Well, since I'm aboard...

The above rather lengthy legal statements I think you'll find only clarify that the car can be registered. It doesn't state anything about which vechile it's being registered as.

In this thread we've been given a number of real world examples (that place outside of legal documents) that people have given you of vechiles being registered as per the chasis not the body. From this we can make a fair conclusion that your once sandman is now likely to be registered as a hq if the swap was done following correct procedure.

More importantly to all of this. Can you imagine having this same 24 page discussion with any sandman collector and having them pass over the same or even close to the same money as they would for a car with a matching chasis?

Afterall, the point we're trying to make is that of 'Is this a collectable car that people are going to value and is worth throwing tens of thousands at a restoration?' or 'Is this a car that once was collectable but now has lost one of the key components that make it a collectable?'. From reading the comments here I'm again going to drawn the fair conclusion that the majority seem to lean towards the second option.

This is of course in no way going against the argument of 'who cares what it is, just drive it and love it' and if you look at the contents of my shed this is my personal taste. However, since the top end of the sandman market is no longer in the 'cheap fun' category but rather up there with the monaros in value, it is imporant for information about what makes your sandman a 'complete whole and collectable sandman' freely available. Then those who are doing their research on sites like this before a big purchase don't end up spending a great deal of money on the wrong car.

--- Updated ---

As requested, one goverment document stating clearly that in the case of a damanged chasis being replaced with a new or second-hand chassis the replacement chassis number becomes the primary vehicle identifier.

http://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/NR/rd...writetable.pdf