Rebodied cars and do they get certified

[kwhizz]

I know of one of "The Rarest of the Rare" factory built race cars that has been rebodied and retagged......the car was found behind the original owners business and after 30 odd years of sitting unprotected in the weather, there wasn't much left of it......but, the original drivetrain and everything else was safely stored inside and were in perfect condition......a rust free donor car was bought out of arizona..........and you know the rest of the story..........

Ken

[Keith Tedford]

As long as the buyer is aware of exactly what was done with the car, then no problem. How much restoration that had to be done will probably be reflected in the selling price. The problem is that eventually a money hungry shyster gets hold of the car and then the fun begins. An honest seller will never have a problem. It would even be to his advantage to have the buyer signing that he is aware of exactly what has been done to the car. I know that I will have a ton of pictures of the restoration of our car for any eventual buyer to see. Can't see a sale happening any time soon though.

[Jeff H]

Like Steve said, transferring the VIN tag and hidden VIN portions of the firewall is illegal so once that has been done, it's definitely a rebody. But if it's done really well, how would someone like Ed really be able to tell without taking apart the car he's inspecting. There will be more attempts at rebodys because the prices on these cars keep going up.

[sixtiesmuscle]

Just my opinion, but, I think before we start offering up blanket accusations that someone is doing something illegal or unethical, that we all take a breath, count to ten, and, remember that most things posted on the net are taken as fact by many people. Before trashing a person, or, a large group of cars, by insinuation, isn't it better to address individual cars that a prospective buyer may ask about?

[PeteLeathersac]

- Personal opinion too, but the big thing I see in crossing the line between the work done to repair a car and something illegal, is INTENT! . Is the intent to innocently repair a damaged car and keep the facts of it's repairs available, or to slip as much of other cars under tags and Vin stamped parts and obscure the facts? . Somewhere in here is itself the issue of repop tags, POP's, restampings and other "documentation". . Perhaps some feel it's Ok with "rebodying" a car using only "all original parts" but wouldn't restamp or create bogus tags and documents? . Lots to consider, great stuff and things that need to be discussed, not always left in the darkness in case some need to hide in it someday....or are already there? ~ Pete