[hep1966]

This post is not directed to anyone in particular so please don’t think that I’m out to get anyone.

Where is the line drawn in the restoration or repair of a car?

Replace fender or fenders due to rust or crash.
Replace 1/4s due to rust or crash.
Replace trunk floor due to rust or crash.
Replace rear inner wheel wells due to rust or crash.
Replace rockers due to rust or crash.
Replace roof due to rust or crash.
How do any of the above things constitute fraud? They don't.

Weld in a piece of metal to repair hole in firewall.
Weld in a bigger piece of metal to repair firewall.
Any fraud yet? No.

Weld in a huge piece of metal to repair your firewall. In doing so the hidden VIN has been eliminated.
Any fraud yet? No. You simply replaced what needed to be replaced.

Take parts of your firewall and/or dash assembly and weld them onto a pre-assembled replacement body kit. Any fraud here? No. You are simply replacing rusted or crashed body parts with new parts. Many if not all cars built today have VINs on body and frame parts. When newer cars are crashed and have parts replaced, do you think it is fraudulent? Of course not. Frames get replaced every day in body shops all over the country. The cars and trucks keep their original VINs. So why all the fuss? Why should anyone think that a car should be confiscated or destroyed because of replacement body parts with the work being done as outlined above? What difference does it make if you replace parts one at a time or many parts at one time?

What should happen to all of those vintage racecars that crashed earlier this year? From some of the postings in these forums I see that some of you think those cars are now worthless junk. If anyone tries to fix them, they would be committing fraud. Oh wait, those are special cars owned by special people. So it's OK to fix them. The common folk have to resort to kit car classification.