[Woj]

Mike,

The term "survivor" can cover a lot of ground. Mostly in the eye of the beholder I'd say. Many of my cars are survivors. However, some have had touch ups, but none have been blown apart and rebuild from the ground up. That is the starting point for me. Paint on these is usually not great if the cars had been driven or stored outside. I'd also say that a real survivor will have most, if not all, original components on the car.

The folks that do the Vintage Certification on survivor cars look at all aspects of the car. Paint, interior, drive train and all major components; giving a grade to each and every aspect of the car. In the end, the point total determines the current level (percentage) of originality. It is a sliding scale depending on each individual car. That of course depends on the historical use and care of the car.

I still have to tip my hat to Steve Shauger, Chris White and company in their efforts to Vintage Certify survivor cars. It actually gives an incentive to keep a car as original as possible. As the saying goes, they are only original once.

Not sure if this answers your question, but the Vintage Certification guys have done the most to quantify original cars outside of the Corvette world, which has done it for years.

Phil Woj.