What constitutes restored?

[badjuju]

I recently came upon a 73 which has been garaged since 83, about 96k miles, great shape other than the brakes, a rust hole under the bat and the rear fuel pump.

 

If I went to a better set of front brakes and did some other slight mods, so long as it kept the stock look, would it still be considered a restoration process? I'm thinking a reupholstery kit for the seats and some stock looking rims, and that's about it.

[Chewievette]

Strictly by the book ( http://www.dictionary.com ) Restore means to return to original condition.

 

However there is enough varience in the definitions that if you look long enough you find this definition:

 

-return to its original or usable and functioning condition

 

Which can mean that replacing worn out old parts with newer better parts is acceptable. But, I wouldnt try pushing that one past a concours judge.

[waynekarnes]

when talking cars :

 

restored means : exactly as car left the factory. replacement parts ( including wiper blades ) are factory parts. some parts have date stamps on em. those parts must be within the time frame the vehicle was coming off the assembly plant. various oem ( original equip manufactures ) may have supplied parts to the factory. a restorer may use any of those parts for the restoration ( again, date stamped parts must fall within the period the car was still on the assembly line ).

 

dealer installed options are modifications.

 

when calling a car restored you can get by with calling it "restored with dealer added options ".

 

some people go buggy for restored cars with dealer installed options. for example: a manufacturer may have a ban on racing. no speed equipment was on car when left the factory. however the factory sold speed equipment through their dealers and warrantied em.

 

some of these dealer installed options can be very rare and desireable. making it more expensive than a 100% correct original restored car.

 

not right when some one offers up a restored 240z and in info says :

 

restored 72 240z, L-28 block, 5 speed, cd player, recaro buckets, mega squirt and turbo.

 

that's a modified car, not restored.

 

sticking to the strict true definition of a restored car, if you changed/ swapped out the hitachi am/fm for a clarion am/fm, cd player, car is no longer restored.

 

this is from the hard core, corvette, porsche, rolls royce, big buck cars perspective. true restorations. where they use a mirror to check the frame for chalk or grease marks made by the factory workers indicating items had been checked off as being installed.

 

however, even the low buck high volume cars such as the vw bug restorers are now seeing it this way. if not as left the factory it is not to be called a restoration.

 

there is a term among restorers to indicate really nice modified cars :

 

rodification or restorification . basically what most of us do.

 

cars brought back to life with modern upgrades ie: performance and safety oriented modifications.