Out of State Registration, California DMV

We have spent some time at the DMV this summer and have learned a lot about out of state registration and what our options are for getting California license plates for Ole Blue. First the registration process:

To register the truck we needed to provide a form telling details about the vehicle identification, when we brought the truck into the state and proof of title.  The date of entry must have been in the last 21 days or you get socked with a substantial penalty so I recommend getting this step of the process done regardless of any follow-up - no penalties if forms are submitted on time regardless of what happens next.

Then a DMV employee came out to look at Old Blue. She checked the lights, and general condition of the truck and then asked to see the VIN number on the truck. Since the drivers side door had been crushed when Old Blue tried to run away during the engine rebuild, it had been replaced with one with the VIN plate removed so there was nothing for the DMV employee to reference. I quickly googled the location of the VIN frame stamp which from previous readings on the web I had heard was in 2 different locations on these old trucks but could not remember where. Search results said on the 66 FORD it should be 'just ahead of the engine cross member on the top of the frame'. What the heck does that mean? By then the DMV employee was late for her lunch and said she would refer me to the CHP to verify the VIN and that DMV employees do not know how to do this, that I would want to get going down the next path for verification and this was the next step ... AAAACCCCCKKKK It sounded to me like I was about to get into some bureaucratic nightmare but smiled and took the retched little 1 page report she had filled out with the box labels 'DO NOT PROCESS - REFER TO CHP checked and the note 'Primary VIN plate completely removed' hastily written into the notes section.

Luckily Uncle Ken had saved the original VIN plate by cutting out a section of the now crushed drivers side door and had slipped the metal chunk into the drivers side storage compartment. I had seen it earlier and used a picture of this to successfully request information on Old Blue so knew it was around.

That night I spent a good hour and a half looking for something I did not know what it looked like and did not know where it was. The frame had to have a VIN stamp so I sanded, scraped and looked with magnifying glasses for something with letters and numbers and finally saw what I thought looked like an F on top of one of the frame rails. I carefully continued to scrape away 50 years of mud, grease and rust and saw:

A perfect match to the number on the plate Uncle Ken had put into the door compartment. The next day I called CHP and scheduled a VIN review but it would be another 5 weeks before they could see us.