Here are the legal facts, not opinions on some of the above comments:
1) A VIN tag is an absolutely sacred item under the law. You can change quarter panels, roofs, subframes, engines, rears, transmissions, tissue dispensers, etc., to your hearts content but NEVER mess with a VIN tag. Heck, you can even swap out your cowl tag listing the original color and options on your car and you wont face criminal charges. (You might get sued in a civil court later if you sell the car to someone and misrepresent it as something it isn't but that is not the same a criminal charges. (civil court = money penalty, versus criminal court = jail time penalty)
2) If you took that 1/3 of a car and welded on new parts to it, it would be OK under the laws of the state and federal system. You may have a problem with the title not being flagged as a salvage title but that is for another discussion.
3) If you took the VIN tag off of that 1/3 of a car and riveted it on to a donor body you are committing a crime at both the state and federal level.
4) Yes, there are a lot of body shops that do cab swaps when a truck is rusty but they do this out of ignorance of the law not necessarily out of criminal intent. But the fact is it still violates the VIN laws. There are no "VIN swaps for restoration purposes" exceptions in these laws, though that might be a perfect issue for SEMA and other big lobbying entities to take up with Congress. (When Congress isn't so busy not doing other stuff and blaming each other across the aisle for not, not doing what they are supposed to not be doing)
5) I dont write the laws, I am just telling you what the facts are. You are correct in thinking that there are probably thousands of these cars out there and thousands more being done while we sit here and type away, but the fact is those cars are ticking time bombs in a criminal/legal sense. They can be siezed as contraband items at any time by any law enforcement officer who has reasonable suspicion that it was a VIN swap. Imagine buying a car, going to the DMV inspection lane and having the inspector just happen to be a Yenko.net and ebay officianado who has kept a list of these types of hulks and VINs selling on ebay...just waiting for the day when one of these "finished" cars pulls into his stall. I know of a couple of guys that keep tabs on ebay auctions just for this purpose. You may go home at the end of the day but the car will stay there and most likely get crushed at the end of the legal proceedings: VIN swapped cars are never eligible for public auction based on safety issues. In the end you're out a car and will have to try and sue the guy you bought it from -good luck on recovering anything if he was a "backyard restoration technician."
6) As for the NICB not having all records, that is correct. They have records for the various plants that supplied them with their shipping records. Some plants did not have the records so they are not in their system.
7) Oh, and by the way, my lecture on fraud may be preposterous but that doesnt make it untrue. They dont send the Chop Shop/VIN Swap guys to the same facilities as murderers. They end going to lower level security institutions and end up playing tennis at minimum security camps with corrupt congressmen and senators.
