Rob Siegel's musings on originality or not.

[elagache]

Dear mid-60s Buick caregivers,

Rob Siegel has become a regular contributor to the Hagerty website.  This morning he has some thoughts about how much effort should you put into using original parts in a classic car:

https://www.hagerty.com/articles-videos/articles/2018/02/12/the-price-of-originality

In the end he doesn't leave us with any clear conclusions, but he goes through the sort of thought process that I think we all would find familiar.

Cheers, Edouard 

[Weldar]

Edouard,
 
Good article and thanks for posting. I don't have enough time/money to try to make everything original, but when using new items one still needs to find that right balance....

Dwaine

[Super65lark]

This is interesting. And unless you're planning a complete custom, I think many of us like our cars for their originality. A time gone by.
We try to keep things looking as they were, but at some point we decide that keeping it going is more logical than obsessing about using only the exact same parts as were originally used .
I think most of us do a pretty dang good job, and we're proud of that.

[elagache]

Dear Dwaine, Iain, and mid-60s Buick caregivers,

This is interesting. And unless you're planning a complete custom, I think many of us like our cars for their originality. A time gone by.

There is an "in between" complete custom and original car - something I call "period correct."  My wagon will have been 50 years in the family this coming April.  When you live with a car for that long you are bound to change things.  My Dad added after-market rear seat belts of us kids in the early 1970s.  We rebuilt the engine and went with a TH350 in 1979.  In the early 1990s, I upgraded from the AM radio to a Custom Autosound stereo.

When it was time to do the mechanical restoration, I didn't want to lose the improvements we had made.  Still, I wanted my wagon to look more period correct.  So I did things like replace the rear seat belts with Buick belts.  I upgraded to a newer Custom Autosound stereo, but managed to reproduce the BUICK lettering on the radio buttons and to reuse the AM radio buttons so that stereo really looks like it was installed in 1965.  If your interested is having modern conveniences but in a car that looks like it was built in 1965 - it becomes an interesting challenge to make everything look period correct.

I think most of us do a pretty dang good job, and we're proud of that.

There is room for many ways to give credit to these cars and that's part of what makes owning cars like this so satisfying.

Cheers, Edouard 

[GS66]

I?m probably going to upgrade my brakes. With today?s speed limits, etc. the old ones are somewhat inadequate. Overdrive would be nice too, maybe the cars would get driven more. Also upgrading the radio is a big plus, very few decent AM stations around my place.

[Super65lark]

Edouard,



that is cool with the radio. Did you change over the buttons yourself? I have had upgraded music many times over. First in the glove box, then under the dash. Now, I'm back to the original radio, but I have no antenna. So I listen to the engine.

And GS66, I longed for disc brakes too. But due to various factors, I have now ended up with fully restored drums at 4 corners. The car stops very well. I am very pleased with them.

Period correct is awesome. I plan to continue down this road.
 

[elagache]

Dear Jim, Iain, and mid-60s Buick caregivers with practical considerations,

I?m probably going to upgrade my brakes. With today?s speed limits, etc. the old ones are somewhat inadequate.

Agreed.  My wagon has front disc brakes, and I'm strongly considering upgrading the rears to disc as well.

Overdrive would be nice too, maybe the cars would get driven more.

I absolutely love overdrive.  Without it you can hardly hear yourself think on the freeway.

Also upgrading the radio is a big plus, very few decent AM stations around my place.

There are lots of options, but indeed AM had gone extinct when I was picking up my Dad at the train station in the early 1980s.

that is cool with the radio. Did you change over the buttons yourself?

Yes I did.  What I did is to use the transparency material used to make presentations and I printed the Buick lettering on that.  Here is what the Custom Autosound 630 stereo looked like mocked up in the radio bezel (with the 1965 knobs:)



Here is what the Buick letters look like on the transparent plastic film:



All you need then is to paint the background white and glue them to the front of the radio buttons.  Here is what the modified buttons ended up looking like:



I can make for you a set of transparencies so that you can glue them on top of the stereo you choose.

Cheers, Edouard 

[Super65lark]

Edouard I am really impressed. That is great!

I will bookmark this as I have a few other more pertinent things I am working on for now.