I know, since the real vin comes back as clean, I'm tempted to just leave it alone, but it needs a complete restoration and I'm very hesitant to sink 10's of thousands of dollars in it with a messed up title.
My local DMV said to take pics of the 2 tags on the car and a pencil highlight of the actual vin sequence. I tried to do that yesterday, but I can't really get a good position to get at it with the windshield in the car. I was, also, standing on the balls of my feet on the edge of the 4 post lift ramp, 7 feet off the concrete floor, which doesn't encourage a lot of confidence for reaching inside much...
I'll try again this weekend by opening the door and sneaking inside so I can at least not feel like I'm going to fall.