Re: [AMC-List] AMCer's Opinions: Survivor/Vintage vs. Restored

[Tom Jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>]

On Sat, 19 Aug 2006, Brien Tourville wrote:

> I could crave to be of this 'niche'  -  puttering in a well
> lit - well equipped bay, listening to 'Alice in Chains'
> while pondering recasting NASH
> hood ornaments in Crystal glass for my List friends
> X-mass presents...... from the Original FactoryMolds ! ;)

Am I on your xmas list?

> To digress: 

Wow, longer post that mine :-)

But I agree w/you -- 101% restos used to have something like
SHOCK VALUE -- //I had no idea that could look this nice!!!//
-- but unfortunately in typical American fashion mind-numbing
excess took over and so many car shows have row after row
after row of identical immaculate restorations. Now it's all
microscopic 'but this bolt is from May 69, yours is from June'.

Actual originals are far, far, more interesting to me [but I
admit I probably am not the one to ask, my taste in cars runs to
the perverse]. And with the glut of shiny ones, might be worth,
in the long haul, just as much.

A five year old car, 30K miles, a small rash of poor factory
paint on the firewall and tattered engine stickers -- you'd sand
and spraybomb the rough spot, scrape that old paper off good. On
a 40 year old car, 30K miles, those are precious artifacts of
a bygone time, and people want 8-megalpixel photos of them.

A lot of us had these sorts of cars back when they were five year
old toys; that's when our attitude got set. Now that they're 40,
we see 'em still as 5, but they are not not not.


People not you with a different set of eyes will really
appreciate the patina; as John 'canary in the coal mine'
Mahoney points out, history will appreciate them too, but
that's hard to accomodate when it's YOU with YOUR car NOW.
It's a tough call when it's your car.

If you are gonna show against the big-buck restos, you better
have deep deep pockets! Or love to utterly obsess over extreme
perfection for years to come. Look at Dwayne Ashmead's car --
unbelievably beautiful and perfect. Is that you? It's sure not
me! I think it's a bit nuts -- but it's an admirable kind of
crazy, and what it takes to undertake extreme projects. I spent
some tim just staring at the chassis -- it's got this zen beauty,
it radiates weirdness. It's art. Amazing.

Preserved originals have a very subtle kind of beauty. Knowitall
weekend car show attendees walkin the aisles talking loudly
about cars they don't understand anyways won't get it. But it
will get more and more interesting as it gets older.

tomj

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