Yep! Excellent research. From what I have gathered, federal law says it's illeagle to remove the vin tag from the chassis. What is on the books and what is enforced is 2 different things.
I'll toss this in as something to consider when big brother moniters vintage cars. I'm not positive for all f/g/f cars, but the later years of the f/g had closed breathers. Federal law says that you cannot remove the closed breather and operate it on the street. The thing is that hardly anyone is making any attempt to enforce this law on non-cat cars. Just for amusment sake, the common consensus is that nox is the main pollutant that causes problems. Non-cat cars belt out so much nox, the open or closed breather doesn't make a difference in the name of promoting cleaner air.
In the case of modifications that "don't meet clean air stats," even though it's a violation of federal law, no one is enforcing it. Rather, few, if any, are enforcing it.
Keeping with the topic, because we have to dance to our local politicians, local laws are an issue. What about federal laws? The vin plate that was r & i on the new car required the presence of the manafactuer, local motor vehicles official, and the dot. The dot is a federal agency, meaning that a federal law official witnessed the removal and installation of the vin plate. Without federal approval for the repair, it would have been a federal offense to remove the vin plate.
From what I understand of the law governing the vin plate, the law states that the vin plate cannot be removed. Based on the excellent information that has been posted here, the hot rods and car crafts seem to be aware of the federal law and obviously weasle around the issue of the leagle aspects.
It would be unwise to say the heck with the law and do it illeaglly. If caught, the car would be confiscated. As a result, it becomes whatever enforment agency's property. Once it belongs to them, they dispose of the property in whatever manner they choose. That means that it automatially becomes leagle, whether it salvage, home built, kit, named car, or whatever. Now that law enforcment has cleared up whatever leagle mess with the car, guess what happens to the "proptery"? They sell it to what will become the leagle owner of legitimate property.
Seeing this is purely a what if post, what about installing the firewall from the exising car into the chassis. My best interpertation of the law govering vin plates is that it cannot be removed. If you install the firewall, you have not removed the vin plate--ccorrect?
