Rebodies are passing....authentic Tigers are not.....what is the Tiger world
coming to.
......notations for non-original rivets, that is a wild, wild thing.
This basically answers the first question I had....with a twist. When is a
rebody an authentic Tiger, and a Tiger a conversion? Answer: when TAC says
so?Yikes! Guidelines for certification are unclear as is the whole VIN tag
stuff....because removing id tags and putting it on another body/firewall is
illegal?? If the intention is NOT to deceive but to keep and build your car
safe and sane, who gives a darn! We should ask what is the intention.... to
deceive, or build a fine example of a super car....from the pulp of a
vegetable Tiger.
"Tigers aren't Alpines ,and vice versa so you CAN'T take an identical body
and retrofit it to your Tiger rust bucket without running the risk of a
detrimental evaluation of your car when it is completed.....by those in the
know. It is illegal to remove tags and put them on anything but the original
sheetmetal"
Is that what I am reading here????
WOW.
Because of that you will have to divorce yourself from showing the car as an
original/authentic Tiger???? Is there a "conversion coral" or a "rebody ring"
for the "other" replica Tigers at the shows?????
When they restored Michelangelo's work on the Chapel ceiling ...(strip,
resurface and repaint areas that were corroded and missing), is that now a
"rebody" of artwork? Should we look at it as a fake, or an act of
preservation? Doesn't it depend on the restoration accuracy and the intent
behind the work????
And if you sell it(Your Tiger not the Chapel) ...you must state that it is a
"rebody", or a "conversion" (I have still yet to hear from folks as to the
definitions for those two terms in Tiger circles.) You could be liable if you
do not come clean with this information.....wow!
And while it is being restored be on the lookout for those taking names and
VIN numbers, (sometimes innacurately). Even though they are NOT liable.
That's scary.
That inhibits many restorations.
That will increase casualties of the Tiger marque.
Solution??: If you have purchased a Tiger that is a rustbucket, unsafe to
drive and you really want to keep it....DON'T! Sell it to some unsuspecting
doormat buyer. If you still can't afford to buy another Tiger body then so
be it, go to the shows and look at all the cool Tigers that have been TAC'd,
but don't forget to look at the conversion section....and meander over to the
rebody sections of the show too. Invitation for division amongst enthusiasts.
OR:
Rebody using an Alpine, work with someone who has the knowhow to get it
TAC'd. If it has been done in the past, it can be done again in the future,
right?....and then TAC becomes obsolete. And life goes on in happy Tigertown
USA. And you may get TAC#101 which is a highly desirable collector's edition
number.
Once it is certified, then you tell everyone it is a rebody, or a conversion.
O.K. here we go:
When you sell it you say:
"It was approved by TAC (#101 again),yet an Alpine body was fitted to make
the car safe, clean, without rust, and non-original rivets were used in
fastening the original tags to the firewall. Most of all, the Alpine body was
used to maintain its structural INTEGRITY."
There is that darn integrity word again. -Hank
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