Stock or Custom?

I was just curious how many members here modify thier cars in non mechanical ways vs. those who restore them to the factory original condition vs. those who just leave them the way they bought them? (i bought mine with all the body work done)

I have a 69 350/350 convertible with the original engine still in it. I am trying to keep the car as original as possible.

My 1981 Covette is staying stock as long as I own it.
Eric

It all depends on what you want. Mine was too far away from being all original so I wanted to put my personal stamp on it. All original cars are great and can probably get more when sold, but I still like looking at customs a lot more.

My '69 convertible 427/435 is all numbers matching and original...outside of replacing the bias ply F70-15 with modern radial tires, it's staying original.

My '78 Silver Anniversary is a bit different story. When I bought it, it was in very good to excellent overall shape, and about the only thing missing was the AIR pump under the hood. The interior was leather and cloth, but with some wear. During the hurricane last fall the interior got drenched, so I had it recarpeted and new seat upholstery, but all leather as no original style with the cloth inserts was available, and I replaced the vinyl/cloth door panels with all vinyl to match the new seat upholstery.

So now the car looks as if it's original, though not anymore, and I won't try and represent it as such. Since it's not, I removed the rest of the EGR system, installed an Edelbrock Performer intake manifold, upgraded the HEI distributor with Pertronix components, and installed a true dual exhaust system. The car runs fantastic and also has an excellent Alpine CD/stereo installed as well. I love how the car runs and the only thing yet to do, but will be done in the coming weeks is new weatherstripping.

Each car is great in its own way, and my goals for each are different. I love this hobby!

Mine came basically stock with two or three (known) modifications. It has 79+ style fiberglass bumpers on. I don't like the way that they look on the car so when they get damaged they're gone, but since cosmetics are far less important to me than driving, they'll need to get cracked parking or something stupid to get removed. The other cosmetic mod is the bubble tail-lights. I'm kinda ambivalent about them, and last I checked it was $240 to get used taillights that are "correct" so skip that switch back.

New air cleaner without PCV.
Tru-Dual with (now) Hooker Super-Comp Headers.

Love the headers and the exhaust, the PCV might get re-installed, but again...later.

Basically, I feel that motor mods are far more important than cosmetic, so my car'll be getting more motor mods than cosmetics! Really though its staying as I bought it.

OOOO....one cosmetic mod I really want to do is powder coat/pain the entire engine bay a color that compliments the exterior, so white body w/gold pinstriping and white underhood with gold pinstriping on valvecovers and such. I think it would look really hot!

Scot

Mine needs a lot, and some things are missing. So it will be mostly stock, but there will be some modifications. Mostly mechanical. I am considering a slight custom color scheme involving some striping. Maybe not. It won't be the orginal color.

mine looks stock but when im done with it nothing under neith it will be stock. sorry but im to stupid to put a picture up

You'll find a lot of custom chat in the Mako Shark Discussion forum.

"The Toy" is mostly original and I intend to keep it that way.

The more things I fix, The less I care about it being original. To many things to keep track of and still have fun for a car with over 140,000 miles on it.