For a vehicle whose identification number no longer exists. Maine assigns a fresh one, stamped with an M and an E, and a Bureau of Motor Vehicles detective attaches it to the vehicle in person. Two situations reach this form: a number destroyed or obliterated, which on a New England vehicle usually means forty winters of road salt, and a homemade vehicle that never had one. The reverse of the sheet is where it gets serious - a table listing every part taken from another vehicle, with that vehicle's own identification number beside it.
Written against MVT-6 (Rev 08-2024), issued under 29-A M.R.S. section 657.
Do not clean up a corroded identification plate before the detective sees it. An obliterated number is the fact this application rests on, and a helpfully wire-brushed one is indistinguishable at a glance from a tampered one - which is the finding the Bureau's other inspection form exists to record.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank MVT-6 from the maine.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our MVT-6 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.
This is all 2 pages of the actual MVT-6, rendered from the PDF the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles publishes and completed end to end: letterhead, every field, and the blocks at the foot.
Amber — you write it
Grey — not yours to fill
Numbered — explained below
Page 1 of 2. The application itself. Note the missing identification number box, which is left empty here because the number is genuinely unknown, and the exact current location box, which carries a full street address because a detective is going to drive to it.Page 2 of 2. The reverse, where a rebuilt vehicle has to account for itself. Three rows are used and the rest are greyed, and each row names the part, the vehicle it came from and that vehicle's own identification number.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
Owner details
Legal name, date of birth, street address and two telephone numbers.
Watch out: Both phone lanes are worth completing. The next step in this process is a detective trying to reach you to arrange a visit.
2
You fill this in
Describe the vehicle
Year, make, model and body type.
Watch out: For a homemade vehicle the make is what you built it as, and the Bureau would rather have a plain description than a blank.
3
You fill this in
The missing number, if known
The old identification number if any record of it survives.
Watch out: An old registration certificate or an insurance document often carries it. Leaving it empty is honest, but finding it shortens everything that follows.
4
You fill this in
Exact current location
The street address where the vehicle physically is.
Watch out: If it is in a field behind the house, say so on the line. The appointment is made against this address and the detective needs to reach the vehicle.
5
You fill this in
Tick why
Destroyed or obliterated, homemade, or Other with an explanation.
Watch out: Other is for anything that is neither corrosion nor construction - a replacement body shell, for instance. Explain it in one line rather than leaving the assessor to guess.
6
You fill this in
Sign the undertaking
The signature under the printed paragraph about inspection and about applying for a title where the vehicle is inside the title window.
Watch out: That paragraph is a commitment, not a preamble. Signing it while intending to skip the title application is the wrong start to a process that ends with a detective at your gate.
7
You fill this in
Complete the parts table
Every part taken from another vehicle, the vehicle it came from, and that vehicle's identification number.
Watch out: Donor numbers can be nine to seventeen characters, so an older part with a shorter number is expected rather than a problem. An unlisted part found during the inspection is the problem.
8
You fill this in
Post the package
The signed application, copies of the ownership chain, and the fee to Secretary of State.
Watch out: Copies, not originals. The chain of ownership documents are the ones you will want back and the instruction asks for copies for exactly that reason.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
Owner
Legal name, date of birth, current street address, and home and work telephone numbers.
Application date
Its own box beside the telephone numbers.
The vehicle
Year, make, model and body type, then a box headed missing vehicle identification number - if known, which is often and legitimately empty.
Exact current location of vehicle
A full street address. The detective is coming to it, so a town name is not an answer.
Three conditional boxes
Net weight if trailer, engine capacity if motorcycle, engine number if motorcycle.
The undertaking
Printed above the signature: the application is made subject to inspection by a Bureau of Motor Vehicle detective, and if the vehicle is 25 model years or newer and subject to Maine title law, the applicant agrees to submit an application for certificate of title.
Why
Three boxes, one of which is ticked: number was destroyed or obliterated, homemade vehicle, or Other with a line to explain.
List of parts taken from other vehicles
The whole reverse. Each row takes the part, the vehicle it came from, and that vehicle's identification number, which the heading allows to be nine to seventeen characters.
Special motor vehicle certification
A Bureau block at the foot of the front, completed after the visit: the detective's printed name and signature, the date the number was affixed, the odometer reading and any comments, with M and E preprinted beside the space for the new number.
What gets this one rejected
•A location box giving a town rather than a street address, when a detective has to find the vehicle.
•A reverse left blank on a homemade vehicle. If parts came from elsewhere, the table is the substance of the application.
•A parts row naming a component with no donor identification number beside it.
•An application with no evidence of the chain of ownership behind it, which the mailing instructions require as copies of documents.
•A signature with no reason box ticked.
•An applicant who will not undertake to apply for a title where the vehicle is inside Maine's title window, which the printed sentence above the signature commits them to.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•What you post, in the Bureau's own order. The completed and signed application, copies of documents showing complete chain of ownership, and the $33.00 fee made payable to Secretary of State. If a title application is needed as well, that carries its own $33.00.
•Then a detective rings you. The instructions say the Title Section assigns the new permanent number and a Bureau of Motor Vehicle detective will contact you to make an appointment to inspect your vehicle and attach it.
•The number is permanent and it is Maine's. It is affixed by the state, not by you, and the certification block records the date it went on and the odometer reading at the time.
•Donor numbers are between nine and seventeen characters. The reverse says so in its own column heading, because a part from a 1970s vehicle carries a shorter number than a part from a modern one.
Every line here was read off MVT-6 (Rev 08-2024) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles pages.
This is plain-language help with a form, not legal advice, and where our wording and the agency's differ,
theirs governs.
