I know EXACTLY what it takes to restore a car to the OEM level. I grew up in a shop that did nothing but that. We restored old British iron, and let me tell you those guys know how many stitches are in the carpet kits, how thick the original English-made washers are, all of it. Mopar purists have nothing on those guys. It's a ton of hard work, research, and anal retentive attention to detail. The amount of time I wasted digging through bins filled with pounds and pounds of old Brit hardware to find the right length whitworth bolt that had the right stamping mark on it, let me tell you :BangHead:. And you know what it is at the end of the day? A waste of time, money and effort. Total waste. Because 99% of the time, after all that work and effort, you get a car that gets parked in a stupid garage 51-1/2 weeks out of the year and maybe trailered to a couple shows by a purist a$$hole that has a come apart if the car gets a spec of dirt on it. A beautiful car that never gets driven anywhere, and only gets seen by a bunch of self-righteous blowhards at fancy car shows. Guys that think they know everything about a certain car. I've seen guys like that step on their dicks plenty of times with original owners. "Oh, all of these cars left the factory with a blah-blah-blah". Or really? Well here's the guy that drove this car off the lot, and it didn't have one. Huh. Guess the guys on the assembly line weren't perfect, imagine that.
You want a perfect OEM car? Awesome, knock yourself out. But don't think for one split second that I care if the suspension pieces are painted the right color, or if all the casting date codes match, or if the emblem has the right number of studs or whatever. It's all just BS, none of that stuff makes the car work better. Cars are meant to be driven. If it's not tearing down the road it's just an oversized paper weight, no matter what color its concourse medal is or how many car show trophies it has. Paper weight.
And, if YOU don't think that my modified car doesn't have exactly as much time and effort into as your garage paper weight, kiss my backside. Just because my water pump doesn't have a date code on it because I bought it from Summit doesn't mean I didn't put in just as much time and effort somewhere else. And it definitely doesn't mean that I don't know how to check the proper date code, or where it should be. I just used my effort to make my car FUNCTION better. I know it's not stock, I intentionally made it exactly that way and I did it for a reason. And it takes just as much work, it's just different.
Your comments are exactly why people hate purists- You think your car is better because it's OEM. It's not. In fact, it's slower, handles worse, and is all around less capable than the majority of the modified cars out there. It's less useful as a CAR exactly because it is OEM. Maybe it's "prettier" and worth more. So what? Mine's more fun. And yeah, I can look at a car like yours and pick out the date codes and factory paint marks and all the other BS. I don't bother being that guy at the car show because I don't CARE, not because I don't know how to do it.
This is awesome. If I ever start going to shows again I might have to make one of those.
Better yet, maybe I'll make one with a bunch of random numbers and letters, grouped in the same OE format. Codes that don't actually mean anything. Or maybe belong to a different body style altogether. Keep those bastards guessing for awhile before they figure it out. That would be priceless. :D
Wait, J37? What's that? P35? Power tailgate window? On a 2-door hardtop? :p
:rofl:
Perfect!