Rebodied cars and do they get certified

[JChlupsa]

And if so how and by who? What happens when a car thats certifed as a COPO type car is later found to be a rebodied?


(I opened this one up in a different thread since it started to take away from the COPO Chevelle that a member posted for sale.

[Rick H]

Rebodied in what sense? Are we talking one of these new body's or a rebody by using a rust free original body?
There is a difference.

I got a feeling this thread is going to get interesting.

Rick H.

[Stuart Adams]

Get the popcorn....

[Salvatore]

I am with you Rick. Interesting to say the least.

[Steve Shauger]

The topic refers to a chevelle in this instance, therefore it would be replacing a rusted body with a rust free. I wouldn't worried about the new camaro body, it is my understanding they are easily identified.

[LarryGFrench]

Where do I go to find VIN's?

[RichSchmidt]

As far as I know,the majority of scrutiny is aimed at the hidden vin stamped from inside the firewall over the heater box.This is impossible to duplicate,but if the original car had a clean panel in this area,and you did a good job of cutting the panel out of the old car and grafting it into a cleaner original body,you would despell 80 percent of the naysayers.There are also numbers on the subframe,so it would be beter to use the original one.I know 2nd gens had the number at the tail end of the driver's side subframe rail,but I think 1st gens had a number behind the steering box.Of course unless the donor car was chem striped or media blasted by a real expert,you would find old paint that could signal a color mismatch.It is really up to the buyer to check this all out before buying a car.I dont doubt that at least a few rebodies will show up over the years.The sad part is that once it is discovered,you can kind of assume that the original is a toyota by now.

[NCGuy68]

The new Repop body sticks out like a sore thumb. They're building them not far from me and any knowledgable Camaro person will see the difference. A couple of observations:

1. Three firewall configurations available - none look factory.
2. No VIN visable in the original location. No unmolested VIN means bogus in my book.

Got my flame suit on Gents - fire away...........

[NCGuy68]

[ QUOTE ]
As far as I know,the majority of scrutiny is aimed at the hidden vin stamped from inside the firewall over the heater box.

[/ QUOTE ]

Pardon the correction. There is no hidden vin stamped anywhere. They have repop serial numbers in various locations, but they in no way relate to original vin numbers.

[Belair62]

Jeff...there are 2 real black COPO Chevelles...Black with a red side stripe which was restored by Mickey Hale and I think is in Arizona and a Black/white stripe California built car which resides in my garage. I can send you to a website where a lot of the rebodied cars originate and reside if you need info on how to rebody a car. It must be pretty easy to do...