It's against the law in California no matter what the age of the car. It's still tampering. And, any car, regardless of age is recorded in the DMV records since it was first registered here.
Indeed, before 1988, federal regulations required dealers to certify odometer mileage for vehicles up to 25 years old. But the 25-year rule became a 10-year rule, ironically as a result of the 1986 Truth in Mileage Act. That law made odometer tampering a felony, but there were objections to the 25-year rule during the federal rule-making process that implemented the law. At the time, consumer advocates did not formally comment, so federal regulators during the Reagan administration decided to require odometer certifications only for 10 years on vehicles.
Nothing trumps federal law, and state DMVs won't fill databases with mileage readings for 15-year-old cars, (much less 40-year-old) because the information has no value in a court of law. Thus databases are purged on a rolling 10-year basis.
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