This law depends on whether the yard is a licensed impound yard, I believe. I've also tried to buy cars out of the Pick-your part operation in El Monte, and I've been told this is not possible - the car must be crushed. I have a friend who did buy a car out of Memory Lane, however, and since those are owned by the same firms, there must be some stipulation on the location's license as to what can be done with the cars once they are in the lot. The fellow I was referring to was a licensed impound yard in Wilmington CA - and I know he had to crush anything that was taken into his yard. I guess the thing to do is to ask Lowell Howe why he won't sell a complete car - I suppose it could be some other reason. As for reconstructing a car from pieces of various wrecks, I think this is illegal in CA unless the shop is approved as a certified reconstuctor (and if it isn't, it should be, as the unibody cars are really dangerous if they are not put together right!). Dick Benjamin ----- Original Message ----- From: A. Foster <monkeypuzzle1@xxxxxxx> To: <mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Thursday, August 15, 2002 12:33 PM Subject: IML: Reusing car bodies. > Dick; > You boys have some strange laws down there in California. In Western > Canada, B.C in particular, you can buy whole cars out of the junkyard with > no problem at all. The only catch is that you need to get them safety > inspected, by an approved shop, before you can put them back on the road. > Usually it takes a considerable amount of work to do this as the cars are > usually a project. The only reason for this is that it was at one time > common for people to buy two junk cars of the same model, one rear ended the > other front ended. They would then cut both in half, reweld the two good > ends together, make a decent body. The only trouble was that not everyone > doing this did it properly hence the need for rigorous inspections. This to > me seem much more reasonable then not allowing decent bodies to be used, not > no way, not no how. > Best Regards > Arran Foster > 1954 Imperial Newport > Needing A Left Side Taillight Bezel and other trim parts. > > >