yenko camaro ??

[COPO]

Peter, welcome to the board. I'll take a stab at your first question. I believe it's been discussed in the past, but I'll give you my personal opinion which may differ from others. To me, I rebody involves removing the vin tag and trim tag from a rare car (say a yenko) and re-attaching them to a new body. In this case the "hidden VINs" do not match the vin tag. To me, it's no longer a Yenko.

Now, if the same process involves saving the firewall/cowl area of the Yenko and using the "good body" for the remainder of the car, I'm OK with that approach. To me, the "soul" of the car is the firewall/cowl area w/the hidden VINs.

I believe the collector car market in pretty much in line with this thinking as I know a certain ZL-1 originally sold in the N.W. that is exactly as you describe. A set of tags on another body. When this car changes hands from time to time, it seems to sell at a 50% or so discount from a "real" ZL-1. Nonetheless it still holds significant value over a run of the mill '69 Camaro.

Here's a link to the ZL-1's http://www.barrettjackson.com/auctio....asp?id=158745 http://www.barrettjackson.com/auctio....asp?id=168273 $64,000 versus $134,000.



[Edited by COPO (12-24-2001 at 02:52 PM).]

[tom406]

Very eloquent reply to the rebody issue, and I would agree. I would even argue that implanting the firewall and cowl with all the hidden numbers into a gennie, uncut body could be "more correct" than putting quarters, rockers, floors, and wheelwells into a rusty/tubbed/crashed "real" car, particularly if the rebody uses a donor from the same plant and from the same approximate date. Like anything, it really depends on the quality of the restoration, or in the case of a rebody, the thoroughness of the job. If someone buys a title and a couple of tags and tries to "build" a car out of thin air, odds are there are going to be many details overlooked and corners cut (cars built for resale still sporting 10 bolt rearends, or no hangers for dual exhaust, small block fuel lines, etc). However, if someone who knows the cars and cares starts with an essentially complete, but horribly rusted supercar, and transfers EVERYTHING to the bare virgin hulk of a 40,000 mile So California based six cylinder car, I'm cool with it. To me, the "soul" kind of dissipates when an original car is completely disassembled and redone, so the body becomes just another component for the restoration effort.

Where do you stand on the issue? Here's a scenario: You just found a '69 Yenko Chevelle in a guy's back yard. Been there since the gas crisis in '73. He shot oil into the cylinders and covered the engine bay with gear oil. The wife wanted the garage so it went outside, but he "protected" it with a nice blue tarp. Oh, and he forgot to rinse the bottom after he launched his boat into salt water in late '72. So everythings there, down to the date coded smog. But there are no floors to speak of from the firewall back. Now coincidentally, at home you have a 307/3 speed '69 Chevelle you picked up from a retiree the year before. It's as honest as Mother Teresa, was built just 3 weeks prior to the Yenko at the same plant,and has the same interior to boot! So...what do you do? What do you do......

[Belair62]

Just my opinion but if the horribly rusted car is too far gone....it goes to the great boneyard in the sky ! To me,all you would be doing is making a car that was never produced if you just use tags. They were only produced once at the factory.

[Mr Yenko]

I would cut the WHOLE floor pan out from front to back from the donor car. That is my personal opinion and .02 cents.BP

[sixtiesmuscle]

Tom, if I read your post correctly, that theory is just plain RUBBISH!!. To think that any kind of rebody involving the cowl, firewall & shell is "more correct" than an extensive restoration of a real car misses the mark on where the "soul" lies. What do you think 90% of the real cars are that are out there now? That's just my $.02, Merry Christmas.

[Edited by sixtiesmuscle (12-25-2001 at 03:06 PM).]

[CamarosRus]

COPO, Did I understand those two Barrett Jackson links to show that a certain ZL-1 originally sold at Allen Green Chevrolet sold in 98' for $64k and in 01' for $134k....even though the only Piece on that car that ever came with or on a ZL-1 was the Vin Tag....not just a rebodyment but a total fabrication......interesting news to me.....Chuck

[COPO]

Chuck, the point of the 2 links is to show the difference in what the collector car market perceives is the value between a re-body ZL-1 and a "real" one. The car w/the Allen Green tags was $64K. The links are 2 different cars. See the VIN's.