Rebodied Car with New Dynacorn Body

[Viper69Z28]

My question is a multiple question.I know in the near future if not happening already is 1969 Camaros being that were Supercars when new but now are a foot away from the junkyard but are revived with these new bodies.I know it is illegal to put the vin numbers on these car,But I am wondering if anyone has seen these new bodies & if it is possible to put the old vin numbers & cowl tag on these new bodies & the only way to tell if it is real is by looking by the heater box or removing the cowl.I know I just saw a thread with,Where is the hidden vin's but it must have got cleared.If it is possible & the only way to tell is by removing the Cowl or Heater & the car is just finished I'm pretty sure the seller is not going to let anyone around his car with a wrench.My other question is similar but of a different make but still Supercar.I saw at the 2005 Barrett Jackson there was a Black Hemi Cuda that was said to have been a REBODIED CAR because the original car was damaged in a fire.I see alot of them in the Mopar cars & it seems to be alright because the prices of these cars are not that much lower than a real car.I don't know how they REBODY cars but my guess is the drivelines of the original cars, vin tags,And do they go thru the trouble of putting the other parts with the vin #'s on the car also by cutting them out putting them onto the other car I'm not sure,But if anyone knows I sure would like to know.There might be alot of dissatisfied buyer out there if those car were sold later down the road when everyone forgets about them & now the REBODY is not stated anymore.Thanks Irvin

[70 copo]

Not likely that a dynacorn body would fool many people. Original bodies have die set Fisher body plant and date impact style stampings in multiple places. Those are not on the Dynacorn bodies and would be hard to reproduce.

[Hylton]

I think guys will get fooled by the Dynacorn bodies, especially if someone actually had the original rusted out car they were trying to restore. All they would have to do is cut the firewall, roof and original back seat and package tray out of the original and weld it all up to the Dynacorn body. They will still retain all the original rivets and hidden VIN's. They can say they started with the original and replaced the 'new' parts instead of the other way around.

[PeteLeathersac]

Whether builders are trying to fool anyone or not, wouldn't you expect the bulk of the buyers of these bodies be guys w/ rusted cars they'll be using the identities from?.

How much they retain of an original car will be up to how educated they may be (or want to appear) in regards to repairs methods, tag jumping...and of course deception?.

Everyone ready for a new wave of 'fun' in the Camaro world!?.

~ Pete

[69chevy]

Correct me if i'm wrong but aren't the firewalls being made totally different from original? I had heard this being the case that has something to do with GM licensing

[JTH74]

these bodies will work great for a pro-touring project, but not for a complete body change on a numbers matching Z28 or something like that.

[x Baldwin Motion]

here is some old press release/opinion on the dynacorn bodies;


What's this mean to you? That you can order yourself a brand-new all-steel stock-replacement body for a '69 Camaro convertible. Dynacorn has 45 dealers ready to take your order, and by the time you read this, delivery time should be about 4 to 6 weeks. The price for a body from tailpanel to cowl and from floorpans to the windshield frame (no doors or trunklid) is $10,500 plus $495 for crating. The crated body weighs about 900 pounds and can be delivered in the mainland United States for about $400-$600, freight collect.

We spoke to Dynacorn's Jim Christina, who wound up signing the GM licensing contract last April 1 while sprawled on a hospital gurney with a collapsed lung and a questionable ticker. He had his priorities, after all, since lots of people had been waiting for the news for a long time. Next, Dynacorn plans to crank out '67-'68 Camaro convertibles. In addition to the obvious change to the doors ('67s have wind wings, '68s don't) the two model years differ in the floorpan, trunk, and dash. Coupe versions of Camaros of all three years are also being prototyped, and Christina says the demand for the hardtops has already been stronger than that for the ragtops. Dynacorn produces a complete convertible top mechanism for $995, and by the time you add the fabric, the glass, and the weatherstrip, it's probably around $2,000 to put a top on the car. If a coupe body becomes available, the cost of the extra stamping and welding will make it at least $2,000 more than the convertible, so normalcy is inverted: It will probably be cheaper to build a ragtop than a hardtop.

The next priority at Dynacorn is to produce complete cabs for '47-'53 five-window Chevy trucks, followed by '67-'68 Mustang fastbacks if talks go well with Ford. A year ago we speculated that Firebird bodies would be pretty easy to make because they use so many Camaro stampings. Christina says it's doubtful he'll ever do Firebirds, though you could make one at home using other Dynacorn component parts. As for production of new Mopar bodies, Christina's comment was, "Way down the road, if at all." Instead, if Dynacorn had the time, '66-'67 Novas would be the next priority.
Readers still hit us with a lot of questions about the bodies, and to answer the big one, yes--the sheetmetal is all stamped in Taiwan. A Camaro convertible body requires 850 separate sheetmetal stampings that are welded into 35 separate subassemblies. These are shipped to Long Beach, California, and then sent by rail to Belews Creek, North Carolina, where they are robotically welded in precision jigs using GM's Saab production standards. The sheetmetal itself is slightly thinner than the original, but of a higher grade that is less brittle.

Also, the welding is more thorough than the originals--so much so that Dynacorn says the rigidity of the bodies is significantly improved so that the OE cocktail shakers are not needed on convertibles. But they are available if you want them. In fact, between Dynacorn, OER, and aftermarket suppliers, you can now buy every single part you need to assemble a complete car with nothing but brand-new parts.

Another common question is if the bodies accept all the original parts. Yes; they are designed as stock replacements that are virtually identical to OE components. Does everything fit perfectly with zero effort? No. Do the bodies require some blocking and fitting to get the seams right and the sheetmetal perfect? Yes. But they are better than almost any fiberglass body we've worked with.

Everyone also asks us about legally registering a new Dynacorn body, and there is no clean answer since laws vary drastically from state to state. It's safe to say that the new bodies can be used to re-body an existing '69 Camaro in virtually any state, though the laws about how the VIN will either be reaffixed or reassigned will differ. The bodies also come with serial numbers (not VINs) of their own, and some states will let you use those to register a car built from scratch, though sometimes it will end up registered as a homebuilt rather than as a Camaro. In those cases, you are often required to build the car yourself rather than have a shop do it for you. Basically, you need to investigate the laws of your home state, plus get with a local Motor Vehicles office to get its interpretation of the state law.

Finally, there remains the issue about what the new bodies will do to the value of existing real production Camaros. In fact, there seems to be a deep ethical debate about this, and all we can offer is that the introduction of reproduction '32 Ford bodies certainly didn't hurt that marketplace. In fact, it ensured those cars will live forever, and if the same happens to musclecars, it just ain't that bad."

that is someone else's opinion.
the last thing in the world I want to buy is a Camaro made in Taiwan!

[COPO CARTEL]

Was watching a show this morning on speed channel at 6 AM and the shop was using one of these bodies and the guys were very frustrated. They asked one guy what is your patience level with this body and he said on a scale of 1-10 he said a 9.5 Doug

[x Baldwin Motion]

yes, that show "cut chop and reglue" was just on again. trying to smooth out a 67 Taiwan coupe. trajic.