Well yes, as a matter of fact there is. They're called insurance companies and they report to the DMV. Case in point ... any vehicle that was claimed as lost in any of the recent hurricane floods cannot be legally put back on the road. The cars are sold as "salvage", noted as flood damage, and the VINs are flagged.

Likewise, many salvage yards also submit the VINs of vehicles they're dismantling.

But you seem to be missing the whole point. The point is it can be done. Whether its illegal or not is questionable ... SHOW ME where it says you can't put a dash and VIN from one body into another and then I'll be convinced.

In the mean time, there's absolutely no way you'll convince me that changing 90% of the metal on a rotten car is any different that putting a dash in a decent shell. Take the rad support, trunk gutter section, torque boxes and dash out of a rotten Hemi Road Runner and swap them into a good '68 Belvedere shell and you have a '68 Hemi Road Runner PERIOD.