So how far is too far??

[Unreal]

Some say you cannot mess with the cowl, but everything else is fair game. But hen, sometimes the cowl or upper dash panel need replaced, but the rest of the car is OK. Then, it's OK to change them. That sounds like the whole car, to me.

Reminds me of an old fraternity house at Pitt. There was a local ordanance that grandfathered multi-family dwellings, but if replaced, it had to be a single family residence. (an attempt by the neighborhood to get rid of the fraternity houses on Bayard Street)
Anyway, they were allowed to "remodel" so they "remodeled" the inside, by building a new house just inside the old carcass. When that was done, they "remodeled" the outside, by knocking down the old carcass, exposing the new house inside.
I might have it backwards, they might have "remodled" the outside first. But in any case, while it met the requirements of the ordanance, it was clearly a "rebody"