[Tx Firefighter]

In Texas, you assemble the truck and a state trooper inspects it. He looks at any pictures you've taken along the way and the paperwork you got with the new cab. Then he runs the cab VIN and the wrecked truck VIN and if all is good, he issues you a new VIN which is a decal.

It's a common process, but around here, you have to call ahead because they only do the process on certain days of the week, so you need to make an appointment.

As vehicles have gotten so expensive over the years, many more are now getting repaired instead of totaled which means this process is quite common. I remember a few years ago I was visiting my buddy at the local dealership. The guys were putting an entirely new GM frame under a crashed Denali. I was stunned to see so much stuff strewn all over the place. The tech said it was like a 40 hour job to do the swap. But, on a 55k dollar truck, that's not too bad to do a good repair.