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What is more valuable, a car with it's original "skin" or sheet metal, but a replacement engine, trans, and rear, or a "firewalled" car with it's original "heart" or drive train? Which would you rather have? I know there are some who say "I would never own a rebody" and there are others that insist on the original, documented drive train. Some even accept only unrestored cars! But for most of us, these are available in such limited number as to be nearly unattainable. SO, would you buy that COPO with most of its original sheet metal but non-original motor, or would you buy the one with all replacement sheet metal ("rebody") but the original motor, trans, etc.??
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I'd put more of a priority/importance on having THE factory original matching drivetrain. That's the heart of the car and what contributes to the driving experience. That's what these SS and COPO specials are all about.
I've read the phrase here about "putting the tag and engine in a base 6-cylinder body....". Pretty much all of the time, the bodies weren't differentiated between on a COPO, SS, or plain low-optioned car. The shells all went through Fisher body, got welded up the same, painted the same, and then were put together. The bodies are the same, and the difference was in what's bolted to them for options.
Is a "rebody" less of a sin if the drivetrain was transferred to the shell of another COPO/SS/whatever than a body that wasn't originally built that way?
More rhetorical questions that no one will ever agree on. It's a shame the whole financial side distracts people from appreciating the art, machinery, and driving experience aspect of the cars. I thought about that today as I took my Nova out for a cruise. No matter what I did, I just wasn't able to read any numbers on the firewall while rowing that Hurst through the gears and feeling that big block push me back in the seat.
