At what point is "builder" status conferred?

Stealth Pilot wrote:
On Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:45:08 -0700 (PDT), 150flivver
wrote:

On Jul 10, 7:51 am, Stealth Pilot
wrote:
in the worst case where no one will issue new paperwork the owner
could surrender the registration then assemble a new aircraft from
various parts and ask for it to be registered.
if he can prove 51% then he is the builder for the new registration.

Stealth Pilot
51% has nothing to do with the issuance of a repairman certificate or
determining who is the builder.

I dont believe that that is correct either.
if you fail to establish that you are the builder of 51% of the
aircraft then you wont be eligible for the maint authority.

Stealth Pilot

That is not correct. The 51% rule has nothing to do with who the builder
is. The 51% rule is that 51% of the tasks necessary to building the
aircraft were done by AN amateur builder.

To be THE amateur builder that gets the repairman's certificate you have
to convince the inspector that you did enough of the building to
understand the aircraft well enough to do the annual inspections.

Were this not the case few of the partially completed kits that get sold
and finished by someone else would ever qualify.