That's great to hear about Chris and his Amigo. My ebony is also a salvage vehicle. It was salvaged in AZ (I have a feeling it was stolen, as AZ issues salvage titles for stolen vehicles, and this only had cosmetic damage aside from a dent in the oil pan and the AC condensor being punctured), then issued a rebuilt title and sold at auction.

The fellow I purchased it from brought it into SoCal about 2 years ago and went thru the bureaucratic nightmare of getting it inspected and legal here in CA, which took him 18 months, as the DMV lost his original paperwork, then couldn't figure out what to do when he overpaid them. Luckily, however the Highway Patrol passed him both times at the inspections. At least here in CA the emphasis is on safety and emissions, and not cosmetics.

Because it's salvage, I don't feel so bad repainting it to non-stock, as any potential collector value is killed by the salvage aspect. Plus, because I got it so cheap I can afford to drop some $ into it cosmetically and really make it as close to a brand new VX as possible. Better than new, in some ways, since I'll probably have the only '99 Copper Orange Mica on this board.

Oh, and for anyone who's curious: I am going to replace all the badges and stickers after it's painted (even the one under the hood that talks about emissions). I want it to look as close to stock as possible, as if it was indeed a color option for the VX that any one could have purchased. IMO debadged VX's look like someone repainted them and was just too lazy/cheap to replace the badges.