I've seen nation TV shows where Repopped bodies being made and the vin's are used from a existing early car (Camaro). Or a Hemi Charger That was Totally Shot every peice was unusable. That car was totally rebuilt around the vin. Even to the point where one of the vins was restamped. Just to save a one of one car and this was nationally broadcasted and approve by Gallen. How about the give away car at Carlise years back 1969 Coronet R/T Hemi. It was cloned from my friends Drag car using his Vin It was White with a red Stripe.They advertised it as such. thousands showed to win that car. I didn't see anyone complain until after it was given out. But then and only then Whiners that Had tickets that didn't win came forward and said This wasn't right. It was then vin'ed using a coronet 500 vin that didn't say Hemi Well that was OK because he was'nt increasing the count of the rare hemi owners cars.
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Repopped bodies would be Reproduction cars or rebodied cars the way I see it. Taking the Vin and fender tag off an unrestorable car and slapping it onto a reproduction body is not a restoration and isn't much different from swapping the vin and fender tag onto a slant six body. And at that point, whos to say whats too far gone to do that with. Got a little rust in the quarters of a Hemi car, but have a rock solid slant six body sitting there. Why not just do an engine swap and switch the vin tag, and part out the hemi body. In the end, on one of these cars, it was only the Vin and fender tag that came down the assembly line as a muscle car back in the day. I think its okay to have a rebodied car as long as its always identified as such. But as has been said, as honest as the current owner might be, subsequent owners may not be so honest.
Imagine paying big money for a car that you believe came down the assembly line in 1969 and believing that all the sheet metal was vintage 1969, only to find out later that the vin and fender tag was the only part that survived of the original. Would an art collector pay top dollar for a Rembrandt, if the only part of the painting that was original was the signature?
I have a Coronet convertible that was originally a 318 car. During restoration, I bought the same year Coronet convertible 383 4 bbl car as a parts car. It wasn't restorable. I used the entire drive train from the parts car in my restoration of my convertible. I saved the vin, the fender tag, and every part of the body of the parts car that had the vin on it. If only I had switched the Vin, my convertible would be a numbers matching big block. It would have been easy to do. And instead of having a non matching numbers small block car with a title that showed it had over 300,000 miles on it, the title would show it only had 125,000 miles and it would be a numbers matching big block convertible. But, to me that would be totally dishonest and I never considered it seriously.
Its about saving the car, not the number count of existing rare cars.
