Rebodied cars and do they get certified

[camarojoe]

David W... I don't know what the weather is like in Maryland, but here in PA a digital camera will work just fine in the cold. It's actually supposed to be in the 50s today...How about working on getting some pics of these cars? I think there are more than 2 of us that are anxious to see them.

[MikeA]

Yes, it is a beautiful day in NJ. How about just providing the VINs so we all know a little more about your cars.

[resto4u]

pull my finger.... I have a yenko with 10 miles, totalled out when new and stored in a shed since. Not.....

[Rainer]

Great topic of debate. There will always be differing points on what constitutes a rebody, and what part of the car makes up the "core" if you will. Although there are a number of people here who have no tolerance for any type of "shell" replacement, its interesting to note that GM made it possible to do that very thing by making body shells available for purchase. Note the listing at the top of this page from the 1970 Chevrolet Parts & Accessories catalog. What's your take on a supercar that received a new body shell from GM in 1970, or a car that was repaired years later using an NOS body shell? Some seem to be OK with replacing as many parts as necessary individually, but not if those parts are replaced as a unit, which was possible with these body shells.

[njsteve]

OK now, be honest, how many of you have just run those part numbers to see if there are any of those bodies sitting around somewhere????

[Mr70]

Those are Glass numbers showing there.
The actual Body #'s were printed later in a seperate manual.
This wasn't as common as we would believe,so very few Dealers even requested parts & pricing info for group 10.001 to begin with.

[Belair62]

Very interesting...would the Manufacturer be able to get around the VIN tag switching laws ? I bet they could. Or would they have to re-VIN the new body ? hmmmm

[LS6 RAT]

Wow! Just read all 20 pages of this thread, very interesting discussion of this topic. My tastes for these supercars fall on the side of all original in condition for ownership/collectibility.
I believe the value associated with these rare musclecars should certainly be relevant to the condition of the vehicle. An unmolested, orginal in factory condition as built should be worth the absolute most. There can be nothing like it to compare with. I think the word original is very much overused, and is not proper to describe any part of a car that has been refurbished, restored, rebuilt, repaired, etc. My opinion is that a car that has been tampered with in any way, no longer is the same car that was factory built. Replacing most of the sheetmetal or rebodying a vehicle has the same end result, it is no longer the car it started life as, period.
Probably, none of us (or very few) have a vehicle that can be considered original.

[davepl]

While on the topic of rebodying, I thought I'd bring up this example:




This is a Canadian car, 1 of N (where N tends toward 0) Pontiac 2+2s with a 427/390 and M21.

The car is a total basket case; even the firewall is cracked. Being built in Canada, though, its fully documented by GM Canada.

I have a 427/390 M21 2+2 clone about to be built at Musclecar Restorations in Wisconsin. Its on my own Laurentian that was first car 20 years ago, and that my Dad bought new in '69.

Now, for my purposes, I'm doing it because the car is special to me and me only, and I'm not trying to impress anyone with it or pass it off as real. But if someone else was dumping 100K into a car, it would be very tempting to tag the trim tag, VIN, and other items from this total basket case as the basis of such a restoration.

I think -that- would be the kind of thing everyone agrees on as "bad": transferring only the identity of a basket case to a donor vehicle.

Where the line between that and rebuilding a basket case by transferring parts for B to A rather than from A to B is a discussion I'll leave open to you guys!

[Belair62]

I've seen this car posted elsewhere...very cool..can't wait to see the one you are building/making...very unusual..do you have the emblems and the side gills ? What else is different on these ?