Fake Yenko Beats Real Yenko in show

[RichSchmidt]

Of course these arent exact numbers,but based on what is available in the"restorable" marketplace,and what I have seen coming up on the marketplace since the late 80's,this seems to be the trend.There are many cars out there that have been sheltered since the muscle car boom of the 80's,and just how many of these are bonafide originals with minor restorations compared to reconstructions of totally destroyed cars,will always be unclear.What we do know is that even by tracking the progress of many of the cars belonging to members of this forum and cars they post about,we are seeing that pretty much anything with pedigree is considred restorable no matter how bad the condition.Add that to the tons of legit"junk" that shows up on Ebay and in car trader rags,and you can see how the credibility of resored cars could be called into question.When top dollar is being spent to buy cars where the entire body is broken in half,the drivetrain is missing and there is no title present,just becuase the cowl tag lists the car as a bigblock convertable or some other rare find,you have be realistic about what we are offering.How about that ZL1 Camaro that claimed to have the original body including the tail panel despite the fact that the entire rear clip was cut out and replaced with a donor car and the rear tail panel was reattached.I am sure it is a nice car nonetheless,but if an insurance company were paying to fix that kind of damage,you can bet the car would have a salvage title when it was done.Somebody will eventually buy that car and if they werent told otherwise,they would belive that the entire rear structure of that car was the same rear structure that was under it when it was a new ZL1 back in 1969,yet the rear clip of that car could actually have been from under the bck of any 6 cyl grocery getter.In the meantime though,owners of such cars will bash those who simply take rust free base models and dress them up to look like a more desirable version.Lets face it,we are talking about a hobby where guys will casually mention that a car is a "rebody",despite the fact that the construction of such a vehicle is in totaly violation of federal laws.With the introduction of entire new body shells for some muscle cars,we are going to have to look over our shoulders even more since that entire situation attracts more potential for fraud.

I was just venting a bit on those who have such a problem with"tribute" cars,and their value.They compare them to a "tribute band",but in reality some of these legit cars would be as similar to seeing a real band as would it be to see a guy up on stage claiming to be a famous performer because he now has a vital organ transplanted out of this famouns person's dead body.Sure there may be a little bit of that old celebrity up there,but is having their kidney really make you what they are?Thats what it is when you rebody a car then restamp a non orginal engine for it,then throw a ton of repop parts on it.This stuff doesnt bother the purists as much as some guy using original parts to make a bogus car for his own enjoyment.What a load.