Apparently, the only way to "clean" a title in California, is to get the
party that originally declared the vehicle as salvaged or junk to reverse
the declaration with the DMV.  I know two people who have done this, one on
a BMW, the other on a Mercedes.  Every other method I've heard about is
heresay (so far).

Cheers,

Jeff

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM]On Behalf
Of Neal Hansen
Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2003 10:15 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Converting a salvage title in CA

I guess that California doesn't believe in recycling.
I once rebuilt a pickup truck in Connecticut that the Insurance Co. said
cost more to repair than the book value was. I did have to trailer it to the
MV Dept. and have it fully inspected. They thought that the horn wasn't loud
enough but I got a clean title anyway.
                                                        Neal

------------------------------

Date:    Mon, 10 Mar 2003 10:36:12 -0800
From:    Mike Miller <mwmiller@CWNET.COM>
Subject: Converting a salvage title in CA

Volks,

In a word, NO.

Once a vehicle is branded salvage, junk or several other things like that it
will remain that.  The records are held by VIN so unless you can change the
VIN, a federal crime, then once branded is forever branded.

This is from the people who make such decisions at DMV.

Mike