This was one of those catch-up-on-the-details week. It did not start out well at all as the first stop was the Motor Vehicles Division to start the title process and to obtain a 90-day temporary permit. Got the 90-day permit ok which was good as we needed to drive the truck to several locations over city streets and had to be "legal" to do so.
The title process was another matter. It was bad enough that I didn't have a title (What, no title for an old military truck! Didn't they have to have a title just like every other vehicle?), I didn't have a notarized bill of sale and, no copy of the 7501 customs form when it was brought into the country. (Our favor sellers failed to leave any paperwork with the transit point in the US).
I was then told, "Well, Mr. Price we will be unable to do anything on this until you get us at least the 7501 copy and the notarized bill of sale!"
With that I left. It seemed that the clerk (It's taken me several days to be able to call her that without adding a number of my favor four-letter adjectives....) was more interested in telling me "no" rather than advising me "how"!
So, took the truck to the tranny shop to get the leaks fixed in the rebuilt tranny. The shop fixed it up, no charge! The week was looking up! Drove the truck then to the speedometer shop to have the cable installed and calibrated. Was successful there and now we know how fast we're going for a change!
Finally we dropped the truck off at the painter to have an overall "sheen" match put on.
It was back to the title process. After complaining loudly about the unfairness of MVD personnel, one of my friends referred me to a third-party title company that works primarily with the Spanish speaking vehicle owners as an interface with the non-bi-lingual MVD. It was there that I met Gina, my angel!
Gina advised that it would have been better to have forgotten where I bought the truck but since I'd been honest she'd look into the necessity of writing a letter to Canada for a notarized bill of sale. Well, it turns out that this is not needed for vehicles purchased from Mexico and therefore does not apply to vehicles purchased in Canada as well. Further Gina advised that I did not need a copy of the 7501 form but did need to purchase a surety bond indemnifying the State against any possible suit from prior unknown owners. Picked one up today.
Soooo, to make long story short, with Gina's invaluable help, today I picked up my new title and the license tag! Whew! All's well that ends well!
