well thats exactly it isnt it? certainly there is a oem list....and when my custom rig comes up to get inspected for its custom title with ...say some sort of of high visibility tubes for doors or rocker boatsided rocker extensions making the opening exponantionally stronger then the oem offering...or a combination of those two... you would be amending that list to add my home built to it.
happens everyday. then i get to pay some insurance company 2500 a year or more for avc/or some other custom policy on my creation so i can drive it down the road.
of course thats the cost of being free.
and yes monthly updates to the list are emailed to all stations, as are any monthly changes in laws. the "list" isn't a physical piece of paper that the i/m station refers to. the inspector actually calls the highway patrol's office and gives them the vin and the highway patrol will give a thumbs up or thumbs down
here in utah getting a "kit"-class title is next to impossible. i tried on my 1988 bII and god help you if you use a body that the highway patrol can i dentify as a factory body (to get a kit title the first inspection must be performed by the highway patrol, not an i/m station) and if the highway patrol can identify that you did not manufacture even the smallest part of the body they will inspect it as either the vehicle the body parts are from or just reject it as "true vehicle unknown"
thats for the safety inspection
for the emissions the exact same rules apply except the health department is one who does the first emissions test. and they can tell factory body parts a mile away too. and i ended up just sticking with "1988 bronco ii" because if i titled it as "kit" the emissions standards for model year 2010 cars would be held against me as opposed to the looser 1988 model year standards
and either way for the love of god do not let either place see a factory vin, or the fact that you removed a factory vin because either way its not a kit car because it has an existing vin, or you removed the vin of a factory car which is illegal as hell
that being said your "highly visible" strengthening would not be accepted but small, simple, tubular "half" doors are totally acceptable. but if it looks safe most inspectors don't follow the law to the letter anyway so they pass it. if it looked dangerous they'd fail it