Fwd: <VV> Rebodied car

Bill Elliott Corvair at fnader.com
Sat Jul 2 11:56:04 EDT 2005


--Original Message Text---
From: HallGrenn at aol.com
Date: Sat, 2 Jul 2005 11:10:18 EDT

In a message dated 7/2/05 9:08:05 AM Eastern Daylight Time, Corvair at fnader.com writes:

As I mentioned before, in the big picture this is simply a philosopical discussion. 

Bob writes:
I used to feel the same way.  After all who is the injured party (until you want to sell the car, that is)?  But as I said in my 
explanation of the third car that I couldn't get titled (the conv. being "restored" by the son who had abandoned it at the 
dealership) the law doesn't necessarily work that way. 
<snip>

In practice, there is a major difference in "rebodying" a car as part of a restoration and "revinning" a car to obtain registration. 
In one case you are simply using a "part" (the body) of another car to repair yours and in the second case you're simply 
changing the VIN number of a car your don't have legal ownership of to one you have. I admit that the two actions may _look_ 
the same to an outside observer (and is why US law is the way it is) but in reality these are two very different acts. 

I maintain that the first (documented) will keep you out of serious trouble while the second would not. (And a big part of the 
different is the clear ownership of both identities...which you have int he first but not in the second). Hank correctly posted that 
the laws in every country prohibits the second act... but most allow for the second.

The philosophical discussion is "where does the true indentity of the car reside" and what does that mean for a restoration? 
US law is simply not very clear here while the laws in other countries address the issue. 

Bill



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