I don't condone rebodies but I still have never had two questions answered.
1) Someone finds a complete ZL-1 car with a
completely destroyed body. Should that car be parted out or rebuilt using a donor body and retain some of American muscles greatest history or should the car be crushed.
2) I recently restored a 1970 SS396 Chevelle convertible. I refused to put a donor body under it and instead restored the car with all new body parts. The
only original parts to this car are portions of the firewall and the rear seat divider. This boardered on stupidity and cost the customer almost $20k in parts and labor. However, the car was saved and is now a beautiful car. Had I rebodied it, I do not feel I would have been trying to pass something off as fake as the car was fully documented. I agree that a rebody is not the same car that came off the assembly line but the same can be said about this car today. However, should this complete car have been scrapped instead of saving some history?
Putting myself in the shoes of a buyer, I am more inclined to buy a car with a perfect original body as opposed to one that has had every piece of sheetmetal replaced.
Some of you recall the story of the P-51B that I helped restore several years ago. Virtually every piece of metal was replaced on that airplane save for some hardware and the government ID tag. However, the airplane was once again made airworthy and to the delight of thousands of war veterans and kids alike. Unfortunately due to a mechanical failure, the airplane crashed and killed my friend. It is once again being completely rebuilt from scratch and will be airborne soon as a tribute to the pilot, veterans and enthusiasts. This is twice that this airplane has been reborn instead of scrapped. I don't think the vast majority of people could care less when they see that airplane fly overhead. I don't have nor may any of us ever have an answer to these questions.
Rick