1968 camaro rebody

[Che70velle]

Originally Posted by dhutton

The rivets will be carefully examined and are a tip off to a swapped VIN tag.

Don

It's a touchy deal. Guys that replace the cowl area of their cars have to drill the rivets, and replace the rivets after paint. Other guys, like myself, pull the vin, and cowl tag before blasting, to keep the pieces from bring hurt from the blasting process, plus there is usually some surface rust under the cowl tag anyway, so off it goes.
I started with a very rusty shell at first, that we pulled out of the woods. It had a tree growing up through the engine compartment. But anything can be fixed, right? Well a quote for $10K to replace basically the entire car, minus the driver quarter, and I said no thanks, I can buy a donor car cheaper, and I did. So I put the rusty 70' Chevelle shell on Craigs List, and I had 4 phone calls from guys that straight up told on on the phone, that all they wanted off of it, was the VIN. One guy even told me he would give me $1500.00 just for the VIN...I crushed the car.
Swapping VIN numbers is a crime, but removing one for damage repair/paint is not, as long as it goes back on the same car. Unfortunately these get swapped and that's how hard working folks like us end up losing our cars during a theft. Sad but true.