Question for restorers in the crowd...........

[Zapato]

 Been reading some of the service bulletins I luckily found in April and are now in the Tech section (THANK YOU RICH). And its got me wondering.

If for example my car was built in October of 56 and then restored today and I made all the real improvements (fixes) found in the service bulletins is my car now no longer as built a true restoration ? Just how insane is that side of the hobby.

  Realizing that some of the bulletins are dealing with the replacement use of real 57 parts as the early cars had their fare share of leftover 56 parts whenever possible. So when a car is done to 100% Concours standards does this come into play, or even when such a car is appraised.

  Sitting around watching rain come down by the bucketloads gives me lots of time to think.  A friend of mine is a Corvette collector (yup! they are the worst bunch, he isn't) and few years back he bought a low mileage 63 split window coupe from the original owner. Car was/is also  very early production date wise. Nothing in that car has ever been altered you know the kind with original 1962 air in the spare tire. He showed the car only one time and during judging it was found that there was some kind of cover (don't remember what) under the hood. His is aluminum and has GM numbers cast on the inside and every other 63 there that day had stamped covers. Since no one had ever seen one like his they ruled his car modified and took him out of the trophy race. He didn't stick around too long as a bunch of idiots flocked to his car and wasted a lot of fresh air discussing the cover. Shortly after that he cancelled his club membership, but not before getting proof his cover was original as delivered by Chevrolet.

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[gasman826]

That 'numbers matching' thing seems to work pretty good for GM products.  GM numbered everything.  Not so much with Ford.  I've chased a lot of Ford stuff.  I am of the belief that if one states that some Ford was only built a certain way, someone will prove them wrong.  Henry was cheap.  If it was laying around, it was put on a vehicle.  If there were parts left over from a previous model year run, those parts were used until gone.  If the assembly line was moving, whatever was available went in.  By the early '70s, Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, and a lot of the light trucks got the same engines, transmissions, and rear end components.  If a pickup was to get a 428 ci engine and only 428 CJ blocks were available...well guess what, there were pickups with 428 CJ blocks in them.  Just because it is NOT in the parts book doesn't mean that it wasn't built.

If the casting numbers and the date stamps are older than the date of manufacture, it's pretty much numbers matching.

Did you ever read the charcoal story??

[Lou]

If you improve you vehicle with the parts recommended in the service bulletins you car is still original and correct. If you find a low milage "barn find" It would still be an original car even if you had to replace the hoses, brakes, seals, etc. No one expects every part to withstand time.

[Zapato]

Did you ever read the charcoal story??

Every time I roast a pig am reminded how remarkably clever Henry was. There's a thread going on right now on the HAMB dealing with him and lean manufacturing and there's a 1936 ad of a family camping and close to the campfire there's a bag of Ford charcoal. It later became  Kingsford.

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