Why keep original drivetrain?
Burning Brakes
Joined: Aug 2013
Posts: 1,231
Likes: 115
From: Yelm Wa
The person who is searching for an unmolested numbers matching car, is not the guy who is searching out restomods to convert back to original (there are enough original ones out there, to not have to hastle with converting one back).
It's obvious your heart and efforts are on the restomod route..therefore the importance of the original drivetrain is strictly monetary.
You have a potential buyer in doorgunner, the two of you should work this out, win/win.
Good luck.
It's obvious your heart and efforts are on the restomod route..therefore the importance of the original drivetrain is strictly monetary.
You have a potential buyer in doorgunner, the two of you should work this out, win/win.
Good luck.
Thread Starter
Pro
Joined: May 2013
Posts: 672
Likes: 31
From: Rapid City South Dakota
I very much appreciate all the input here. There was a wide variety of viewpoints, it seem everything was covered. Everyone have a Happy Thanksgiving, we are very fortunate to live in this country and have the resources to enjoy a great hobby. I'm going to carefully consider this all over the holiday.
2026 Loser of the Year
Joined: Sep 2013
Posts: 36,597
Likes: 7,046
From: New Or-leens Loo-z-anna
I very much appreciate all the input here. There was a wide variety of viewpoints, it seem everything was covered. Everyone have a Happy Thanksgiving, we are very fortunate to live in this country and have the resources to enjoy a great hobby. I'm going to carefully consider this all over the holiday.
That sums it up perfectly.....Happy Thanksgiving.....You all!
Thread Starter
Pro
Joined: May 2013
Posts: 672
Likes: 31
From: Rapid City South Dakota
My decison to sell, what's it worth?
After much thought I've decided to sell the original drivetrain. I just don't want it around taking up space and feel like it should get used and enjoyed by someone.
This was an expensive restomod, just not dropping in a big block and leaving everything else the same so I could say it's a big block. The IRS has an interesting story in itself, it has Henry's half shafts and Tom himself built the 12 bolt. I know, you say impossible, but the parts were in a crate for over 25 years. I've got probably 8-10k worth of parts and labor in the IRS alone, so it's not going back to stock.
The trans has a billet flywheel and scattershield, and the 496 has AFR heads. For these reasons it's too expensive to ever return to stock condition, and hopefully will be respected and desired for what I've done to her. The mere thought of selling to someone who wanted to return it to stock began to annoy me, it would be kind of insulting to me like I had bad taste or something! If I ever sell it, it will be someone who tells me "hey that's a bitchen' car!"
This was an expensive restomod, just not dropping in a big block and leaving everything else the same so I could say it's a big block. The IRS has an interesting story in itself, it has Henry's half shafts and Tom himself built the 12 bolt. I know, you say impossible, but the parts were in a crate for over 25 years. I've got probably 8-10k worth of parts and labor in the IRS alone, so it's not going back to stock.
The trans has a billet flywheel and scattershield, and the 496 has AFR heads. For these reasons it's too expensive to ever return to stock condition, and hopefully will be respected and desired for what I've done to her. The mere thought of selling to someone who wanted to return it to stock began to annoy me, it would be kind of insulting to me like I had bad taste or something! If I ever sell it, it will be someone who tells me "hey that's a bitchen' car!"
Thread Starter
Pro
Joined: May 2013
Posts: 672
Likes: 31
From: Rapid City South Dakota
After much thought I've decided to sell the original drivetrain. I just don't want it around taking up space and feel like it should get used and enjoyed by someone.
This was an expensive restomod, just not dropping in a big block and leaving everything else the same so I could say it's a big block. The IRS has an interesting story in itself, it has Henry's half shafts and Tom himself built the 12 bolt. I know, you say impossible, but the parts were in a crate for over 25 years. I've got probably 8-10k worth of parts and labor in the IRS alone, so it's not going back to stock.
The trans has a billet flywheel and scattershield, and the 496 has AFR heads. For these reasons it's too expensive to ever return to stock condition, and hopefully will be respected and desired for what I've done to her. The mere thought of selling to someone who wanted to return it to stock began to annoy me, it would be kind of insulting to me like I had bad taste or something! If I ever sell it, it will be someone who tells me "hey that's a bitchen' car!"
This was an expensive restomod, just not dropping in a big block and leaving everything else the same so I could say it's a big block. The IRS has an interesting story in itself, it has Henry's half shafts and Tom himself built the 12 bolt. I know, you say impossible, but the parts were in a crate for over 25 years. I've got probably 8-10k worth of parts and labor in the IRS alone, so it's not going back to stock.
The trans has a billet flywheel and scattershield, and the 496 has AFR heads. For these reasons it's too expensive to ever return to stock condition, and hopefully will be respected and desired for what I've done to her. The mere thought of selling to someone who wanted to return it to stock began to annoy me, it would be kind of insulting to me like I had bad taste or something! If I ever sell it, it will be someone who tells me "hey that's a bitchen' car!"
Melting Slicks
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 3,428
Likes: 5
From: Japan
I would have to think the original (If the motor's not been apart) engine and trans are worth around $1500; the best thing about a '69 300/350 is that bulletproof four-bolt block. As for the wisdom of keeping it OE vs. modding it as you have, a 350/300 car would generally be the best candidate for such activity because of its relative commonality to begin with, and those cars don't have the horsepower stock to beat the crap out of themselves either so they tend to be more structurally sound than high-HP cars...
I would say you've gone the right route by beefing up the rear, etc., else you're going to be chasing broken drivetrain parts whenever you stomp the pedal.
As yourself and most others have surmised here previously, choosing a base-model car to restomod was probably the best way to go. If you had done this to an LT1 you would have gotten beaten up pretty badly by now (and deservedly so, IMO
). Not to say no harm done, because every time another one of these treasures get cut up they're really just one step closer to the crusher-the 350/300's almost never come back from the dead.
Hopefully you did a nice clean job on it (pics??) and it will be kept that way for a long time....
I would say you've gone the right route by beefing up the rear, etc., else you're going to be chasing broken drivetrain parts whenever you stomp the pedal.
As yourself and most others have surmised here previously, choosing a base-model car to restomod was probably the best way to go. If you had done this to an LT1 you would have gotten beaten up pretty badly by now (and deservedly so, IMO
). Not to say no harm done, because every time another one of these treasures get cut up they're really just one step closer to the crusher-the 350/300's almost never come back from the dead.Hopefully you did a nice clean job on it (pics??) and it will be kept that way for a long time....
Thread Starter
Pro
Joined: May 2013
Posts: 672
Likes: 31
From: Rapid City South Dakota
I would have to think the original (If the motor's not been apart) engine and trans are worth around $1500; the best thing about a '69 300/350 is that bulletproof four-bolt block. As for the wisdom of keeping it OE vs. modding it as you have, a 350/300 car would generally be the best candidate for such activity because of its relative commonality to begin with, and those cars don't have the horsepower stock to beat the crap out of themselves either so they tend to be more structurally sound than high-HP cars...
I would say you've gone the right route by beefing up the rear, etc., else you're going to be chasing broken drivetrain parts whenever you stomp the pedal.
As yourself and most others have surmised here previously, choosing a base-model car to restomod was probably the best way to go. If you had done this to an LT1 you would have gotten beaten up pretty badly by now (and deservedly so, IMO). Not to say no harm done, because every time another one of these treasures get cut up they're really just one step closer to the crusher-the 350/300's almost never come back from the dead.
Hopefully you did a nice clean job on it (pics??) and it will be kept that way for a long time....
I would say you've gone the right route by beefing up the rear, etc., else you're going to be chasing broken drivetrain parts whenever you stomp the pedal.
As yourself and most others have surmised here previously, choosing a base-model car to restomod was probably the best way to go. If you had done this to an LT1 you would have gotten beaten up pretty badly by now (and deservedly so, IMO
). Not to say no harm done, because every time another one of these treasures get cut up they're really just one step closer to the crusher-the 350/300's almost never come back from the dead.Hopefully you did a nice clean job on it (pics??) and it will be kept that way for a long time....
As I started adding up the costs to really have a tight leak free and safe care, then new paint and interior, I couldn't justify the cost for the base model 300 hp. I mean it was looking like $25k to do it right, and then how much is it worth? Too slow to have a fun daily driver IMO, not really a show car. So I opted to spend another $20k and double the horsepower. That should do the trick...
Yes, I did do the car right, and I'll be picking up the car for paint and interior next week. Who knows, maybe I'll just take the body off the frame. Then I can get some great pics and I'll post them.
Thanks for the feedback.
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Verdad Gallardo
Safety Car
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 3,518
Likes: 37
Having it and putting it in the ad for sale might really help the sale. Doesn't make much sense for practical purposes but someone might see a real re-resale value in it for himself to just transfer the old stuff from your garage to his.
You see there are some people thinking both ways here so who knows when you go to sell it someone may really be jazzed on the idea of owning stuff that used to be on the car and pay more for it.