I'll toss in my 2 cents.
This car represents what was done back in the day, a 10 year old car with a blower, sbp centerlines with bias plies....yoiks! i'll bet it handled great and was easy to drive then! The trend back then was to customize and modify, nobody really cared much for originality then, why are people so concerned about it now? It's the almighty dollar. While i agree with the fact that it would be probably worth more if it was returned to stock, and i surely wouldn't modify a rare car like yours if it were a survivor, it's not the case here.
I agree to do what you want and don't worry about it! The only thing that i would suggest is to make it safe and put the roll bar and the subframe connectors are a must even if you don't want to install them. BTW, i think that it was a law back in the early '80s to paint as many cars burgandy as you could! My brother painted his '71 440 six pack challenger that in '82 from curious yellow and chromed everything. That's back in the day when that was the thing to do. It took him a lot to undo it 15 years later when he changed his mind.
Food for thought my friend.
I really like your handle, pldOvr, it's a good one.:-D
Finally, welcome to the site!