restomods vs restorations

[cbrestorations]

i personally feel if the car was a true r/t then leave it original to preserve the original muscle cars but if its a base model then free game...modern engine, modern suspension, big brakes and more comfortable interior. i know i could and have built restomods that have sold for way more profit vs just doing a restoration. waaaaay more fun to drive and economy was way x2 if not x3 better in cases. even with better economy they are still faster/ take a stock 5.7 hemi (cheap) and turbo it($3k). still 20mpg but 700hp, do that with a big block...lol. the last barrett auction really confirms my thoughts on just doing restomods. its a new generation coming in and we want modern comforts and driveability, plus more power without losing that driveability. soooo...restomods for the win!!!

[Lennard]

 

[Mike DC]

 
Yeah I think that's the future.  Restorations for numbers cars, and restomods for at least 30-50% of the cars with plainer VINs.  

There will always be demand for stockers though.  

And there is a WIDE range of what "restomod" means.  To some guys it means electronic ignition & radial tires & flowmasters.  To others it means the whole thing looks like a Fast & Furious car with more GM parts than Mopar.  And everything in between.  



I don't think mileage will ever be a huge factor though.  It's ridiculous to spend $50k or $75k on a car and then gripe about mileage.  If you drive the car 3000 miles a year (and very few old cars ever see more than this, restomod or stock) then the difference between 15 and 20 mpg is $150 a year.  It's practically nothing on the scale of the car's overall cost.  

EFI and OD conversions still do make a lot of sense.  But it's for the practical issues.  Cold starts, throttle response, quieter highway cruising, longer engine life, etc.  
 

[cbrestorations]

mpg is not worth the gain yes, but when selling a car and claiming it gets 20mpg and still 700hp...thats a huge selling point

[qwick68]

To each their own.....

[Ryan.C]

I am in the restomods camp as well. Although I do not share the numbers sentiment. I see how some would feel that way but I would cut up a real XX car quick and not feel bad about it.  

[cbrestorations]

i have a few cars that are worth restoring but ide just have more fun building restomods and even more fun taking rotted turds that no one will ever fix but left to die, cuting out the lower half out and dropping them on nascar chassis's or build a tube chassis lol. fun scale...10

[500Jon]

I've seen pics of cut-up XX cars and even as a LIMEY it makes feel bad!

They are so rare that they deserve to be put back to stock.

5J

[JR]

I equate the two sides of the camp as two entirety different mindsets.

Totally stock/restored = Toy collectors.

Restomod= guys who take their toys out of the package and play with them.

What I mean is that while the chalk mark crowd may find enjoyment from driving their car every now and again, their primary source of enjoyment comes from just owning the car, and having it in they're collection. But driving it too much, or modifying it is much the same as taking the vintage Luke Skywalker figure out of the original package. He'd rather own a mint example he can look at whenever he likes, than play with it and risk damaging or diminishing its value.

The restomod crowd finds enjoyment from owning the car, as well, but the real fun for them comes from driving it. They would rather risk damage to the car, and modify it from its original configuration, than to live with the relatively poor driving characteristics of its stock former self. If your enjoyment comes from seat time behind the wheel, why put up with outdated parts/reliability/performance issues when they can be easily resolved by restomodding?

Personally, I fall firmly into the restomod camp. Both my cars are real R/T 440 cars, but I don't care. When I'm on my deathbed, I'd rather look back and remember all the fun excitement and adventures I had from behind the wheel of my cars instead of all the times I spent polishing them with a diaper and duplicating the chalk marks exactly like how Steve did it at the factory in 1969.

But, whatever floats your boat. Theres room for everyone here, and the diversity of the cars makes it interesting.

[cbrestorations]

I equate the two sides of the camp as two entirety different mindsets.

Totally stock/restored = Toy collectors.

Restomod= guys who take their toys out of the package and play with them.

What I mean is that while the chalk mark crowd may find enjoyment from driving their car every now and again, their primary source of enjoyment comes from just owning the car, and having it in they're collection. But driving it too much, or modifying it is much the same as taking the vintage Luke Skywalker figure out of the original package. He'd rather own a mint example he can look at whenever he likes, than play with it and risk damaging or diminishing its value.

The restomod crowd finds enjoyment from owning the car, as well, but the real fun for them comes from driving it. They would rather risk damage to the car, and modify it from its original configuration, than to live with the relatively poor driving characteristics of its stock former self. If your enjoyment comes from seat time behind the wheel, why put up with outdated parts/reliability/performance issues when they can be easily resolved by restomodding?

Personally, I fall firmly into the restomod camp. Both my cars are real R/T 440 cars, but I don't care. When I'm on my deathbed, I'd rather look back and remember all the fun excitement and adventures I had from behind the wheel of my cars instead of all the times I spent polishing them with a diaper and duplicating the chalk marks exactly like how Steve did it at the factory in 1969.

But, whatever floats your boat. Theres room for everyone here, and the diversity of the cars makes it interesting.

very true...then theres the third crowd. ratmuscle...the dont care what people think but beat the crap out of them and the only time it see's a bath is the rain to wash off the mudd from a day of fun thrashing lol

[JR]

Wouldn't that really be at the extreme end of the second group?

For fun, imagine what the restoration crowd equivalent of that would be.

I picture those restorers eating a strict diet of whatever food was available around the assembly plant at the time, so they can recreate the farts in the seats that the original builders and sales people put in them.

Or hunting down whatever asbestos filled brake pads they can find to use, because screw cancer, we want originality. Or NOS cancer at the very least.

[cdr]

I love a good Restomod.

[cbrestorations]

Wouldn't that really be at the extreme end of the second group?

For fun, imagine what the restoration crowd equivalent of that would be.

I picture those restorers eating a strict diet of whatever food was available around the assembly plant at the time, so they can recreate the farts in the seats that the original builders and sales people put in them.

Or hunting down whatever asbestos filled brake pads they can find to use, because screw cancer, we want originality. Or NOS cancer at the very least.

lol yeah extremers are a special kind of people

[RCCDrew]

Restomod for me. I've never even looked at the numbers on either of my cars drivetrains to see if they match or not. These cars were built to be driven... hard. It's my duty.  

[darbgnik]

I think I fall directly in the middle. Too nice, low production, numbers matching, performance model R/T or Wing car, it would break my heart to screw with it. I really appreciate them, which is why I'll never own one.

On the flip side, there's a certain quaintness to driving them as they were.  In the year I actually drove mine, I really enjoyed the feel of driving around a car that feels like an old truck. I also appreciated the old school ride quality. Sure, it can't really corner, the brakes stop working after a few uses in a row, and the auto never locks up, but it breezes over pock marked pavement like a cushion. I also like the lumpy old big block sound. Don't get me wrong, I have and will continue to make changes, but subtle ones that don't take away from the experience, at least in my opinion.

It's also only my humble opinion, but if you want a modern driving feel, save a bunch of time and money and buy a modern car. First Gen Chrysler 300 SRT8s come to mind. Cheap to buy. Big modern V8, modern transmission, big brakes, and lots of room in a full sized interior. Sure the older iron looks better, but you don't see the exterior while you're driving........  I had a friend say to me years ago, something that really stuck with me; "You'll never get everything you want out of one vehicle, so why bother trying, get another vehicle." Now this friend of mine has never said much I'd hold onto, and in this instance, he was talking about guys buying trucks and trying to make them racecars, but the gist is the same.

It's not just muscle though, where people take something and try to make it something else. I have a Hummer H1, which is quite possibly the slowest, most ill handling POS ever built. And a true maintenance nightmare to boot. But I love it for what it is. Take it to Moab every year, and use it for what it was intended for. It's a parallel scenario I think. People love how they look, but hate how they perform, with their archaic power plants being a derivative of 1980s technology. Guys spend unreal amounts of time and money trying to shoe horn in modern direct injected diesels and transmissions, so they can take a modern V6 family sedan off the line at a stoplight. I just reset myself when I change drivers seats, and accept that when I'm in that thing I'll be last off the line, and it's fine. Same with the Charger, when I drive that, I'm not going to try to push a kid on a sportbike beyond his comfort level in a corner like I do when I drive my Viper. Not only are the vehicles different, I'm different when I drive them, and I think that's what I like most?

That all being said, I love seeing what some guys are capable of doing. But I think I appreciate the sheer force of will and skills than the finished product. Some restomods I've seen, on here included, are nothing short of amazing. They're just not for me. Then again, if the car came as a roller only, I can see the price benefit of a modern drivetrain, especially seeing what a nice HP440 goes for these days.......

Sorry for the long winded post.

[68RT440]

Me personally, I like the stockers with some aftermarket items like wheels, cam, headers,etc. I'm 33 so I'm fairly young compared to a lot of the guys that own these cars. I can appreciate the custom work and restomods done to these cars, but I always drool over the stock restos that I see at the shows. As for a base model Charger, I like seeing a gold 383 car with hubcaps and whitewalls as much as a XS or XX car. Our car will be done stock with a couple day 2 pieces, but the car is very sentimental and we want to restore it the way it came from the factory...

[Bad B-rad]

RESTOMOD or NOT TO RESTOMOD? That is the Question and I think these are cars, and cars are meant to be driven. And if you own  the car you can drive it any way you see fit(with original suspension, brakes, engine or trans,or custom/updated parts)
But, I DO see the point of not cutting up a rare car or not taking apart and totally modifying  a 45-50 year old car that has made it all this time with its original paint and #'s matching drivetrain, out of respect, I would keep it orig, and find a car that can never again be in original shape, with #'s matching parts long gone,and modify that bitch all day long.
At the end of the day, unless they make a law that you can not cut up or modify a rare or original car, the owner of the car has that right to enjoy it how ever they want.
I love driving these cars,that how I enjoy this hobby the most. And for me I like the car to drive as trouble free and smooth as can be with better then new braking, cornering and power.
But it is very cool to also jump in one of our cars and drive it when it is as bone stock as it came from the factory, and then you can really see the difference between the car with 1960's technology vs modern/custom stuff.It is two totally different animals to drive a stock 1968 R/T 440 Charger vs a 2016 SRT.
I can see why people want to preserve these cars and restore to factory stock, but for me, personally restomod AWAY!!!, Build it how you want to, isn't that kind of the way hot rodding started?
The only rule that I like to follow when building old MOPARS is to keep it MOPAR, no GM or Ford motors or brake kits,or what ever, that's my only catch with the restomod thing. But as I said before if you own it,you can build it how ever you would like and I can respect that. (but my vote is to RESTMOD!!! )

[BrianShaughnessy]

No matching numbers for me        Got 2 R/T's but no original engines.   I do what I want.   

If somebody wants a restoration then be my guest.  It's your dime      But do you have old bias ply tires and single stage enamel paint?  Did you add electronic ignition or other creature comforts?
My point being that most 'restorations' are not factory correct anymore.   Most everything is a over-restore with painted bottoms, etc.

[alfaitalia]

Restomod for me too......although I would love to be in a position to own a restoration too...ain't gonna happen. If I did a full factory spec rebuild it would have to be very close to perfect...and in the UK that is very difficult to do and (at least in my case) prohibitively expensive and way above of my proposed restomod budget. I love both concepts but I would hate my car to be so perfect that I was too scared to drive it and had to join the clan of folks wasting there cars by just trailoring them around from show to show. In my humble opinion not driving a restored car on the road should be a crime. It's like having a gun but never firing it or owning a perfect diamond that never comes out of the safe.....So it's restomod for me....but whichever way you go....DRIVE IT!

[c00nhunterjoe]

After watching mecum and barret jackson, the hemi rts are not bringing the money needed to make restomod or restoration profitable.

For me personally, build it for what you want and dont give 2 shits about what your neighbor thinks about it or tells you what its worth.

[INTMD8]

I like both and think if done nicely there's no problem with a resto mod.  Here is one I started but never finished.  (ended up selling it to buy my house out from my ex gf)

Pretty rare car though.

Would I do it to a hemi Charger? No, but probably would with anything else.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/331918666621

[Mike DC]

 

If somebody wants a restoration then be my guest.  It's your dime  cheers    But do you have old bias ply tires and single stage enamel paint?  Did you add electronic ignition or other creature comforts?
My point being that most 'restorations' are not factory correct anymore.   Most everything is a over-restore with painted bottoms, etc.

So true.  Most restorations are over-restos.

-----------

After watching mecum and barret jackson, the hemi rts are not bringing the money needed to make restomod or restoration profitable.

That's true, but it should be.  Most proper car builds are money-losers even if everything goes perfectly.  

If hand-building cars was a profitable way to do it then Detroit wouldn't be using assembly lines.

[cbrestorations]

I've built and sold cars that made good money, simple restomods

[Highbanked Hauler]

i personally feel if the car was a true r/t then leave it original to preserve the original muscle cars but if its a base model then free game...modern engine, modern suspension, big brakes and more comfortable interior. i know i could and have built restomods that have sold for way more profit vs just doing a restoration. waaaaay more fun to drive and economy was way x2 if not x3 better in cases. even with better economy they are still faster/ take a stock 5.7 hemi (cheap) and turbo it($3k). still 20mpg but 700hp, do that with a big block...lol. the last barrett auction really confirms my thoughts on just doing restomods. its a new generation coming in and we want modern comforts and driveability, plus more power without losing that driveability. soooo...restomods for the win!!!

   Yep I think you are 100% right, and my son should have gone with fuel injection instead of a 6 pack setup just for that reason.

[Mike DC]

I've built and sold cars that made good money, simple restomods

I'm not saying it can't be done.  Just saying it's not the standard outcome.

And, were your hours of labor counted?  A resto business has to pay somebody $50-100/hr for a skilled worker.