New Thread-to Be Or Not To Be?

Should you keep/restore your classic to original?

  • Yes; keep it original! These classics are fast disappearing.

    Votes: 28 18.3%

  • No; Do whatever floats your boat!

    Votes: 117 76.5%

  • Undecided; can't make up my mind!

    Votes: 5 3.3%

  • No opinion; could care less!

    Votes: 3 2.0%
  • Total voters
    153
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Captainkirk

Captainkirk

Old School Mopar Warrior
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To Be, or Not To Be....that is the question. (apologies to Shakespeare)
Original, that is.
Or in other words, should we do our restos the way WE want, or do The Right Thing (according to the purists) and restore our machines to all their former glory?
I already have my answer. I know the purists will have conniption fits over the fact that I have an all-original '72 Duster with NO RUST (other than suface rust on the underside) DAMAGE....a perfect candidate for a concourse restoration.....and I don't particularly care. Not that I'm gonna go out of my way to alter things, but if I see something aftermarket or performance-wise that I wanna do, I'm gonna do it. If I was building this thing to flip and make big bucks on, (project whores!) I would probably do that. But I'm not, so I don't care. Let somebody else return it to original after I'm gone.
I know in the motorcycle industry this is a HUGE point of contention right now regarding collectible classics between the owners and collectors. Even repainting an original tank can drop prices phenominally. So, I'm wondering how most of you FABO owners/restorers feel about this issue and how you approach it? Please give your 2 cents worth!
 
Your car, Your cash. Do what you want. All though I prefer them mostly stock appearing.
 
There are two ways to value a car...the intrinsic value (what someone would be willing to pay you for it) and the value to you. In this day and age, if you stumbled on an original '71 'Cuda Hemi convertible in a barn, you would probably be locked up in the nut hut if you hotrodded it - only because they are so rare and so many people would throw money at you to get it (in that case, sell it for big cash and build a clone or ten).

If you have a run-of-the-mill basic car that does not command a great deal of money on the open market, I would say do what you want to it. Even if it is a survivor granny car, buyers might not be interested in it.

Bottom line is that the car is yours and you are free to do with it as you please.
 
I agree, do what you want with it and not worry about what others will think. Neither my Dart or Barracuda are stock and I like them that way. I build them the way I feel comfortable with. I really don't care about value either as I have no plans on selling them, They will go to my kids when I am gone
 
I think it depends on the person, & their intentions.

1. If you go full resto, might as well put it in a museum. It won't be driven much, if ever. Keep it in a climate controlled garage & keep it pretty. Let people take pics of it, & ooh & awe. Protect it from fingerprints & scratches. Then you die, & it sits again for the next owner to show it off in the same manner.


2. Or... Build a car the way you want, drive it & enjoy it.

I take option 2.
 
Woodys_Cuda said:
I think it depends on the person, & their intentions.

1. If you go full resto, might as well put it in a museum. It won't be driven much, if ever. Keep it in a climate controlled garage & keep it pretty. Let people take pics of it, & ooh & awe. Protect it from fingerprints & scratches. Then you die, & it sits again for the next owner to show it off in the same manner.


2. Or... Build a car the way you want, drive it & enjoy it.

I take option 2.
Click to expand...

I disagree. I guess you've seen the pics of my (ex) Challenger. It was hard core restored with the bottom done and all that. I did the indoor show thing with it (it won thank you) and did lots of cruises. I also took it up to the Pure Stock Muscle Car Drag Race (had it certified pure stock) and to the Factory Stock Muscle Car Drag Race. I ran it hard running a best of [email protected] frying those repop PolyGlas tires all the way down. (yes, I won my shootouts at both races)

Bottom line is you CAN restore them to a high level and still enjoy them. I believe people should do what they want with their car. It may not be my cup of tea, but it isn't my car. HOWEVER, if you want to "restore" a car to sell, then as close to stock as possible is the way to go.

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Keep it “original” as much as possible with these exceptions that might improve the car's utility or performance.
Number one. Mopar engineered upgrades are good.
Example: factory front disk swaps or Mopar factory four-barrel intake.
The bottom line here is I like to see Mopar parts on a Mopar. Even if they came off a later model. But that’s me. As we all know, it’s your car.

Number two. Do what is necessary to save the car. If a part is not reproduced or otherwise available to you, substituted whatever works. I saw a rough 68 Mustang coup on a trailer this weekend. Where’s the challenge there? Just open the wallet and catalog.

You mentioned the "collector value"?
That is another discussion which depends on one's perspective.
Is someone in it for the money or the hobby?
What was that movie? Attack of the Clones?
Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet?
 
68 Sedan said:
I disagree. I guess you've seen the pics of my (ex) Challenger. It was hard core restored with the bottom done and all that. I did the indoor show thing with it (it won thank you) and did lots of cruises. I also took it up to the Pure Stock Muscle Car Drag Race (had it certified pure stock) and to the Factory Stock Muscle Car Drag Race. I ran it hard running a best of [email protected] frying those repop PolyGlas tires all the way down. (yes, I won my shootouts at both races)

Bottom line is you CAN restore them to a high level and still enjoy them. I believe people should do what they want with their car. It may not be my cup of tea, but it isn't my car. HOWEVER, if you want to "restore" a car to sell, then as close to stock as possible is the way to go.
Click to expand...

Good point. No I didn't see your car.

Normally, fully restored cars are not driven. They are just kept as an investment, or sold for a profit (Barrett Jackson).

Anyways, save a Mopar from getting crushed. I think we can all agree on that.
 
I've done one of each. I felt restricted on the "survivor" car that I bought from the original owner - knew I should keep it as stock and as close to original as possible since it was all there and original to start with - one lots of nice plastic trophies in stock classes etc. Sold it and bought another Dart that will be on the opposite end of the spectrum with about 20 % of it being original or stock - I'm having more fun with this car, buying stuff that will make it "mine" , customizing here and there - more liberty with the restoration/modifications. I can appreciate them all and would never "disrespect" an all original (read valuable) classic if I were fortunate enough to come across another one. Different strokes ....
 
I'll make 2 points. As long as they aren't being scrapped then we're doing our part keeping them on the street. Also the owner must realize in advance that changing the car or adding things that were never offered at the factory or for that year could negatively impact the resale value. Case in point, my Demon came out of the factory as a /6 Demon but I've always thought that the factory should have offered a BB in the Demon so I just went ahead and corrected their mistake. My last point, I know I said 2 but cut me some slack, I don't care what anybody thinks, the originality watchdogs can kiss my :bootysha:

Terry
 
I've resigned myself to the fact that my '64 Cuda will never be considered to be a "Collectible" car, and in fact, be more desirable if I retain most of the '60's flavor with a few upgrades. This way, I get to enjoy it the way I want to enjoy it, not to satisfy someone elses opinion. I agree with the consensus here that we do what we want with the car. It's not like its a Road Runner Hemi convertible!
 
i say customize the hell out of em. to make it your own. but thats just me. any car i own will never be stock or look stock as it looks to plain jain to me.
 
I have not been able to keep performance cars stock. I look at them and say, It would be faster if......
 
Depends on what you started with.

6 cyl car, have at er.....

Numbers matching Hemi Car, probably restore it to original.

My swinger doesn't have the numbers matching 340 so I bought a 340 and am going to play with it, probably going to keep it mostley stock looking but performace upgrades under the hood and suspension.
 
If I'd wanted to be restricted to a fully restored performance car, I would have looked for an original '69 340 Swinger and restored as such. But what I wanted was a '69 Dart that I could play with and do just the way I wanted. So I bought a generic '69 Dart 270 hardtop. It's not going to be 'numbers matching'. It's going to be exactly what I want it to be.
I'm not at an age where I have the time to change the vehicle in the future. I want what I want and I want it now so I can enjoy it before I'm too old to be able to. Darned if I want to build a vehicle and then only be able to be taken for a ride in it!
Bottom line is build what you want, but be aware of what you're starting with.
 
a little common sense goes along ways.....if you have a true collectable,,,it is not to smart to hot rod it.... restoring a car with no value makes no sense at all.
there seems to be great confusion on what makes a car a desirable restoration canidate..one of 999 made isnt the only rule.first it has to be a car that is in demand with a history of some kind...in our case the muscle car era.....hell most of us cant even agree on when that was.
but we all have opinions.. you do what you like and i wont care...and ... i ll do what i like and wont care what you like.
 
Let me make a case in point about my Demon.........

It was an original 318 car with A/C, but just a plain Jane with Dog Dish hub caps...........no stripes, no spoiler or scoop, no NUTHIN............

SO, I got out all of the manuals and illustrations I could muster and proceeded to add a whole list of options to the car like the correct spoiler (with the correct cutouts and brackets underneath), the correct scoop (real Mopar, along with the correct ram air holes), side stripes, & tail panel stripe.

You know what? It STILL didn't pop. The stripes were looking very "unfinished" to me.....just black blobs.......I outlined them with a thin gold pinstripe and they JUMPED off the car.........no comparison to stock. I decided to black out the top of the front half, and continue the line up around the windows to frame it off.........Again, finishing it with a gold pinstripe........POP again.

To this I added new woodgrain to the dash, but changed it to Burl.......Incredible difference from the painted walnut.........

To make it short, I kept the car looking as if it had come that way from the factory, BUT purists and car guys would see the difference up front.....BUT, I NEVER got a negative remark......in fact, it was always the opposite......The car always drew crowds, and was a favorite for photos.

AND, I took "Best Mopar" at a popular central Florida Classic Car show TWICE with the Demon, against some pretty stiff competition, including some "to die for" B and E bodies and the like that were done to bone stock flawless appearance................

In my book, you do what you like........You have to drive it, show it, wax it and polish it........You're the one who'll feel the sense of accomplishment by what you create.........If we all stayed purist, guys like Chip Foose would not exist................and some of the most expensive Mopars out there right now are cleanly done Resto-Mods.........

But, like the guys have said, if you have a RARE production car, then think very carefully about changing it.....they're better off saved to original specs by far......there are PLENTY of great Mopars to resto-mod that wouldn't ever amount to much dollar value without your added creative input. 8)
 
I like to tweak the factory stuff cosmeticly to suit myself and in such a way that to go back to OEM is no problem.
 
My 67 was originally a slant 6 car that a previous owner had started to turn into a 68 GTS clone by adding the grill and tail lights from a donor car.

Should I return it to it's former slant 6 glory, or hot rod the piss out of it? You can guess what my choice is going to be.

If a car is a true survivor and is very close to stock, even a slant 6, I can dig keepin it that way too. I drove a slant 6, three on the tree for a whole school year once. Then I put a 340 4-spd in it and hot rodded the...
 
I don't think those were the good mushrooms you ate:happy10:
 
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