Lots of good examples and thoughts on the subject. But it seems without some legal defintion that is shared across states(and Canada too, eh) it will be hard to set a standard. I'm leaning towards the original VIN tag still being attached to the original dash and original firewall with the hidden VIN. That to me represents the original shell. Now if the floor and roof section gets cut and another rear section welded up, that is no longer the original shell but it could be hard to detect if the work was done well. In the end, don't most of the cars become "buyer beware" and that's why so many people come to these sites to ask questions about a given car's history? That's what's great about sites like this and people sharing information.
