Rodent Jim,
I will be back in the shop on Sat morning to discuss this with you. Call me then and we'll talk about the car.
In the long run, if this car was "back halfed", this would not be classified as a rebody. If it was necessary to save the car, many have done this and quite a few of the ZL1's were back halfed to save the car and history. If the bulk head of the car is all there with trim tag, vin stamps and front clip, that is the bulk of the car. A rebody is classified as removing vin numbers, trim tag and installing them on another vingin car body. Grinding out the stamped vins and installing new stamped vins is reboding a car. In my professional opinion, this Z28 Camaro would not classify as a rebody. Everyone needs to take a look at my '67 Z28 Stock Eliminator car on my web site. That Z28 was just barely a carsus by the time we started going back togehter with it. Much worse than this '68 Z28!! And no original engine. The reason I spent over $100K to restore my '67 Z car and bring it back is because the main part of the car, the bulk head area and stamped vins were still there and that complete area was the original part of the car. If not, I would have walkled away from that car and bought another 1967 Z28 to run Stock Eliminator.
Like anything else, many will have different opinions on this subject. I am sharing my opinion here for all to read. The sale price of this car was very cheap when I went to inspect it. I think about $12-14K. A steal at that price IMO. The inspection was done in a driveway in FL and the main concern to my client was the engine being real and the fact that this car was a real Z28. It was real as rain. Do I check every car for being back halfed...........no I don't. But if this will become a political topic that goes on and on, it will come down to all on-site inspections being done with all cars completely apart and dismantled. That is not a reality.
I do the best that I can to provide a service to the hobby. Anyone is free to call me anytime if they have an issue with services that I provide. I have shut down many a bad deal on bogus cars and I have the attorneys to back me up on that. We have won many cases against the bad guys. I want all to have a pleasant experience in the hobby. That's what it's all about to me.
I should also point out that I have not seen this car is almost a year. So, I do not know if it's exactly the same as it was when I inspected it.
Jerry