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So the story is, my dad and I are looking into purchasing a project car together. He's pretty much going through a mid-life crisis right now, so I keep telling him to wait for the perfect car. Well he found it. He's fallen in love with a 1958 Edsel Corsair 2-door hardtop. The car is in good condition and the owner is willing to give us a good deal.

However, we have a little bit of a problem. The owner has the title of the vehicle with the vin number on it, but we can't find the vin physically on the car. The car was repainted a few years ago, and the shop took off the vin plate and forgot to put it back on. Now I know the vin is suppose to be on the water pump and engine block. However, the engine isn't stock. It's a 1976 Ford LTD engine.

We have an old registration from Oklahoma, basically the last owners have been driving it with other vehicles plates on it. However, we do have the title. We've run the vin on the title and it matches the cars model, year and original engine and other specs. So we know this is the cars vin. We just don't know if we'll have to or if we can prove it.

TLDR;
1. When registering a vehicle at the DMV, does someone actually go out to your car to visually check your vin? This is our first used car purchase, so we're new to this.
2. Is there ANY way we can find the vin except for the places stated above?

I'm willing to do anything to get my dad into this car so any insight is greatly appreciated.