08-22-2019, 10:50 AM
(08-20-2019, 03:57 AM)Mister 4x4 Wrote: I think there are certain stages in life where certain things appeal.Awesome story! I agree. I will try to keep things within reasonable limits, but at the end of the day i gotta live with it! I think I will skip the bag trick.
For instance, when I was 20 and had just bought my first car - an '82 Mustang, and I had all sorts of plans on how I was going to customize it to my liking. One of the things I wanted to address was the paint - it was a factory 'desert beige' color, and I never seemed to have enough money to get it repainted to a color more my liking. Then I traded it in on a 4x4 Nissan truck after I returned from overseas duty (and it had been stored).
Fast forward to 9 years ago (!) when I first bought my '71 Mach 1, and I had some plans for customizing it as well, albeit the things I had planned were non-cosmetic in nature. I wanted my Mach 1 to appear to be pretty much stock with some period-correct mods (hence the Cragars, louvers, etc.). I'd also wanted the full package, with stripes, spoilers, etc., that could have been ordered for the car. But as I went along, I noticed that literally EVERYBODY throws on stripes, spoilers, Magnums, Mach 1 and Ram-Air stickers, etc., whether the car came with them or not. I'm not that guy, so I lost interest in that fairly quickly.
Initially, I wasn't sure of what color I wanted to go with - I'm a big fan of the metallic cherry reds on both my '12 Ram and '15 Camaro, but I also like the grays... and the '71 Mach 1 I fell in love with as a kid was Grabber Yellow. Big decision to make - paint color is a huge thing that is pretty final, after all. But then I looked up the paint code on the door sticker, and saw the color on the transmission tunnel when I removed the carpet - OK, back to the original Light Pewter it is.
Shortly after I'd gotten it painted, I'd considered moving forward with the stripes & spoilers additions, but then noticed hardly any "no stripes or spoilers" cars being seen anywhere. I decided to stick with mine as it appeared from the factory (with the period-correct mods I mentioned earlier, of course).
At some point in my life, I'm sure I'll have the idea of putting the stock 'pizza cutter' tires and sport caps back on, in the name of putting it back to original... but mine will never be original - I had to rebuild/repair/replace too many things for that to be even considered anymore. I guess we'll just have to wait and see on that one.
I've never been a purist, nor huge fan of the more radical customizers (Foose, @ss Monkey, et al), but rather something more in-between. I do believe in building your car how you want it - it's yours, after all. But I do think there are certain cirumstances where someone would want to consider preserving a car, rather than customizing, but that's primarily in the case of a rare, collectible, or valuable car. Mine's an H-Code: not particularly rare, collectible, or even valuable (even though it's numbers-matching), so I see a blank canvas.
Photoshop can be your friend here - I know the car I modeled mine on was originally Grabber Lime, but I Photoshopped a picture to make it look more like a light pewter colored car. If you have Photoshop skills (or know a buddy who might), grab some pics of your car, find some samples of the colors you're after, and see how they look before committing to something. You might be surprised and what you come up with.
The guys [as always] have offered up solid and sound advice, but at the end of the day it's your car - you'll need to decide what direction to go.
Thanks for your insight. -Jon