Are you a purist?

Let me start out by saying that what follows is my own personal opinion. I understand that others have different opinions and goals for their car and I respect everyone's views. We're all saving classic Mopars from the crusher in our own way and that's what's important.

I'm trying to stay fairly close to original on my restoration.

That said, I have helped myself to a few factory upgrades that could have been ordered on the car when new, such as factory disc brakes, a factory 4 bbl setup, and a sure grip. The previous owner added power steering too.

Then there are a few concessions to modern technology. I upgraded the distributor and ignition to an HEI setup. Other than the little chrome box on the back of the distributor, it looks stock. I'm also seriously considering a later model transmission with a lockup converter. But as much as I would love an overdrive, I will not cut the cross member or floor to make one fit.

Finally, I'll have the factory AM radio in the dash and working through the original center mounted speaker, but I'll also have a modern 4 speaker stereo hidden from view.

That's the extent of my deviations from factory. The car will otherwise be stock. And all my deviations from stock can be undone by bolting the original parts back onto the car.

My feeling is this. If you want a car that's faster, or more efficient, or stops better, or is safer, or whatever, you can pickup any number of used cars that will do all those things better and cost less.

You could spend a small fortune building a modern pro-touring A-body, but 20 years from now, it won't be the latest technology anymore and it will go down in value. On the other hand, if you restore your A-body to original, 20 years from now, it will still be original, but it will be more rare and it will have gone up in value.