as the 2004 1500 but changed the fuel to diesel. So now i have a Dodge 1500 with diesel, 6spd 4X4 that started life as a gas, auto, 2WD. I stamped the vin from the 3500 on a piece of aluminum and riveted it to the rad support so I have it for ordering parts for the lower parts of the truck. Bottom line, VIN stays with the body with newer vehicles. Of course, there is no vin on the body of Model A's so........