This statement really doesn't make any sense. You/ya'll/he took another car and put his running gear in it and maybe the dash frame and the numbers, with an electrical fire significant enough to destroy a car, even in the trunk, smoked the interior so reasonable assumption that was replaced, reasonable assumption that it took out the gauges and all of the harnesses, he might have been able to move over the front fenders, grille and front suspension, maybe front rims but again if it destroyed the car from the rear the rear rims were probably warped. So what exactly of "his car" was left, really no more his car than the VW down the street.

Again to the original car of the thread, the reason the OP wants to save the car is he feels it's something special, EL1 4 speed, putting bogus numbers on the car loses all it's original identity.

It would be nice if these cars got a rebuilt/salvage title then they would be branded so unsuspecting buyers would know. I thini I would be more open to it if that was the case. If people were truly wanting to be honest about what they were doing they would report it to any applicable registry to hopefully avoid the truth getting lost.

The only reason to change numbers is to deceive someone, even if it's the DMV, there is an intention to deceive.