Market for survivors...

[WILMASBOYL78]

Well..let's hope it doesn't come to this

-wilma

Originally Posted by RichSchmidt

I just wonder how long it will be until someone figures out how to fool the judges into thinking that a car is a super low miles (like double digit low) survivor when it is in fact a car that was restored to look like one. You know,like guys who would literally paint a car to have the correct MIL thickness of paint using original laquer,and would spray weak tea on the paper tags to make them look aged and salt brine onto restored bare metal parts to make them look like they have been exposed to the air for the last 50 years. Maybe melt down the grease pen sticks and mix in some brown with the color to make the color look aged. Real high level stuff. I once had a conversation with a collector of Hummel figurines and he said that the collector market is always capped at a certain point because the more something is worth,the more it is worth forging. When a collector item is cheap the knock offs are poorly made and easy to identify because to put the effort into an accurate reproduction would not yield enough profit. Once something becomes worth enough,it becomes worthwhile to create the entire process needed to properly reproduce something down to the microscopic details. If the survivor market goes too high there will come a point when someone will figure out how to fool the judges. Bribing previous owners to make false statements,staging fake pictures using outdated camera equipment and paper to create aged photos that tell a story that never happened. Hiring look a likes to pose as younger versions of the previous owners just to create the perfect back story etc. For a few million bucks it is worth someone doing it.

[Lee Stewart]

Originally Posted by WILMASBOYL78

Well..let's hope it doesn't come to this

-wilma

Unfortunately . . . it will. Just a question of time. It won't be that prevalent because the kinds of cars that would be worth the time, money and effort to fake are far and few between. Couple that with the risk of getting caught which can lead to serious jail time . . . someone will risk it if they already haven't.

Remember way back when it wasn't THAT important that a drive train was the original? Then as prices went up on those cars that had one what happened? DT components were restamped and presto . . . numbers matching DT! Now there is a distinction . . . numbers matching isn't enough anymore . . . now it has to be born with DT to get the big bucks.

I just have one question . . .

Who buys a brand new 1967 L71 Corvette Coupe and doesn't drive it?

[SBR]

Originally Posted by WILMASBOYL78

Well..let's hope it doesn't come to this

-wilma

It already has, most of the Bloomington Gold Benchmark and NCRS bowtie Corvettes from the 50/60s have been so heavily fluffed that I would hardly call them survivors. As someone once told me, they are restored to look old. There are exceptions but they are very few and far between.

[RPOLS3]

Originally Posted by SBR

It already has, most of the Bloomington Gold Benchmark and NCRS bowtie Corvettes from the 50/60s have been so heavily fluffed that I would hardly call them survivors. As someone once told me, they are restored to look old. There are exceptions but they are very few and far between.

I remember a pretty nice silver/black 67, 435 coupe that we took the body off (did not touch the body, paint, glass, or interior) and fluffed the chassis to make it look "old". Someone who knew what they were looking at could tell it was not untouched, but most run of the mill car show people had no clue. This was back in the 1989-90 timeframe. At the time I was in awe how it turned out as 99% of the work being done then was overly perfect restorations.

[SBR]

Originally Posted by RPOLS3

I remember a pretty nice silver/black 67, 435 coupe that we took the body off (did not touch the body, paint, glass, or interior) and fluffed the chassis to make it look "old". Someone who knew what they were looking at could tell it was not untouched, but most run of the mill car show people had no clue. This was back in the 1989-90 timeframe. At the time I was in awe how it turned out as 99% of the work being done then was overly perfect restorations.

I think I know the car that you are referring to.

On another note, the pictures that Steve posted of his children is absolutely priceless!

[RPOLS3]

Originally Posted by SBR

I think I know the car that you are referring to.

Always curious what happened to that car as I do not recall ever seeing it again after they took it to Bloomington that year. I think that was the year we had a bunch of cars in a big tent out in the showfield by the highway and a terrible storm came up and snapped several of the large wooden tent posts and miraculously none of the cars sustained any significant damage including that silver 435.

Sorry for the thread hi-jack but those were fun times and these discussions bring back great memories.

[SBR]

Originally Posted by RPOLS3

Always curious what happened to that car as I do not recall ever seeing it again after they took it to Bloomington that year. I think that was the year we had a bunch of cars in a big tent out in the showfield by the highway and a terrible storm came up and snapped several of the large wooden tent posts and miraculously none of the cars sustained any significant damage including that silver 435.

Sorry for the thread hi-jack but those were fun times and these discussions bring back great memories.

If it's the car the David B. did a "chassis rejuvenation" on then that car is owned by a collector in the east coast. It has side exhaust, red stripe tires with headrest seats.

[RPOLS3]

Originally Posted by SBR

If it's the car the David B. did a "chassis rejuvenation" on then that car is owned by a collector in the east coast. It has side exhaust, red stripe tires with headrest seats.

Sounds like the one - same guy own it now as back then?

Thanks!

[Big Block Bill]

Originally Posted by RPOLS3

I remember a pretty nice silver/black 67, 435 coupe that we took the body off (did not touch the body, paint, glass, or interior) and fluffed the chassis to make it look "old". Someone who knew what they were looking at could tell it was not untouched, but most run of the mill car show people had no clue. This was back in the 1989-90 timeframe. At the time I was in awe how it turned out as 99% of the work being done then was overly perfect restorations.

I believe the car you are talking about was owned by a Greg Donaldson. He found the car through David Burroughs. it went Survivor / Gold / Benchmark in 1992? If it was that car, I always remembered the de-lamination of the windshield, and thought to myself "Why don't they replace that?". Because it was "Original " to the car. It did have factory side pipes as well.

Bill