@Stan Galat posted:@WNGD -
This is not the first or second time you've brought this point up, and I wonder what you're driving at.
Have you ever seen the process the respected builders use to build a turnkey? It's not the same as a homebuilt. Greg, etc. are not buying old VWs and steam-cleaning the chassis, engine, and transaxle, then dropping a body on top.
There used to be a shot of the old VS where Kirk had probably 100 "pans", which were really just central tunnels, frame horns, and the front Napoleon's hat standing up, leaning one on the next. I'd bet there wasn't 100 lbs of "original" left in what he started with. There weren't even pan-halves left. Greg does the same thing.
Beck doesn't even start with a tunnel (and VIN). Their frames are 100% fabricated, in house, by the elves in Bremen.
Either way, every car gets a new beam, new torsion bars, new shocks, new steering components, new hubs, new brakes, new transaxle, and a new engine - new everything. The car is entirely new. Receipts are available upon request.
I'm really not sure what the relevance of the total mileage of the "donor" car before it was stripped to its central spine, but perhaps I'm missing something.
I'm not "driving at" anything but I like the reference.
I gave an example of one of the few things that bothers me in some sales. The Subie engine was listed as coming out of an old Subaru Legacy but and the replica had 600 miles on it (for instance, I don't remember the specifics). When I asked how many miles were on the original motor, which can be rebuilt or refreshed or neither, I found crickets. And I think closer to what the OP was asking, if a replica gets new gauges that show little mileage, what were the miles on the old replica gauges is a valid question.
Unscrupulous used car sellers have been buying scrapped gauge clusters for all kinds of cars to "roll back the mileage" for decades or kids unhook the speedo and drive off the tach etc. That's why many ad sites list "odometer shows X but total mileage is unknown" which is fair.
There's nothing wrong with acknowledging wrinkles in the hobby but this has nothing to do with Beck, who I have the utmost respect for. They're much closer to custom coach builders.