Re: Tom H's expertise

[Tom Harais <tjhemh@domain.elided>]

Guys:

I didn't know about the body/frame situatuion in CA. Engine year is
their big issue.

I had a freind of a freind, who owns a "high end" body shop (Ferraris,
Porsches, Yuppie Station Wagons for pro ball players, etc.). I know that
I was there one night and he was showing me his handiwork in taking two
totaled BMW 325i's and making a whole one out of them. On that night, he
was welding in the body piece on the cowling that had the vin from the
one that donated it's engine. He told me that what he was doing was very
illegal and he was quite worried about the DMV catching him. I didn't
understand why. To me it was as simple a he making "one out of two".
And, since he was doing such a good job and even using his aligning
machine that he said could bring the unit body back to within 1 mm of
factory specs by using the shock towers as the hook-up-and-reference
points, I didn't see it as his hiding a wrecked vehicle from anyone.

My best guess was that one of the cars, might not have been totaled, but
he was using the "spare" parts off of it so he had to be carefull that
the vin on the body, frame and engine all matched the one that was
totaled lest there be two BMWs running around with the same VIN on some
piece.

Tom H.