[njsteve]

No definitive answer on that, only arguments with a slippery slope. On a unibody car like a Camaro, I would say if you have the original car's shell with firewall (with hidden VIN and VIN tag intact) you are fine. Then any work you are doing to that shell is considered repair/restoration. That shell may need the frame rails replaced, floors replaced, roof replaced, trunk floor replaced...but the end result will still have been based upon that original car. Compare that scenario with the easy and less expensive way of pulling the VIN off and riveting it on a rust free 6-cylinder car's body. That would be illegal.

On a body-on-frame car like a Chevelle, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the frame does not have a VIN on it, so the body shell again would be the primary piece of the vehicle's identity.

The point is you have to keep the original framework of the car to still be that car. I would use the human body as an example: heart transplant, lung transplant, kidney transplant = still same person. But you transplant the brain where all the "data" exists as to that person's originality and it is now another person...but then Joan Rivers comes to mind...Does anyone here think any of Joan's original parts are still on her body...or in a jar somewhere?