[SS427]

On Friday, I received a call from another sYc BB member asking my opinion on this very question since I had been restoring cars for 26 years. I have done many cars over those years though I can honestly say I have never rebodied a car. I have however, had to replace a lot of sheet metal. 70 copo brought up a point that was the same point brought up with the sYc member that contacted me.

I was recently involved with a complete restoration of a WWII P-51C fighter that had been recovered from the basement of a Vo Tech school. The wings had been cut off with a cut off saw so they could move it there. Much of the aluminum skin was either too badly corroded or damaged to salvage. The long story short, this airplane received a 10 year plus restoration at a cost far exceeding $2,000,000. The final outcome was to be one of two currently flying P51B's in the world and carries the paint scheme of the Tuskegee airman on it's skin. For those of you who don't know, this was an all black squadron who protected our B-17 pilots overseas. While in their care, not a single B-17 was lost to enemy fire.

When I am at an airshow with the aircraft, there is nothing that can compare to seeing a 70 plus year old man break down in tears upon seeing the plane and completing coming unglued when offered a ride in the back seat. I give my personal qaurantee not one of these men gives a rats a$$ about what original sheet metal is on that airplane only that it brought back some very fond and deeply buried memories and they finally receive some of the gratification they have longed for. They care nothing about the current monetary value of the plane but only it's historic value. This airplane is valued at many millions of dollars today regardless to the fact that very little of it is original besides it's airframe certification and identification numbers and some misc hardware.

Some of our cars have the same effect on people at shows that these aircraft do. I have had many people come up to me over the years and thank me for sharing a piece of their childhood with them. They cared little about it's originality only the significant role it played in their life.

The moral of this story is that I do not condone nor do I participate in rebodying and/or restamping a car but would not feel much differently about a car if I knew the facts. Yes the car would be worth less but are these pieces of history not worth saving as at least a replica and not to bury those memories along with the car. This is just one man's opinion.