I can't remember the make of car, but there was very low production Bugati or Delahey (sp) made once, and only about 12 of these cars were handbuilt and there are no donor bodies. One was wrecked and totaled in a race way back in the 50s or 60s. Well, a group of guys bought that completely totaled european racecar in the 90s and restored it to original. They had to hand build and immitate the chassis and body panels completely to make a concoures (sp) restored auto and then the rest of that car's owner industry erupted crying foul and saying they can't do it that way since such a small amount of original parts were left on the car. Everyone who knows these cars, knows the events of the 12 car and it's reprise.
Now assume there's a guy, we'll call him 64Tempest, and he has all the goodies from a not as rare GTO, but he doesn't have the original frame and body because they were rusted beyond repair. John goes and buys a like body and frame, maybe they're together, maybe apart. He COMPLETELY disassembles the entire mass and restores it handling every part just like any thorough restoration and reassembles the rare GTO. Some people will never consider it a legit car. I would at least attach an asterisk (sp) to it and include pics of the restoration as it occurred.
There is a documented restoration on the Ultimate GTO site where a guy cut the rear half off his conv GTO and welded the rear half of a Lemans conv on the door jambs back. I think he replaced the floors too. Is that still a GTO even though it has an entire Lemans rear clip/trunk/1/4s/wheelhouses/etc? Yes, to me. Is it still all gto? I guess not. If John got a gto frame and body is it still THE rare gto? Well, not really, but almost. If the parts were so bad already that they were useless and he wanted to restore it, wouldn't he have replaced them anyway? Should he tell anybody? Sure. If he has done a really good job on the restoration, it won't matter that much. It depends on each circumstance.
Don't tag a Lemans (or any other gto/tempest either), buy the best parts you can get and do a full restoration at the least.
Doug
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"...then grease me up woman." Groundskeeper Willie
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