No title in SC. Recommendations?

[zer213]

Got my bike from a friend(b) who had never titled it from the friend(a) he bought it from. All of us are in SC and the bike was last titled here. Original friend(a) is not returning anyones calls to get a dupe or give info for a form 400. I cant say I blame him, he sold it to friend(b) four years ago and figures its not his problem anymore as friend(b) should have gotten it legal.
Anywho. I figure these are my options:
1) I know a guy who owns a tow service, but his son is having the same problem with a motorcycle so we are both kinda stuck with bikes and no titles. But Ive made a small bit of headway on how a tow service can obtain a title. However, if friend(a) ever gets a hair up his butt he can claim fraud and get the bike back in working order, after Ive fixed it, with me holding the short end of a stick and out the cost of parts.
2) A title service, but I have my doubts. The SCDMV has cracked down (rumors) on out of state bike titles and is arguably making this route more difficult with inspections and whatnot.
3) I buy a titled frame (I stumble on these pretty regularly), transfer all the parts to the new frame and presto changeo, I have a titled bike.

Opinions from lessons learned? Anyone in SC with experience or who can help gets an extra internet point. And yes, I have learned my lesson about buying a vehicle without a title in hand. What makes it worse is that I used to be in the rental car/sales car industry and should have known better. But I figured since I knew the owner I figured everything was legit.

[TOOLS1]

Being from SC I have some experience. First go to the DMV in Columbia, and have them do a title search. Then send a certified letter to whoever the title search comes back with. Either they respond within a reasonable amount of time (1 month is good) and help, you out, or you go to Magistrates court, and have the bike awarded to you. Also, you will need to have a State Trooper do an inspection. It's no big deal there. I wish MO was that easy.
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[zer213]

+1 to you sir! Thankfully I live in Columbia and can do this in a day. Couple of questions. If you happen to know the answers then awesome, if not then no biggie. Curiosity on my part.
1) Title search, is that to get the PO's info or to make sure that there I have a record verifying its not stolen?
2) Inspection, is this to make sure its in running condition (ie lights work and whatnot) or to verify the frame vin is what Im claiming it to be?
3) Magistrates, pay the fee ( i think a judgement is $80) and say that the owner wont respond to a certified letter to a bike he sold me, I need a title for it, and done?

[TOOLS1]

Title search- Shows the last person the vehicle was titled to.
Inspection- Shows that the vehicle is not stolen. This way the PO would have a hard time claiming it, if they had never reported it stolen.
Court- It used to be $89.00 in Camden.
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