I think this is the difference between hot rodders and vette guys. I consider myself a hot rodder who likes vette's. Vette guys think about value, matching numbers, what the General intended etc while I think what can I do to it to improve it? The Vette designs are amazing and most people would struggle to improve them but a few tweaks here and there is what is what creates individuality, I'm putting the early c3 front grills and lights in my '71 because they look better IMHO, original? No. Better? Yes. The '80-'82 roadster idea turns a car that I wouldn't buy over a chrome bumper car to a car that I would buy. I think people under estimate how much a modded car would be worth because if someone sees a car and they have to have it they pay good money for it...because it's unique. Do you have any more pics of the car mate?

 

Well said. My car is a 75 and they made verts that year. 99% of the people that look at my car have no idea that the car was a coupe. You have to really know vettes and what to look for to tell mine is a conversion. But the 80-82 vert is much more of a conversation piece. I appreciate original cars because it's not easy to make (or keep) a car completely like it rolled off the showroom floor. In the 80s I had a 67 with less than 40K miles on her. I loved everything about that car except one thing...I was scared to drive her. I had to sell that car for financial (divorce) reasons but when I bought my next one I purposely bought one that I wouldn't be scared to drive. I literally bought a piece of junk C3 that at the time was probably the worst year vette a person could buy. She was a clean canvas to me and my goal was to make her what I wanted to DRIVE. I went to work on her doing one project at a time and always trying to keep her driveable as much as I could. I've put over 200K miles on mine and a few weeks ago she was in her fourth accident. I had her in South Korea even in 2001 where she was totalled while parked. Had to fix her just enough to roll again to get her on the ship. Rebuilt her the rest of the way in the states. Her frame has been bent twice. She has had three different colors and three different engines and I drove her to work every day last week. It doesn't matter what she is worth to someone else because she is priceless to me and one day I hope my 3 year old son has as much fun driving her as I have.

 

Well put also! Mine's on it's third engine and second gearbox. I like to see nice original cars also that are driven, trailer queens are a big no no in my book, it's a car and is supposed to be driven. If you make your car into something that you love then someone else is going to feel the same way about it too. I often get people coming over to my car telling me how awesome it is, I parked outside a Ferrari dealership in Central London the other day and I had a crowd around my car and the F430 next to it was virtually ignored. I couldn't drive the car as hard if it was standard and I want it to go as well as it looks and sounds, so modding is the only option for me