All,
I am in the need of some advice.

This is some history and is a little long winded and I apologize....

A few years ago my dad passed away and I have been cleaning out his
items that he had collected over thirty years of business as a
flooring contractor. Just after my dad became sick about 10 yrs ago I
bought him a small 14ft fiberglass boat that had two sets of bench
seats.and a 35 Hp Evinrude motor. What I believed would be a decent
fishing boat. The only problem was the motor needed a lower unit. He
liked garage sales\auctions\etc and began the quest of getting it back
running and he actually did get the motor running in a 55 gallon drum
before the cancer got the best of him. Anyways I was cleaning out the
back shed\buildings, 1 of 8, that had not been opened in quite some
time and ran across 2 complete outboard motors and 2 top section of
motors minus their lower units. For the record, I have torn down all
but 2 sheds and have built two large garages this past year and the
last two sheds will be brought down in the spring.

Also at the about same time a neighbor was selling there 14ft aluminum
deep V boat with all the fishing accessories.As his wife bought him a
bigger and newer boat. Needless to say I bought the boat as its more
of a fishing boat. I enjoy fishing on Lake Erie. Also the one my dad
had, had not seen the light of day in 8 yrs as it was covered by a
boat cover in the wide open side yard. I fiigured it was completely
trashed as the cover and the general look of what I could see was not
that great.

A week later, I uncovered that boat to see what damage had been done
to the old boat. To my surprise the boat is in really decent shape and
I began cleaning it out and it is now stored in my garage. All it
needed was a good scrubbing. The boat cover is in the landfill but it
did its job. So now I am with 2 boats and 5 motors. The boat I bought
recently has a nice little 20 Hp Johnson-Evinrude motor.

Anyways, I have these boats and I figure I need to get these things
all titled and registered so come spring I can enjoy some fishing time
with my son. So I register the boat I bought recently with out to much
trouble. Being new to boating I learned that I needed to title and
register both the boat and the motor in Ohio. So I figure this week I
will title and register my dads boat and motors. The problem is where
are the titles? After doing some digging and title search through the
state I found out the boat that I bought my dad had never been titled
nor registered in his name. I went through some additional searching
in some filing cabinets and I found the original signed off title from
the person that I bought the boat from ten years ago. So I go and run
it in and I find out that the notary stamp is expired and that I need
to get a new title thats signed off from the previous owner. I have
never heard a notary signature expirting. So no problem I decided to
contact the person I bought it from and I hope this weekend to run the
newer signed off title in to the clerk of courts and get my title
transferred for this boat.

Now the boat motors are a completely different situation. As I do not
have any of these titles nor anyway to figure out who the owners are I
decided to go to the state of Ohio. Please note these are older
motors, according to my online search on model numbers. I found out
three are from the 1950's and until recently I was unsure of the
fourth. I wrote up the paper work for the title search and sent it to
the state. They called me today to tell me they have located two of
the boat motors titles and they were last registered in 1965 and the
other in 1975. The other two they did find but they needed to know
some additional information. Specifically what is meant by the number
I got off a welch plug (serial). In all cases all the motors were
before 1970.

Anyways after speaking to them I must do one of the following even to
dispose of the motors as no metal yard\landfill will except a non
titled boat motor in our area;

1) send to the previous owner, by certified letter, to each of the
addresses given in the title search
2) if no response is received in 45 days, mail return letters and/or
certified statement that the letters were sent to the previous owners.
3) Supposedly they will send a letter of authority to have the titles
placed in my name which will get me a title.
4) If I get lucky and one of the owners are still living at the
address given try and get them to sign the title over to me.

Or

1) Have the motors appraised
2) Place an ad in the paper stating that I have these motors for 3
days
3) Then place an ad in the paper to have a public auction.
4) Have a auction and bid on the items

Now so here are my questions (I know finally!)

1) Has anyone online here ever went through this process and gotten a
title?
2) What is the rough value of a running (wishful thinking) 35Hp
Evinrude outboard motor from the 1950s worth? What are parts worth?
Whats the big deal on 50 yr old motors, I understand the legalities
behind titles and such but they have not been registered in 30 yrs.
3) What is a typical outboard motor (25-45 Hp), running,used, not
older then 20 yrs, with title going for today?
4) What would you do in this situation?

Thanks for listening to my ranting and questions,
Chris