[carnut4life]

Originally Posted by R68GTO

I've had so dang much fun with my car, I have to pinch myself sometimes. From the people I've met in the hobby to the prior owners it's just been a blast. Having lived the topic of this thread, I'll give my perspective:
If I didn't get to meet Rick Wilkins and Denny Davis and only had a few vintage photos of the car as Rats Nest, I probably would've just done the stock restoration. With the detailed vintage pics showing every paint line and sticker, combined with their personal stories and how much the car meant to them, Denny's Dad, Doug's wife, it gave the car an identity. Hell, they had an image of it on Doug's headstone and he only owned it like 4 years! I felt like I had to get it back to Rat's Nest trim. So I guess at the end of it all, I did it for them more than for me. With the vinyl and the vintage speed parts, it's about $8K worth of "extra expense". Most of the speed parts will likely go on my next project assuming I sell the car in stock trim (I think worth more that way) so I will only be out the cost of the vinyl. Either way, I would do it all over again under the same circumstances. The only change might be to reverse the order....vinyl it up, run the hell out of it, then do the factory resto. Sorry for the long response. I'll end with some pics of the people that inspired the process, and the car of course - even though you've probably seen them already

That car looks stunning in either configuration Jim!