His name is Billy, and his business, “Pasadena Motor Vehicle Registration & Transfer Service,” shares a nondescript building with his small used-car dealership off of Pasadena’s busy Foothill Boulevard. A few months ago I walked in with two huge problems: I had a car with zero paperwork, and I had another car that the world didn’t know existed.
One of the biggest concerns I had with my WWII Jeep project — a project that required me to buy hundreds of parts and, in my driveway, assemble them all into a functional car — was registration. It would be one thing if I managed to somehow get the thing built in time, but how was I going to get it on the road legally? The world didn’t know it existed!
Then there was my reference Jeep. This was a vehicle I bought from a random guy out in the desert. It came with zero paperwork, and if I’m honest, I didn’t even see a VIN plate.
When I got the Jeep home, I did a bit of digging and I found a part of a VIN plate that had been partially destroyed by a welder:
I cut off the 1/4″ steel plate that had been welded to the frame to bolster the front bumper, and managed to identify six digits. But that’s all I had.
So back in November, four months before my Moab Easter Jeep Safari deadline, I stopped by Pasadena Motor Vehicle Registration & Transfer Service in hopes that somehow, some way I could figure something out.
Billy greeted me and told me that, so long as I had a VIN, he’d take it from there. Did I have the full VIN? Technically, that data plate would have the letters “MB” ahead of the numbers, but many Willys MB owners don’t use the “MB” as part of the VIN they use on their title, so the six numbers, I figured, should suffice.
And indeed, they did. $400 and two weeks after my visit, Billy had a shiny new title at my doorstep.
Part of me thought that, worst case, if I could register the reference vehicle then I could somehow find a way to justify allowing my homemade Jeep to take that vehicle’s identity and become the reference Jeep. This led to many ethical and philosophical questions. How many parts of the reference Jeep does my new Jeep have to have before I can justify using the VIN?
This became a Ship of Theseus situation, though more importantly, it didn’t sit right with me. If the concept of building this new WWII Jeep was that I was building a new WWII Jeep, then it cannot have the same VIN as an old WWII Jeep. Even if I could easily justify doing it as so many hotrodders do when they turn a Ford Model A into something not even remotely resembling a Model A, I just couldn’t. I was building a new Jeep, and a new Jeep is not an old Jeep.
“Just bring in the receipts,” Billy told me.
“Huh? That’s it?” I replied. “Yes, fill out this form and then bring me the receipts,” he answered, handing me a piece of paper.
So I filled out a Statement of Construction form, which required me to explain what the build was and where I got all the parts:
And I submitted the receipts for the major components (this was easy, since I could just print them from eBay):
Fast forward a few weeks and five Benjamins in Billy’s hand and BOOM, my problem was solved. I had temp tags for March and April, the two months over which my Jeep road trip was expected to take place:
This doesn’t mean my Jeep is registered; it’s not. After my trip to Moab, I had to drive to a California Highway Patrol office to have a VIN assigned:
I still have to install brake lights, a license plate light, and turn signals, plus I have to figure out how to get this Jeep to stop from 25 mph in 20 feet.
Once I pass the brake and light test, then hopefully this Jeep will be legally registered. Hopefully. There’s question over whether this thing needs to be smogged. The CHP said the answer is “no,” but all it takes is one person at the Department of Motor Vehicles to tell me it’s technically a new motor and therefore has to meet 2026 regs, and then I’ll be up the creek. But I’m hopeful.
In any case, this Registration Wizard (as I like to call him) in Pasadena was a huge help, and his services represented the best $900 I ever spent. I got to sell the reference Jeep for $4500 thanks to it having a clean title, and I got to do take the most epic road trip of my life without worrying about catching the attention of police.
Top Image: Billy Billotti
You maybe were tempting attention from the police whilst using flashlights for headlights, but at least you had temp tags! Thanks for the update, I was curious.
Years ago my non-California ’80 Vanagon Westfalia’s, which had passed smog when I brought it from out of state, exhaust system was failing, and the replacement exhaust system with catalytic converter would cost almost $1000. So, being cheap, I managed to find another ’80 Vanagon Westfalia with a bad engine, but a good exhaust system for $400. I researched the CA smog legal stuff and fould out I could convert my non-CA Vanagon to a CA Vanagon by swapping all the components over!
I successfully swapped components, took it, and all the CA legal documents saying it was acceptable, since I did not expect the techs to know that level of detail, to the DMV. They accepted the swap and I passed smog, though they did take their time digging into the CA smog documentation.
And of course,I managed to sell the “parts” Vanagon Camper to a father/son team as a project for, you guessed it, $400.
I was curious how you ended up going about this after our conversation several months back. Sounds like you went the SB100 route from the sounds of it? This is definitely probably the the cleanest way to go about it. Crossing my fingers for you that no one at the DMV decides that this is a 2026 model year and requires you to install a fully smog legal 80 year old jeep engine!
SB100 means it gets smogged as the car it resembles, and it doesn’t matter how old the engine is. I think he’ll be fine as long as it’s a specially constructed vehicle and not a Jeep(tm). Which it isn’t, because it doesn’t have a Jeep MSO.
There has to be a twist
Oh cool! So does it feel like a loophole or like a legit avenue for enthusiasts and small builders?
If this is the California specialty constructed vehicle process, which is what it sounds like, this is a fully on the up and up way to do it. This is what the cobra kit car and T-bucket guys do when they build a new car from scratch. Only downside is you are at the whims of the people at the DMV desk. Some people are familiar with the process and it goes relatively smoothly; others have you running around for months and cause huge roadblocks when they insist your newly built “1964 ford” needs to get smogged and inspected in the same category someone else’s 2026 Camry.
The wizard should have cut you a deal on his services since you adverised for him to millions (billions?) of readers .
Semi-related DMV registration story:
I got lucky around 2008 when I bought an unregistered (and clearly grey market) 1980 Mercedes 230G on ebay and had to get it registered in TX at the DMV after getting the brakes working and transmission synchros fixed. The DMV employee was gracious enough to dig through some old file cabinets and ended up pulling out a dusty old registration guidebook with ‘1980’ on the cover. I knew there was literally no way there was going to be a listing for a European 1980 G wagon in there, and there wasn’t. But there was a listing for a 1980 230TE Wagon, and that was good enough! “Oh here it is, 230 Wagon.” Lol
Honestly, I’m a bit disappointed. As someone with a severe bureaucracy kink I hoped you had to navigate a byzantine process and fill out forms that were printed in fraktur due to their age and rarity, but apparently it was a much more reasonable process.
But I guess I’m happy for you because perhaps you didn’t really need more hurdles on your way to Moab
Or at least a registration by combat, somenthing like that
There’s a neat little book, Roadster, about a guy who builds a Caterham Seven all by himself from the kit. The chapter where he has to get it registered as a homemade vehicle is fascinating. IIRC, his ordeal was (a little) easier b/c he basically had a single invoice for the crates of parts.
But… didn’t this unregistered vehicle drive on public roads to Moab…?
Guess I’m missing some of this General Purpose vehicle’s tale.
As I understand it, the temp tags he drove with count as a temporary conditional operating permit, so to speak. If he were pulled over along the way (in California at least, I’m not sure about the other states) he would have been covered.
Or you could have taken it to Torch Title & Registration Services LLC. For the low price of nothing, he can provide you with an official Farm Use plate and a notarized certificate of “let’s all just be cool about that”.
Oh. Right. Farm use. Must’ve forgotten that but.
Or maybe Matt could have hooked him up but then he’d have to come to NYC I guess. Nobody beats him! Nobody!!
I was a bit leery with the headline but I knew our DT was as honest as a limo is long
Don’t get we wrong, I’m glad that everything was easy and safe and sound for DT, but in some way I was expecting just a little more action, drama or at least fireworks.