Restoration vs Modification

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Longgone

Longgone

John/68 Barracuda & Dart
Joined
Jul 12, 2005
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Location
Newport News, Virginia
How many of you have simply restored your cars to stock and how many have focused on modification. There seems to be a lot more people souping up their Mopars than focusing on taking them back to factory specs.?
 
Stock is important if you have a very rare car, like a Hemi Cuda convertible, as any mods you make drastically drop its worth, but most people here seem to want to run 'em like they were made for, namely humiliating Chevys and Fords, and modding helps you do that.
Personally, I detest trailer queens. Either beat on it or put it in a museum.
 
When Chrysler built the 340, I think they were planning on owners to add headers,intakes,etc. I love stock bodies, with performance improvements like the early 70's. I even like the really retro jackedwayuptracbarsidepipesnorklescoopedfrenchy machines. They remind me of high school, and always bring a smile to my ugly mug. Ahh, the good old days.
 
I always like modified cars. None of my cars were ever stock and never looked it. Now I find myself with a car thats torn apart, cut up and half way to being built in to a race car when I realized I live no weres near a track and if I did 2 children and 2 job leaves me little time to work on a car let alone race one.

That leaves me with 2 choices. spend a lot of time and money hunting down all that parts I took off and sold, pulss all the body work need to put the car back to some what stock or find a new project to build.

So if anyone wants to trade a cut up 69 Barracuda for a clean 70-72 Dart let me know.

Modified cars are fine just dont get to carried away that you regret it later.
 
On my cuda fast back I'm doing a little of both... leaning a little more at the stock aspect of it. I've spent aver $300 for new brake drums, $170 for lug nuts (20 right hand and 10 left hand for when i find the left hand studs) and $38 for 3 sets of the impossible to find lower return spring for 10" drums. The lug nuts are the long ones for the stock hubcaps. I'm a sticker for stock BUT I don't see any problem with mods that can be reversed. I'll be using black polygraphite bushings andpowder coted susention so it'll stock.
When i'm done with the 'cuda my next project will be a differant story...'68 HEMI Charger R/T clone with an all aluminum engine (powder coated so at a glance it'll look stock).
Adam
'99 Ram 1500
'99 Plymouth Neon
'68 Cuda 340 S fastback
'56 Coronet
'72 340 with out a home
1 wife that's not happy with all my stuff
 
I prefer the modified cars unless it's something very rare, like a few of our members have here. When I go to shows I spend alot more time looking at the modified cars than the stock restored ones.
AdamR makes a good point, you can go overboard in the modifications to the point where it's not a very good daily driver anymore. I battle with this often.
But I've also seen people driving cars with multi carb tunnel rammed big blocks, 590 lift solid lifter cams, 11.5 to 1 pistons, 3500-4000 stall converters as there daily driver through rain or shine,they just had to have a hoodscoop to cover the carbs up, but these guys are diehards and few and far between.
Adam I'd hate to see you sell your car, I love the look of that thing. What do you REALLY need to get it more streetable? With two kids you need a backseat if you ever want to take everyone for a ride, but if you have another car that's not really that important.
Your motor was pretty radical if I remember correctly, can you just drop in a smaller cam and some lower compression pistons to stay off the octane booster? or you could always think about trading someone for a rebuilt and more streetable 340-360, maybe even a mild stroker small block.
Let us know what you really need to make it streetable or what the problems are you running into with your current setup and maybe someone here will have some cheap ideas for ya.
Good luck with it, but think twice about getting rid of it!
 
The motors going to get a smaller cam. something around 240 @.050" (solid) instead of the 265 @.050" thats in it. Im also going to swap the Victor intake for a RPM.
The compression is 11:1 so I have to mix 110 in. I can always go with a thinker head gasket though.
My main problem is the fuel cell and exhaust that stink the car up and lack of heat. All this cam be fixed but its going to take a lot of parts hunting. I just want something that looks 90% stock but still goes like hell.
 
hey Adamr dont worry about that cam think you can make that car streetable enough to drive it alot big tire cars with powerfull smallblocks can bee driven on the street alot more than many people believe until they have tried it!
my engine has a 268degres at.050lift and .630lift rollercam 11-0 comprsion. it has a fuelcell and loud 3"flowmasters big singelplane manifold it has lots of hardblock in the coolant passages to soo try it on the street it works pretty good to drive too work with ;) dont give up too quick on it!
 
I tend to like the modified stuff myself.I just don't like the idea of having a car that hundreds if not thousands of other people have of had at one time.I think cars are reflection of who you are,and i'm not a clone of anyone else so i want mine the way i want it.Don't get me wrong though..There is something to be said about restored cars.If want to have a car for value or rarety reasons more power to ya.But i never plan on selling mine(knock on wood)so value is not anissue to me.Plus i don't think prices for 68 318 auto barracuda is going to go through the roof anytime soon.lol.. But again that's just my $0.02
 
AdamR, you've fallen into the trap that I've tried hard to stay out of most of my life - the idea of a street / STRIP car that ends up being a strip car, with no strip available. :) Back in the mid 70's I had a 68 'Cuda coupe that I went too far with and ended up selling it because it was fun only part of the time. The rest of the time it was a pain in the a$$ to row that thing around. Since then I've kept things on the STREET side, and I'm enjoying driving my cars a lot more now. I try to keep the cars looking fairly stock, but put a lot of time and effort into the engine build and tuning, suspension mods, etc. It's great when you KNOW you can jump in, hit the key, and not have to worry about overheating, gas guzzling, 4:56 gears, speed bumps, etc. Walk softly and carry a big stick. \\:D/
 
I like resto cars as well as hot rodded/souped up cars. It's all good for me. When I go to a show, I like to see varity.

I myself like to mess around with them. How many '73, 340 4spd Cudas are there? Is it rare being a 1 year extrenal balanced 340? Low number production car as next to a 383 or 318 73 cuda.
I don't know and I don't care. I got one and I'm haveing fun with it. Same goes for my Magnum and Duster.
I have respect for the restorer. Mounds of hard work and pain in the butt care from build to storage. I'll not disrespect them for the choice, but I can not take any amount of bagering for mine. For those who do not like my fat tires and headers, kiss my butt!
You wanna restore your car? God bless you and your effort. Hope you do well. But it aint happening at my garage. So get'em before I do. LOL
 
Personally if I had to keep one factory stock I wouldn't own it and I tell people that when I get a hard time about the mods I have made. Even if I could afford to own an orignal 71 hemi 4spd Barracuda I would build one before I would purchase an original and save myself a million bucks and have a car that I could drive and enjoy.

I certainly can appreciate the amount of work that goes into doing a concours restoration but I am not impressed unless the owner is a Joe Blow that did the vast majority of the work themselves. I am also not impressed with a super low mileage survivor car, that just tells me that someone bought and didn't like it so they didn't use it and just never got around to getting rid of it.

I tell you what does impress me; That's someone that purchased a car 40 years ago, used it as a daily driver for years and still owns it today plus still drives it.
 
rumblefish360 said:
...I don't care. I got one and I'm haveing fun with it...
Click to expand...

:D What he said!

As has been said, I respect the work that goes into a resto, but I don't think these cars (or Corvettes or Cobra Jet Mustangs, etc.) were built to sit in a garage and look purdy...

They were built to go fast! And as the shop teachers say, you should always use a tool for its intended purpose!

Jay
 
I prefer to have somewhat of a stock appearance, but full stock is boring, unless it is a survivor. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't cut up or totally modify a good restoration, but a set of wheels and a nice exhaust to personalize it would definitly be in order.

I guess that is why I don't shy away from the "project" cars. That way I don't feel guilty for cutting up a nice one.
 
it ALL depends on YOU!!!!!!....like i told this BIG MOUTH one time,he was tearing my car apart and i said"LISTEN,WHOS CAR IS IT??"...he said "yours!!"...then i said "SHUT-UP AND LEAVE ME ALONE!!!"....."I DIDNT BUILD IT FOR YOU,I BUILT IT FOR ME!!!"
he left!!! :-({|=

now,if its a numbers matching car and gonna be worth something someday then i would leave it stock but if its like my car,a /6 car,MODIFY IT BABY!!! :thumbrig:
 
Like I told my dad once while he was polishing his HEMI superbee one day at a car show, "I sure am glad I have a car that ain't worth crap compared to your car, Cause I can go beat on the thing and have one hell of a time with it without worrying about destroying the value of the car.

He sold the bee last february and bought a RR. September we went racing together! :)
 
I lean to the restro side a good bit. I enjoy the research and the hunting for parts and such. But I am building a car to drive and I want to enjoy driving it. My 67 GT Dart is going back quite stock in appearance (so far anyway) because I like the looks of the factory car. The 273 is swapped for a 340 with a 273 appearance as far as possible. At this point in time, I am considering "Viper Red" for the body and a set of rally wheels.

Personally, I don't like the modified bodies as well, but they were not built for me. The folks that build them that way like it -- why would they want to build it any other way? That's the neat thing about this, a great varity with respect for each other and the cars each of us build.

Brian
 
i don't like body mods myself. i don't think engine mods or any mods are bad as long as you can put it back to stock at any given time! to me this is important. watch some auctions. stock always brings more than modified, but have fun with it what ever you do....that is the key! :thumbup:
 
I am by no means looking to build a resto. Just a fun cruiser that goes a lot better then it looks and that I can still throw the wife and kids in. Something Bretts Cuda is what Im after.
 
I personally prefer a car that I could drive every day without being scared to have a scratch on it. Resto is good to a certain point for me, when it reach the point where you don't even take it when it rain...that is way to far for me. I really don't like the trailer queen... But when a car is modified, and you can only know it with the timeslip or by the way it idle...that put a big smile in my face. The sleeper style, that is what I want to do...damn mine is a 4 doors, so I really don't care about match number... :grin:
 
On the note of rare cars being unmodified for the msot part the technology that went into our cars 30 some years ago was the standard of the time. But compared to today theres so much better. Tasteful mods and a dose of new technology is always good. Some you can even hide. None of the resto guys run an old mechanical voltage regulator. It all solid state in an old box.

Same as tires none of us run Bias plys anymore except the hardcore resto guys. But pretty much any body mod looks wrong.. shaved door handles and stuff jsut doesn't look right on any muscle car.
 
It looks like most everyone likes at least a touch of go-fast or modern technology which brings up a new category, the resto-mod which I tend to lean to. The wolf in sheeps clothing!
 
If you are going to drive your car, why not bring it up to date. The technoligy we have now to give us more power, better handling, better stopping power, and comfort is so much surpassed when these cars were built. I drive the hell out of mine, I would never modify the physical attributes of my car, but performance wise; only the best.
 
I admire the guys that restore but I wouldn't be able to come up with the money to do it in the first place, and if i did the car would be in the house nice and warm and the kids would be in the shed :iconbigg:

Good investment, no doubt on that, and both resto and mods are just as important.

The resto to show the chevy and ford guys what a real car looks like and the modded to show em what they go like.

73 dart and the only thing that will be left is the body to keep the flies outta my teeth
 
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