Twilight Zone episode
Pretty much.
Maybe a rebody is like silicone implants? Aren’t “real” ones better? 
This would be a fun car to own as a driver. But I would expect to pay much less than a true GTE. The Aruba Eliminator comes to mind as what would be considered original. Currently as it sits now at KTL I don’t think there is one single part of it’s original sheet metal that can be saved. So how do you rebuild a car and say when it’s done say it was restored when actually the correct word should be replaced. Is it still the same car?
There’s another term to be considered in the discussion of replacing every panel. “Heavily Restored”
I called them and they had no interest in what the registry says and did not want to discuss it. After the new owner purchases it they will probably end up here and this thread will show Mecum was warned. I appreciate all the hard work those that maintain the registries do!
So what is with that Marti report they have?
Who’s car is that? Or was that?
It’s weird because certain fairly rare details- like the factory headrests on the report are accurate with the the car up for sale.
What I’m really curious about is if the vin # plate on the car is the same as the report. And if it is, does it look like it was removed from another car and re-attached to this one?
Can that be done so professionally that you couldn’t tell for sure?
A Marti Report shows what the factory produced, not necessarily that the car in question is that car.
This car has at least one and maybe both front fender apron stamped vin numbers different from the vin number assigned to the car. The door tag appears to be original on the original door. The dash tag however has been removed and put back on with screws. Couple this with the fact that the factory produced a Standard Cougar and this shows to be an XR-7, and the fact that some of the date stamped metal reportedly does not jibe with the production date of the car.
The objective evidence is that this car was rebodied, however as with any purchase let the potential buyer beware and satisfy himself/herself about the cars’ originality and act accordingly.
Thanks for the specifics Jim.
Given the way it’s marketed, it sounds like a nightmare scenario for an unsuspecting buyer. Even from the seller’s perspective, you’d think that any premium gained by getting GTE $ for the car would be offset by the costs associated with potential post-sale litigation, reputation damage, etc.
Those are 69 Decor single post headrests, not the moulded plastic rare dual post headrests listed on the marti. This car has 67 standard, 69 decore, 68 xr7 and xr7G interior parts shown in the interior.
:sings: “I’m gonna ride around in style, I’m gonna drive everybody wild, 'cause I’ll have the only one there is around…” 
Those are 69 Decor single post headrests, not the moulded plastic rare dual post headrests listed on the marti. This car has 67 standard, 69 decore, 68 xr7 and xr7G interior parts shown in the interior.
Thanks Don. You really do know your s___. (Stuff)
I suppose I do… I have no education, never had more than a minimum wage part time job and no resume but after putting my hands on the same low tech cars everyday since I was 15 I am starting to get the hang of it. What would happen if I ever had to get a real job? Scary… I hear the horse barn in Boring Oregon I worked at is still operating, I could always see if they need someone to clean stalls again like when I was 14. Yes there really is a town in Oregon called Boring.
A lot of back pedaling is going on. This is what hurt the value for the seller.
From what I understand it was a fail on both seller and the GT-E Registrar
the GT-E Registrar saw an inconsistency that was at that time not explainable. and only logical conclusion was re-bodied.
the seller refused to allow any further inspections and that just added to the conclusion of re-bodied.
I agree this hurt the sale price, but when it come to rare car like this, if seller will not allow full inspection the price will drop until vehicle is authenticated.
This definitely didn’t help things.
In the collector car world a car is not automatically assumed to be innocent (what it is claimed to be) until proven guilty. The best you can hope for is trust, but verify. It is always the sellers responsibility to, at a bare minimum, provide buyers with the opportunity to inspect and verify what is up for offer. When a seller harbors doubts about the authenticity of a car, and becomes reluctant to allow those inspections, they may hope that a buyer will make a leap of faith. In the very small circle of collector car buyers, this leads to skepticism and increased scrutiny. So when buyers can’t look at the hidden details they have to rely on the obvious clues. In this case there were an awful lot of things that raised questions. Then when a car passes thorough many hands in short order, it starts to look like the proverbial hot potato. That is what happened here. Uncertainty and increased risk reduces the price accordingly.
In this case there is a very happy ending. The most recent purchaser of the car WAS willing to have the car closely inspected and documented. And it turned out to be authentic although heavily modified from it’s original condition. And it gets even better, most of those modifications can be fairly easily reversed, should the new owner care to do so. What ever cloud covered the car has now been removed.
The really puzzling thing is that there was at least one independent person with first hand knowledge of the actual history of the car. He had tried to share his knowledge, but unfortunately it didn’t give any of the previous owners the back bone they needed to allow the car to be inspected. I will always wonder about that… Not listening was an expensive mistake. But the good news is that the new owner, that did the right thing, has been rewarded for making it possible to learn the reality of the cars existence.
Too many so called knowledgeable people , misspoke heavily about this car. It hurts any car community as a whole.
Don’t assume anything unless you have first hand information. Hard facts, enough said. Don’t cover things up , those that misspoke need to atleast apologize.
Robert Campbell had this to say when he first started inspecting this car
how can you get first hand info if owner will not allow any inspection.
Now to me it sounded like even the past owners had doubts and did not want to know truth.
Edit; I think it also did not help with a different red GT-E that was a confirmed re-body and documented by owner.
Maybe a question mark is granted until it’s verified. But not bashing it as a rebodied car without proper knowledge of it.
The past owner or owners could have been contacted. Seems to me the seller was led to believe all the hype about it being a rebodied car too.
Thats a shame.
So let’s keep kicking those who have done so much for the Cougar community because they reached a conclusion, based on their experience and the available information, that was shown to be incorrect when additional new information became available.
Based on the available information, and the absence of anything to the contrary from those owners, it was believed to have been rebodied
I am so tired of this crap.