Unless it is a car that was originally built by a shop I'm familiar with, being sold by someone I'm familiar with, and with a verifiable history - NO WAY, NO HOW.

I see scary crap for sale on facecrook everyday, people posting comments about how awesome it is, what a great car it is - and I look at the pictures, and it's a complete hillbilly hacked up POS death trap. And I'm thinking "what the h311 are you people looking at and have you never seen a decent car before?"

I've been involved, after the fact, with cars and engines that were bought, dragged home, and then tried to be made usable. Cars and engines that people paid stupid money for and they were TOTAL JUNK. Hillbilly, Harbor Freight welder built, scrap metal trash, roofing material sheet metal, broke up, worn out, silly junk put together by idiots with no clue.. Sometimes they can be made to be OK, usually after spending enough money that they could have built a new car.

A chassis tag is the first thing to look for, but that's not the only thing. It needs to be looked at, closely, by someone who knows what they are looking at and looking for. If you don't, you need the help of someone who does.

Harsh? Maybe, but I get tired of seeing nice guys buy a pile of $#(^ for big money, realize they've been taken and have to unload the junk for a big loss. Sometimes after I've had to break the bad news to them.