Pontiac Bodywork & Rust Repair - Is It Legal To Rebody?

As the Pontiac hobby matures and the values of cars seemingly reach new plateaus at every auction, the problem of rebodied musclecars has become rather severe in recent years. Garden-variety cars receiving Vehicle Identification Numbers (VIN) taken off of totaled or rusted-out musclecars are frequently passed off as rare original examples of the breed. We're not talking about simply making a car look like a more desirable version, such as adding stripes to a GTO to make it look like a Judge. We're talking about intentionally altering or removing and replacing the VIN to make it appear to be another more desirable, more valuable car.

The fine art of forgery predates the automobile by several hundred years. As with works of art, jewelry, and other collectibles, methods of identification have been forged to make bogus items appear authentic. Whether it is a faked signature or an engraved mark, the deception is added for the economic benefit of the dishonest.

In the case of automobiles, whether to profit from a hot collector-car market, to disguise a stolen vehicle, or even to save a rusty rarity, the act of altering a Vehicle Identification Number tag on a vehicle or taking the VIN tag off one vehicle and affixing it to another is a Federal crime, and as one might guess, the penalties are severe. Fines, imprisonment, and vehicle confiscation are all possible outcomes.

What constitutes a rebody, what is acceptable from a legal standpoint, and what crosses the line between restoration and fraud? Unfortunately, the line isn't so clear, and it can be downright blurry in some cases. We were hoping to shed a bit of light on the subject, but it seems the questions we asked the authorities have no hard and fast answers. This is obviously frustrating, but in researching this article, it has become more clear to us why things have gotten so far out of hand.

In most restorations, rusted or damaged body panels are replaced with original parts from another car, N.O.S. pieces, or reproductions that are commercially available. Generally speaking, with musclecar-era machines, fenders and doors are usually simple bolt-on pieces that don't have identification numbers tied to the vehicle, so they can be replaced without legal ramifications. Sometimes date codes are on pieces like door glass, affecting correctness but not legality. Likewise, welded-in panels, such as quarters and rear-end body panels, are in the clear, especially if the replacement parts weren't from another car.

The trouble starts when multiple VINs are found on the same car. This can happen when a frame is replaced, when a donor car is used to repair major damage, or when the VIN plates from a dead-but-desirable car are affixed to another less desirable vehicle. In some cases, commercially available but phony VIN plates are used to fraudulently increase the value of an ordinary car.

This all begs the question: How much of the original car needs to be present in order to qualify as the original car? What pieces are vitally tied to the VIN? Is there a difference between full-frame cars and unibody cars with regard to these "vital components?" Do these guidelines vary from state to state?

In order to get definitive answers, HPP contacted Neal Wisner, a Michigan-based investigator for the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB). The NICB works directly with law enforcement agencies to track down stolen cars and keeps a database of information pertinent to the individual cases. In recent years, the NICB has been actively involved with tracking down collector-car fraud, because at its root, it is criminal activity involving motor vehicles, and the procedures for investigation are very similar to those of stolen cars.