I have been thinking about this (and admitt I dont know the legal aspect of VIN swapping in my state as I never needed to) but what if a owner had a car that was beyond repair and he wanted to "restore". Wouldnt a donor "body" swapped to match the OLD one with OLD VIN plate put back on be the same? A GM BODY is a GM BODY, who counts the options on a set of fenders we buy, or even front clip? No one. Its just a GM part, same as body. It had a part number from GM. If a person can replace quarters, trunk pans, fenders, floors, (even cut and weld on roofs I saw on a few) are these cars also not basically "rebodied" anyway following this logic? They are not original in the sense that these parts didnt come on the car so why wouldnt putting a "complete" body with all the same parts be the same? Is the "issue" to remove a VIN plate and reattach it to a different body? Where legal.Or, are we only talking about VIN swapping where it makes the car something it didnt come off the line as? I can say 100% against that...but making your car back to what it was from the factory with used parts...thats what we do right? Again, not the legal issue here as I dont know..but the collector aspect of re-bodying.
If the VIN plate has numbers (legal reg to you) and FRAME has numbers and you have everything you need, driveline ect. except rusted damaged body but you found exact same body (38,000 + A bods GTOs made in 70 for example) and restored it with donor body and didnt change anything (?).
Is a legally owned/optioned re-bodied car worth less than one that has majority aftermarket or used parts welded back in place?
I am not for or against this practice (unless illegal and changing options for sure) at this point and trying to see both sides.
Guess this leads to us having to find frame VIN # as well (big pain I admitt)
Has anyone ever been able to see frame nu. while body on car? Like with mirror? I never could even find them on my cars while on lift and I have general area narrowed down.
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