What a Waste of a SS396 Chevelle!

[R/T kota]

As one of the Hemmngs writers said this month, I'm more fascinated by an old original car that is driven regularly even if it has some wear and tear over any car that has been 100% restored to concours condition that goes only to shows in trailer and no one is allowed to so much as breathe on it.

-UT-

No one ever said a restored car has to be a trailer queen. I know many people who drive their high dollar restored and originals regularly.
Trailers are for boats.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

Boyd Coddington got in trouble in CA for doing something similar, but to a greater extent. As we all know his shop custom fabricated a lot of their own modern chassis that would replace that of the original car being restored. They would then end up replacing most of the body or fabricating their own bodies for the car, and use the original VIN's so the cars could be registered as antique/classic, even though in the end only a tiny percentage of the car was original. For someone doing a few restos here and there they could get away with it, but CA said no more to a big shop like Boyd's. Like the old saying goes, a car is only original once.

As one of the Hemmngs writers said this month, I'm more fascinated by an old original car that is driven regularly even if it has some wear and tear over any car that has been 100% restored to concours condition that goes only to shows in trailer and no one is allowed to so much as breathe on it.

-UT-

So did the shop making the Shelby GT500E cars, I think they were called Unique Performance. They got raided for swapping vin's, and were shut down and the cars were auctioned off with no titles in various states of completion. Which just means someone else will do a vin swap...

Boyd's shop got in trouble for doing some "odd" vin swapping, like a 59 Chevy with the title to a 84 Toyota!

 

[Tony_SS]

IIRC the VIN goes with the body. you can swap the frame and still call it an "original" whatever. that's why shelby was able to sell bodies as new in the 90's, and register them as 1960's cobra's. the bodies were kept in storage, but everything else was new.

I was told that (at least on a Monte SS) that the frame should be stamped with the VIN numbers? Supposedly on the inside of the frame under one of the doors.

 

[axisg]

IIRC the VIN goes with the body. you can swap the frame and still call it an "original" whatever. that's why shelby was able to sell bodies as new in the 90's, and register them as 1960's cobra's. the bodies were kept in storage, but everything else was new.

I was told that (at least on a Monte SS) that the frame should be stamped with the VIN numbers? Supposedly on the inside of the frame under one of the doors.

I have never seen that, it's a good idea though as it would cut down on theft.

 

[GP403]

I was told that (at least on a Monte SS) that the frame should be stamped with the VIN numbers? Supposedly on the inside of the frame under one of the doors.

I have never seen that, it's a good idea though as it would cut down on theft.

Yeah IIRC they've done that for a while, since at least the late 60s. Maybe not the VIN but something that ties the body to the frame. So change them both 😉

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

I think the frame, block, transmission and body are all stamped with matching VIN's on some cars, depending on manufacturer as it was not legally required until the 80's.