Z1 project blues

I am in the process of getting a 75 z1 back on the road after 20 years. I have had the bike for a year, but ran into a show stopper, lack of title for the bike. The buddy I bought it from swears he has the title, but can't find it. The kicker of the whole thing is that the bike has a replacement frame, no tag or numbers stamped on the head.
This makes tracking down a replacement title impossible, as I have no idea what the VIN is.

I have seen Z1 frames with paperwork in ebay very rarely, and most going for more than what I want to spend. I am considering trying to finding a titled kz frame cheaper and going that route as it is not going to be a showpiece or a #'s mathing bike anyhow. What would you do in this case, ( short of smacking the former owner ).

Anyone have a title for a totalled Z1/KZ 900 they want to get rid of? :S

You sure about no VIN on the steering head? On my '75, the VIN stamp is pretty shallow, enough that a thick coat of paint could easily cover it up. VIN is on the left side of the head, a little towards the front, middle of the tube.

I had my frame powdercoated, specifically asked them to skip that spot, but no dice -- you need good light to read it now and it's faint.

I say scrape for it!

I remember someone saying that the replacment frames didn't have vin's on them. You could have your friend go in and apply for a lost title. They could look up the onfo and get him a new title and then he could sign it over to you. The big trouble will be if you sell it and someone tries to get a new title in another state. When you get the title and find out what the vin is you could always stamp it in and have it powdercoated. That way if anyone ever asks you could tell them first that it's hard to see because of the coating. Ot just ship it to me.

Since you absolutely know the vehicle is "good" and won't raise any red flags in some government database, definitely have your friend try to get the state to re-issue a new title. The DMV just looks it up in their database and gives you a new form.

I had a similar problem when I brought my car back from a tour of duty overseas. The Govt of Japan (a non title country)insisted I surrender my title before they would issue a registration. When I came back to the US, I took all that paperwork with me to DMV in order to get a reissued title. I needn't have bothered, all they did was to look up the VIN in their computer, check my driver's license to make sure I was the legal owner, then issue me a replacement document.