[Pantera]

Yes in a way you do wind up with a almost new "OLD CAR" but it is still the original car that it started life as. As such it is entitled to have the factory vin # affixed.

What I have been instructed by Auto Thief dectives here you can replace just about every part of a car but the doo piller post/dash that the vin # is/was originally attached to. I was cautioned to not destroy the firewall and or dash/door post where the hidden vin and the visable vin # was attached or I would have to file for a rebuilt state assigned vin # and would not be allowed to re-affix the original vin on to any aftermarket (IE:Not the original)body panel.

Now back to the subject of a totally new body that is not even manfactured in the US. What would you do if a few years after you built up a car and had it on the road and the feds captured it and would not release it, till you summited the crash and other federaly required documents since they deemed it a NEW CAR because the majority of it was built in 2005??? I would hate to have my money tied up in that. Someone could loose big time. Imagne having to watch it go into a auto crusher because you could not comply ($$$$)with thier demands.

I have been down this road in the past and have lost a nice 69 Z-28 because it was previously stolen and the vin # was changed. Could not get it back and the cops gave it to the last owner. We had a nice 65 vette that we sold to Bill Moch a collector near here and he found the frame # did not match the vin that had been changed and the cops kept that one too because it was a stolen car. I realize this is not the same thing as doing this to a legal car but trust me you have no idea just how big a hassle it can be to deal with local law enforcment sometimes. I was a used car dealer at the time and inocently bought these cars but I still lost on the deal.

Trust me, They don't have to do it your way and they and the feds have some funny ways of looking at these kind of deals.

I have a 60k mi 84 vette setting in the middle of my shop right now that was bought by a banker and he chishled the vin off and stole another car and put the vin # on it. Then he got caught driving it and went to jail. I was cleared of any involvment in the deal but they would not let me have the original vin # off the stolen car so I could replace it on my legal car. I was declaired the righfull owner of the car but to put it back on the street I will have to file for a state assigned Vin #. I knew that, back when I got the car and was planing on building a very radical custom car so the original vin would have not been a detriment. It just took the best part of a year for it to get cleared for me and I gave up on the project. IF anybody wants it for $2500 contact me. It is hit in front.

Pantera