Odometer readout, do you leave it alone or reset it to zero

[Lord Warlock]

Which Is more correct, to have the odometer reading reflecting the miles on the body, or the miles on the motor? 

My Gauge cluster is yellowing in places (speedo and smaller gauges) and my tic toc tach will need a rebuild, so I feel like my gauges will be needing a rebuild in the future at a minimum, or a total restoration.  I'm somewhat in a quandary, My RT SE had 75k on it when I got it, and I drove it to about 113k before I parked it for good.  However, before I parked it, I had swapped the motor in it twice, once with a 383 we thought was a 440 till I got it in and the distributor was too tall.  A year or so later I found a wrecked 69 Charger RT that I took the motor and transmission out of (it was a matching number car that hit a telephone pole haaaard, snapped pole in half but twisted the crap out of the car.  The engine in my car has 69,232 miles, as does the transmission.  I took the original cluster out with the engine but it was in worse shape than mine was, and I donated it to a friend who was rebuilding another B body. 

Which mileage should I put on the odometer?  should I leave it stock to the body, or to the engine?  I would think the motor would be more important to keep track of correct mileage, the body has been redone, repainted, updated,  it'd be a shame not to update the gauges as well.  Do most people just reset it to zero after a restoration, or do they leave the miles as correct? 

[lukedukem]

When I got my car the engine needed to be gone through. Then I needed to redo the gauge cluster as well. I reset mine to zero while I was in there. With yours, if it where me, I'd roll it to match the miles on the engine. It would be easier for me to keep track of maintenance for it that way and how many actuall miles are on the motor too. If not you'll be doing some math, easy math, but still. Plus the body is redone. People mainly ask "how many miles you got On this thing " meaning the motor and not body. Or meaning the restoration as a whole.

Luke

[tan top]

even though I striped my charger down to the very last nut bolt clip screw etc ,  I only replaced what I really had to when doing the resto ,& used as much of the original parts as I could ,   I did not want to make it look too new  , too false , perhaps that's  not the correct word , (  show room fresh OEM &  over restored looking better than new are awesome   ) but that's not the look I was after with mine .  
  my gauges are yellowing & discoloured , but   left them , along with the mileage on the odometer left as is ,  if  I would have replaced everything on my charger with as much new repop & nos parts as I could fine  , just for the sake of replacing with new  , then I would have restored the gauge faces too ,  if that makes sence  

[Ghoste]

I think it's up to you, they've largely become a meaningless indication of a cars condition anyway.  At auction we see guys bring cars in all the time and after their restoration have reset the odometer to zero and want the car sold as having only 20 miles (or whatever) on it.  No, it's had 20 miles when it was reset but the car has been around much longer and as soon as you promote it with a specific mileage some yoyo will buy it and then kick it when he realizes it didn't mean 20 original miles.
But that's an aside, its become so common as I said that I think you are okay to put it where you want.  No one can usually prove how many times the thing has been around anyway.  A buddy of mine unhooked his when it went around and hit 428 in his Fairlane.  Me personally, I'm just going to keep letting mine roll up whatever.

[lukedukem]

Agree with Ghoste on that first sentence. I reset mine because I felt it was a new beginning to the car. The PO had hacked the wiring and mistreated the car. I felt I had gave it new life so to speak.

Luke

[Lord Warlock]

Used to care about low mileage examples of the breed if they had less than 70k miles it was considered low mileage, mine isn't truthfully low miles, but does only have 113k on it, but the motor had less than 70k so thought it may be better to adjust the miles downward.  Mine isn't over restored, its been built up to be a driver again, used mostly original bolts and nuts, or ones from the parts car, but wouldn't know if I got them all on correct or not, don't consider it to be a nut and bolt restoration anyway.  In any case the car isn't going to be entered into shows to earn trophies, just entered to show off that it still exists after all these years.

[green69rt]

I think it's up to you, they've largely become a meaningless indication of a cars condition anyway.  At auction we see guys bring cars in all the time and after their restoration have reset the odometer to zero and want the car sold as having only 20 miles (or whatever) on it.  No, it's had 20 miles when it was reset but the car has been around much longer and as soon as you promote it with a specific mileage some yoyo will buy it and then kick it when he realizes it didn't mean 20 original miles.
But that's an aside, its become so common as I said that I think you are okay to put it where you want.  No one can usually prove how many times the thing has been around anyway.  A buddy of mine unhooked his when it went around and hit 428 in his Fairlane.  Me personally, I'm just going to keep letting mine roll up whatever.

I think I have to agree with GHOST.  A 45 year old car does not have a meaningful speedo reading.  There may be some cars out there with original miles on the speedo but if it doesn't have bulletproof documentation then it's not worth much.  My    Do what you want....

[Dmichels]

I thought messing with the odometer is a crime at the state level or maybe even a felony. I do not think they care whether or not you meant to deceive people.

[Lord Warlock]

It used to be illegal to mess with them, but believe the rules are different now, especially on cars that have been rebuilt, some used car dealers even admitted that it was possible to swap out instrument clusters, they just had to file a form with the state. This doesn't apply to what I was thinking of doing.  To be honest, 113k isn't that high for mileage on a 50 year old car, but I'd prefer to show it with the original miles showing on the motor, you wouldn't be able to tell by looking at the car itself.  Certainly doesn't look like a 40 year old car now.

[Ghoste]

It's probably still illegal but fewer people care in the case of classics, change the reading in your 3 year old Camry and see if that flies.

[b5blue]

In Florida older cars are assumed the mileage is incorrect and it's noted on the title. Unless you provide some form documentation (?) to combat it it gets labeled "in excess" over a certain age.