I know the song by Paul Simon you reference, but the only guess I can make to your veiled one-off is because I'm moving away from "stock/original"?
Non-numbers matching drivetrain gave me the green light on that from the date of purchase, and because of my experience with 2 local brothers, friends of mine, both with 70 Roadrunners, both who are always in pursuit of "correct or "OEM"________" even though one is a Hemi clone of an original 383 RR, both gorgeous examples of OEM, no way could I compete, and that's not what I have ever wanted to do. Bad *** cruiser, and kick some *** on GMs and Fords on test and tune night, and stay faster than the wife's GTO. That's what I'm looking for and working towards. I'm mindful of the "V" in the VIN, but not to the detriment of my goals...
Or you may have meant something else altogether..
Well remember, you asked...and keep in mind, I love the car, what you do here and all reports are you're a top
notch sort of fella.
That said...
I'm one of "those guys" who thinks that
pedigreed cars (and a V-code certainly qualifies as one of those!) should
be preserved/restored as much as possible to what they were new - because after all, that's what makes a V-code
special.
Numbers-matching or not, there's a certain added responsibility to being the steward of such a car in my opinion.
Now, I understand it's your car and you can do what you want with it, obviously - and if you're trying to not do
anything "permanent" so as not to harm the next steward's ability to return the car to it's provenance, I applaud
that too naturally.
Given that, however (and correct me if I'm wrong here) there are two overlying themes to your "build" posts that
stick out, again in my opinion:
1. You're proud of the car's rarity as a true V-Code and understand what that means
2. You're also seemingly constantly posting of all the ways you're building the car using
anything other than
what
makes it an original V-Code, like that heritage doesn't matter
Folks do that all the time with other, more pedestrian models of course - your garden variety /6 and 318 cars,
for example - and it's not really a big deal because those cars don't have the same level of pedigree, whether
we agree with it or not. Nobody much fusses if someone takes a six banger Belvedere sedan and goes to town on
it, for example.
Heck, anybody can do up
any car out of the hot rod catalogs, after all....
And I don't begrudge them if that's what they want to do. Heck, have at it! We all love seeing more
pedestrian models built all to snot and we sure love seeing Mopar whipping up on any GM or Ferd.
Just don't do it to a pedigreed car, please.
To me, there is a responsibility taken on when someone obtains one of the rare, hard to find
(and getting rarer by the day) more pedigreed cars.
Some might see that as being "saddled" or restricted in what is acceptable to the hobby in what they do with
such a car - and they're right, there is, in sort of the same manner in which someone doesn't take an
original Duesenberg and does an "LS swap" on the thing.
Yikes...
It's precisely
because the car is so rare and desirable that such responsibility comes with it....
Cars like that are so valuable because the market says so - and the market says so for all of the usual
nostalgia and emotional reasons of wanting to see an example of
why the cars were so special back then,
to see them
as they were (hence the correct definition of the word
restore - "to make as new").
Their heritage is what makes them special, desirable and nostalgic and tugs all the heart strings of
pure fans of the marque - and having as many examples of what they were new for future generations
is where the responsibility comes in to play.
Original hemi's and six pack cars were rare new and they're rare as hell now. That makes them pretty
much
all candidates for being restored as much as possible in my opinion.
All that said, again mad props and respect for what and who you are and what you do from me.
It's your car and it ain't none of my business in the end. Just my opinion is all.
