1970 Plymouth Duster 340

Wow you guys are mean ! Just kidding really, but the funny thing is I saw this car on Ebay too and also had some reservations about it. Just my 2-cents on some stuff, mostly just yapping here, and all these comments answered a lot of questions I've had and I learned some new stuff that will help with my '70 Duster 340 "concourse" restoration. (I use the term loosely)

I guess now I know that my car did not come with the chrome exhaust tips. Cool that'll save me a little cash.
The painted undercoating in the trunk is "correct", at least it's exactly what my car had as well (my car was a mess but was completely original and unmolested).
I concur on the Valiant emblem along with the Duster 340 tape, however mine also has the cool "V8" nameplate on the fenders.
I also always wondered about the taillight cover things. Mine did not have then but I've seen many 70's listed that do.
Mine is a Hamtranck N95 car and it also has the vent tube thing in the trunk. Thanks for letting me know about the 2-hose breather...didn't know that (mine was missing all of the top-end motor stuff when I got it).
I didn't know about the orange-painted bypass hose. learned another good thing.
What's wrong with the trim-rings? My guess is they should be "flatter" and satin? Is that what I should look for for mine ?
Also I think I'm correct in noticing what I think is a wildly incorrect undercoating beneath the car. My understanding is that it should be primer with yellow overspray. This appears to be all black undercoat.

And now for my editorial...Like someone else said, if the buyer and the seller are both happy then good for them both. Seeing the ad for this car made me even prouder that I decided to tackle my project myself instead of buying a turn-key car. No offense to the professional restorers or their customers at all but IMO there's no better feeling than doing something yourself. Plus, in most cases with my project I was displeased with the service and results that I got with stuff that I absolutely HAD to sub-out. It seems this guy paid a pro restorer 65k or something to do this car. We in the FABO community feel that the seller misrepresented some stuff about the car. Maybe it was the restorer who led the seller astray by assuring him that the car was done "correctly" and that's why the ad was listed that way. Maybe the buyer didn't do his research and got a car he thought was identical to when it rolled off the assembly line. Maybe he just loves the car and could care less if it's correct or not. We don't know.
I do know that I will never do a "correct" restoration again. I don't regret it at all but I now know just how time-consuming it all is to do the research (which 9/10 of the time proves inconclusive anyhow) then to have to try to reproduce all of the markings and stuff that you learned about in the research, only to be nit-picked and challenged about things that probably cannot be proven anyhow.
As for me, I'm gonna do the best I can to do my Duster "correctly" but only to the extent that makes me happy, since in the end it's MY CAR. For example I love that I still have the thumbwheel AM radio in the dash but If someone wants to bash me for putting a pair of 6x9's beneath a "factory" package shelf and mounting an unseen power amp under the seat so that I can crank some tunes from my ipod then "oh well". I really don't care. Another thing we need to remember is that we at FABO are a unique community. "Normal" people don't know about things like the above-mentioned undercoating scheme. Almost everyone who decides to peer underneath my car at a local show will think "what the heck is this guy thinking with the overspray everywhere". We know that maybe it's supposed to be that way but most folks don't.
I don't really have a point to make here, I just wanted to sound-off and hopefully stimulate some more conversation from other readers. I for one could not be happier that this car sold high since I know mine is gonna be even nicer. Mine was never intended to be a financial investment however, rather an investment in future satisfaction, notoriety, and FUN for me.
Thanks for listening. You can learn more about my project at http://www.MitchAmatrudo.com/duster.htm