ROTTING MUSCLECARS

[old5.0]

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not to worry, I am CERTAIN that "car" is on the road today, probably sold at auction as a low mile (wrecked when it was new, is that what low mile means?) matching numbers car ...

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Undoubtedly. In a small rural junkyard in the middle of Kansas, there's the remains of a 67 Shelby. I'm sure the car's missing V.I.N. numbers are resting comfortably on a six cylinder fastback in somebody's garage.

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It has been going on for YEARS.

I am sure most people would be surprised at how many rebodied, clipped, brought back for being totalled type cars are out there and undetectable.

The insurance companies sanction it by selling totalled cars at auction rather then having them crushed. There are body shops that make a living exclusively from grafting two cars togather and reselling them. If you think they all have salvage titles you are wrong. I know in AZ. they used to take the AZ. title to N.M. and title it and the salvage disappeared. If the car was ever titled back in AZ. no one ever knew.

And we thought that "don't ask don't tell" was just a recent military term.

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Oh, I know. If you've been in the hobby for more than a week, you know that re-bodies are a problem. I've been saying for awhile that it's an even bigger problem than most people realize.

[old5.0]

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not to worry, I am CERTAIN that "car" is on the road today, probably sold at auction as a low mile (wrecked when it was new, is that what low mile means?) matching numbers car ...

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Undoubtedly. In a small rural junkyard in the middle of Kansas, there's the remains of a 67 Shelby. I'm sure the car's missing V.I.N. numbers are resting comfortably on a six cylinder fastback in somebody's garage.

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It has been going on for YEARS.

I am sure most people would be surprised at how many rebodied, clipped, brought back for being totalled type cars are out there and undetectable.

The insurance companies sanction it by selling totalled cars at auction rather then having them crushed. There are body shops that make a living exclusively from grafting two cars togather and reselling them. If you think they all have salvage titles you are wrong. I know in AZ. they used to take the AZ. title to N.M. and title it and the salvage disappeared. If the car was ever titled back in AZ. no one ever knew.

And we thought that "don't ask don't tell" was just a recent military term.

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As for retagged cars couldnt you buy the shell of say a Mopar with the VIN on the Radiator support and go head hunting for the clown who cloned your car?

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Depends on how smart the guy who stole your VIN was. I've owned both a Hemi Super Bee and a Six Pack Super Bee that were missing not only the tags, but the body stampings.

[69hurstSC]

Heres a hypothetical: Theres a 71 Hornet SC in a junkyard missing the door tag and VIN. However, behind the powersteering on the firewall the VIN is stamped. If this car is purchased with title does the new owner have the right to reclaim their missing tags?

[old5.0]

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Heres a hypothetical: Theres a 71 Hornet SC in a junkyard missing the door tag and VIN. However, behind the powersteering on the firewall the VIN is stamped. If this car is purchased with title does the new owner have the right to reclaim their missing tags?

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Sure, why not? Whoever took the tags in the first place comitted a federal offense. If you own the car and can track your tags down, you own them by default in my mind. If the fake car has been sold in the meantime, then the current owner would have grounds to go after whoever sold him the fake, but the tags are yours regardless. I'm no lawyer, but that's my take on it.

But if even the body stampings are gone, well, that's it. Unless you can somehow dig up old paper with a VIN and establish some kind of ownership history, there's nothing you can do. I can think of 12 or 15 high end cars just off the top of my head in northeast Kansas that have been completely stripped of all numbers. If I looked through some of my old notebooks, I could probably double that number. That's just what I've seen with my own two eyes, forget about the stuff I've heard of second hand.

In one year, I parted out and crushed the two Super Bees I mentioned above, along with a 69 Z/28 because every number had been stripped off the bodies. In all three cases, they were cars that had sat in backwoods salvage yards for 20 or more years. No paperwork, no hope of finding a previous owner, so what can you do?

[MultiMopars]

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Heres a hypothetical: Theres a 71 Hornet SC in a junkyard missing the door tag and VIN. However, behind the powersteering on the firewall the VIN is stamped. If this car is purchased with title does the new owner have the right to reclaim their missing tags?

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If the V.I.N. is complete and the title is the original then if you purchase the car yes. If you can somehow track down the numbers and/or car you can legally retrieve them through law enforcement.

If the tag owner has re-V.I.N.ed a car it too will have a title the same as the title for the original car. The original title will trump the newer one.

The problem is that since the tags have been removed from the original car you State MAY not allow them to be re-installed and will issue a State V.I.N. plate that will dramatically impact the cars value.

[al8apex]

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... I can think of 12 or 15 high end cars just off the top of my head in northeast Kansas that have been completely stripped of all numbers. If I looked through some of my old notebooks, I could probably double that number. That's just what I've seen with my own two eyes, forget about the stuff I've heard of second hand.

In one year, I parted out and crushed the two Super Bees I mentioned above, along with a 69 Z/28 because every number had been stripped off the bodies. In all three cases, they were cars that had sat in backwoods salvage yards for 20 or more years. No paperwork, no hope of finding a previous owner, so what can you do?

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you could always do this and create a car from the paperwork and the tags, oh wait that has been done before, a certain Rally Green RS Z28 rebody that was sold last year comes to mind:

https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/showflat...true#Post363676

http://www.camaros.net/forums/showthread.php?t=149621

Sure it is illegal, but apparently people are ok with it ...

[old5.0]

I suupose you could do that if you're the one who took the numbers off the car. When you're the guy stuck with a VIN-less hull, it limits your options. I don't know about the rest of the country, but the junkyards around here are full of neat cars that have been totally stripped of numbers. Which is why I think that there are more "built" cars around than anyone realizes. And it isn't just Chevrolets.

As for building a car around a set of tags, I guess if the 'Vette guys know it's going on and are cool with it, that's their deal. Here's how I feel about it.

In 2001, I bought several cars out of a field. Included in the deal was an extremely rough AAR Cuda. The car had been wrecked, stripped, and left to rot. There literally wasn't a salvagable square inch of metal left on the car, and any usable parts had long since been taken. I sat on the car for a couple of months, trying to think of a way to save it, but the only conclusion I could come up with was "re-body". So I pulled the tags, melted them down with a torch, and sent what was left to the crusher.

Some cars should be allowed to die, but that's just my opinion.

[al8apex]

paperwork and tags for the above green 69 rs z28:





from here: http://www.camaros.net/forums/showthread.php?t=149621

illegal and ever more "accepted"

they SHOULD die as stated above, but when there are $$$$$$ involved it seems common sense takes a back seat

[Dog427435]

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[74NovaSS]

Here is a site with a lot of good links to rotting stuff.

http://www.hotrodhotline.com/feature/fieldcars/