I have had PD run a VIN on a 50 year old truck when the number on the frame didn’t match the door and title. He had to search each state individually. He just checked the surrounding states as there is no national database. That was maybe 2017.
We can’t manage to compile that information in one place? Really?
There is a national database - but only for actual VINs, i.e., post 1980 cars. There’s no standard for chassis numbers before then, no universal format for them and lots of duplication that would make trying to track pre-standardization numbers a nightmare.
1980-on cars have the standardized seventeen character VIN we know today and all of those are in ‘universal’ databases that are easily searched.