What is considered a re-body

[BeatersRus]

see,now there i Totally Feel your pain.
those types really have dragged the business down.
let me tell you about my friend Rickys 2 Hemis getting stolen and cashed out at a yard i knew of,
and me catching the crook who did it and thrashing him while his 2 bigass helpers sat there and made faces,
while the yard owners wife was going hysterical yelling at me to stop.
then,owner comes out,finds out whats up and
scumbag gets banned forever from that yard.
hemis already crushed for short steel....yes,this is a true story.


im sorry i got all up on the box,
i took it personally and i shouldnt have.
i truly do know theres soooo many scumbags in it.
i can only speak for myself really,
theres not many scrappers left anymore,
even the regs went out when the prices/market sank.

i started scrapping back when it was 25 a ton and raised my kiddo on it,2 runs a day,
highest price it ever went to on nys was 330 a ton.
right now its 160 a ton,for tin/cars at my remote yard.
not the highest price,but,
i go there because Mopars! keep appearing.

 

[Darthomas]

Jeeze, I lived in Chicago where junkqueros drive the alleys continuously, and even though steel scrap was visible just behind the back gate, I never had anything stolen.
Once placed in the alley, any metal evaporated in minutes, like a short shower rainfall on a hot sunny August afternoon.

 

[BeatersRus]

Dream,sorry i got sideways on your topic.
swerving back onto it,heres a car at the yard i mentioned earlier.
340 auto,no motor/trans,rusty.
now,if that car had roof rot and lower body rot,
and wasnt worth fixing
id prolly say that was a shell swap.

but if it just needed floors and qtrs,you still have the original shell,
id say that was a restore job.

 

[Lets Roll]

I used a lot of Amd on my current build but saved the pieces (trunk frame, radiator support etc) that had the original VIN stamps. To me a re-body is putting a VIN on a different car or just the dash and some parts. If most of the car is the original car I'm ok with that being a restoration.

 

[gdrill]

Come on now, sometimes they just stamped the wrong numbers on the body as it rolled down the line!! Simple mistake, easily corrected today. It was really supposed to be a Purple Hemi car, not a triple green slant six.

 

[gdrill]

And really, in my opinion, the only cars that people will check this for, or care about, are the high dollar units. Nobody is ever going to go over a /6 or 318 car to see if it has been re-bodied. Still just as wrong, but not a concern to most.

 

[BeeKool]

see,now there i Totally Feel your pain.
those types really have dragged the business down.
let me tell you about my friend Rickys 2 Hemis getting stolen and cashed out at a yard i knew of,
and me catching the crook who did it and thrashing him while his 2 bigass helpers sat there and made faces,
while the yard owners wife was going hysterical yelling at me to stop.
then,owner comes out,finds out whats up and
scumbag gets banned forever from that yard.
hemis already crushed for short steel....yes,this is a true story.


im sorry i got all up on the box,
i took it personally and i shouldnt have.
i truly do know theres soooo many scumbags in it.
i can only speak for myself really,
theres not many scrappers left anymore,
even the regs went out when the prices/market sank.

i started scrapping back when it was 25 a ton and raised my kiddo on it,2 runs a day,
highest price it ever went to on nys was 330 a ton.
right now its 160 a ton,for tin/cars at my remote yard.
not the highest price,but,
i go there because Mopars! keep appearing.

AnyOne who would crush a Hemi needs a rope tied around there neck. I was able to file a claim to replace my camper. Still cost a 2k deductible, the other things I chocked up to a loss. Including a '49 Cadillac.

If it's worth 160/ton I may haul some in. I have a half dozen augers that are in the way

 

[Fran Blacker]

In 1987 had a chance to buy a 70 Hemi Cuda shell no interior solid car, and no broadcast sheet. Asking $1200 but would take $900. The nose to the radiator was a little burned nose was near a garage fire. The rub it has a Challenger dash pad wrong vin, duh. He show me a bunch of numbers he said proved it was a real Hemi car. To chancy and a big project for me, I passed. Later I heard it when to NH and the guy sold it for $5500. Couple of years ago I told a friend about this car he lived in the area where I looked at it. He keeps track of Hemi cars as 4/5 k of vins. He told me the car got restored. I thought it was a real car but as I said to chancy, at the time $900 was a lot of money.

 

[Bruzilla]

If I remember, Az. goes by chassis. You gave me some pause.......a 67 GTO ’vert I & others have considerable work in, all Hotchkiss & Wildwood, built LS-7 etc...........some time ago, car was collision repair, & a donor rear clip was done.......the WHOLE rear clip....must have been a cheap insurance job long time ago.....they literally sawed under rear seat through frame & body & welded on another sawed off half. All the sheet except for quarter panels are the original at point we started. I wonder where this car falls in the debate......is this not to be considered a real GTO anymore?......the car now is what's considered a Pro Touring build I believe.

I look at it this way... if I have a heart transplant, I am still me. If my heart is transplanted into someone else, they are still them. Adding a handful of pieces to another car should not change what the other car is.

 

[Fran Blacker]

That orange Cuda on Grave YC . I wouldn't buy it, to close to being re-bodied or was it re-bodied. What about that? Like to hear opinions, if you could stand to watch GYC at all.

 

[44070dart]

if its a high dollar car they will build it up around the VIN plate if necessary and call it restored $$$$

 

[ws23jrt]

The term "re-body" seems to be a moving target. It means different things to different folks depending a lot on who is using the term.
Like many have said--the high end/rare cars are the ones where it really matters cause that is where the bulk of selling/trading value is.
There will never be a place to draw a line on this and buyers will always be the one that has the last word about buying. Listen to the pitch---and believe it or check it out.

 

[Dreamcatcher]

Dream,sorry i got sideways on your topic.
swerving back onto it,heres a car at the yard i mentioned earlier.
340 auto,no motor/trans,rusty.
now,if that car had roof rot and lower body rot,
and wasnt worth fixing
id prolly say that was a shell swap.

but if it just needed floors and qtrs,you still have the original shell,
id say that was a restore job.

No problem. I only put that out there for reactions from everyone on the subject. This show also built a Camaro from scratch. The whole body is after market. So how do they get a serial number for that (another car?) I am curious. As 10 years ago I built a superbird tribute. I wanted it to be correct as correct as I could get it. So I installed a rallye dash. I took the serial number from my satellite and put it on my rallye dash. So the serial number does match the rest of the car (as a satellite) But because I moved the tag is that illegal? It does not misrepresent the car what so ever. I have no problems with anyone's opinion. Just wanted to hear what others think of it all. I am alright with the saving this rare Daytona. But I also know in some places what there doing wouldn't be ok to do.

 

[BeeKool]

What about the E-Body shells that CI sells? If you get one of those and put a bunch of used body panels on it what do you have? Do you need to go to scrap yard to get a dash for a VIN?

 

[ws23jrt]

No problem. I only put that out there for reactions from everyone on the subject. This show also built a Camaro from scratch. The whole body is after market. So how do they get a serial number for that (another car?) I am curious. As 10 years ago I built a superbird tribute. I wanted it to be correct as correct as I could get it. So I installed a rallye dash. I took the serial number from my satellite and put it on my rallye dash. So the serial number does match the rest of the car (as a satellite) But because I moved the tag is that illegal? It does not misrepresent the car what so ever. I have no problems with anyone's opinion. Just wanted to hear what others think of it all. I am alright with the saving this rare Daytona. But I also know in some places what there doing wouldn't be ok to do.

Different states deal with this issue in different ways.

We may be leaving the topic of "re-body" (which is something the hobby kinda deals with) and into a new vehicle being born.
There are hoops to pass through for every case and not all states deal with it the same way.
Check with your DMV and ask the right questions.--(BTW they are not the cops) Custom cars are made every day and it is not tough to comply. However when/if someone wants to scam a car??--Let your conscience be your guide.
Are you a crook? If so plan your course with that in mind. You may make a few bucks but a trail is always left.

 

[Fran Blacker]

I'm not sure this fact in Ct you could register a car like that as home built. Anyone in Ct knows please comment.
On dreamcatcher I would think that the way to do it.

 

[Dreamcatcher]

You can register about anything in my state as long as you have a title. We don't have vin inspections here before issuing a title. On my car I only changed the dash. And the vin is attached to the dash. The car is registered as a satellite regardless of the superbird parts it sports. And the vin supports that it is a satellite. Kind of off the topic I started but it represents the same type of thinking.

 

[ws23jrt]

I'm not sure this fact in Ct you could register a car like that as home built. Anyone in Ct knows please comment.
On dreamcatcher I would think that the way to do it.

This reminds me of when I bought my 69 hemi coronet in 1980.
I got the car home and found that the vin on the dash did not match the vin on the vehicle (paper) title.
As a matter of fact the letter that represents the engine (J) was in fact the letter V on the title. (an obvious typo from years ago). What are the odds of that letter being wrong.

I needed to transfer this title to register it to me in my state and for a mistake like that to continue was out of the question.
So I had to have a state police officer stop by to by to witness my issue. He filled out a form and that form got me a correct title for me with the correct vin with a real J (for hemi) instead of a v.

My example is an odd one but the DMV is an odd world to deal with. They are robots. They deal in digits and rules that they are given.

 

[BeeKool]

69 Hemi-Coronet? Do you still have it? Pictures at least.

 

[Fran Blacker]

Have heard of those mistakes before.