Kuztom Freak

I custom designed someone a car (sketches / photoshop) as I've done for more than a decade - nothing new for me. This guy wants me to build the car for him rather than have him take it to someone else. I would prefer he took it elsewhere as Im kinda busy and no longer have the space or gear.

I cant show you any of the sketches or even tell you what kind of car it is cuz buddy wants it secret - why? - cuz he wants me to source out the car/parts/etc and build it all by myself, not taking any "build up" pics or anything cuz he wants people to think that he built it, etc... All I can say is that its a classic collectable ride. He is willing to pay very well for the secrecy. Fine, I get it, some ppl are like that. Some of the probs with me doing this are:-

Firstly, I dont really have the time to build it, esp by when he wants it (its doable but it means I put my life on hold for a couple months).

Secondly, its really a 2 or 3 person job.

Thirdly, it is the kicker delema for me as it means I either get a barn car that needs total restoration (too time consuming) but its junk to begin with OR it means I have to butcher a classic car that is kinda rare (some cars just should be preserved). Well I just found a perfect donor car, half its regular price cuz the owner is in serious financial trouble, and the car is fukken mint (straight body, well stored, no bondo, original custom paint from the dealer, decent mileage on the whole car) - these cars dont usually grab me but I look at this thing and I say "WOW" it's so georgeous (for that kind of car) Id buy it just so I could look at it, tho I wouldnt be caught dead in it, lol. I feel bad for the owner cuz he's had for the last 30 yrs and just loves it (went on for 20 mins over the phone about how he'll miss it, sob story maybe).

So I've been racking my brain on what to do, do I butcher a classic? Do I have it in me to follow through with the act of it? Would I regret it? Would you?

Normally I dont really care, esp if there still are thousands of them on the road. This car is not highly collectable or uber expensive (like a Pontiac GTO), it was a low production number to begin with and ya just dont see many of them anywhere, let alone in prestine condition, mainly cuz not many ppl really care about them/care to invest in them (like that ugly Edsel).

Just curious to hear what some of you might do.

GT.R

iTrader: (2)

if they pay you well to chop a Lada, you gotta chop the Lada...

depends what u want...

personally I would do it if I knew it would come out better then it went in...

like bagging a mark 7 or something...

judgez24

it really depends what kind of person you are. are you one of those guys that would own a cllectable car and let it sit in a garage all your life until you die, and then your kids or someoen else enjoy it, or are you the kindaguy like me, that buys something to drive around in and have fun with. i had the same dilema with my mustang. its a very very clean car, has been kept away from bad weather and has never been modified at all. so i had a tough choice, do i take a car thats only gonna appreciate in value and modify it and race around in it, or do i keep the car unmodified and just look at it. well i bought the car to drive so guess what, its gonna get modified, its gonna get driven and its gonna get abused. i bought it to enjoy not to look at

Kuztom Freak

I sketched out about 5 versions of this car, buddy goes and picks the worst one, one I did while half asleep and I was so tired I kinda thought I was working on another car, so this thing came out fuggly, I showed it to him none the less. Even tho its my design - I dont agree with it or like it, but buddy sure as hell likes it, oh well. So my personal opinion is that this car will look worse than original. We've all seen those ugly ugly cars that the owner just loves to death.

Judge - I hear ya man and I agree with ya, cars were built to be driven, however, some are built to be artwork and I understand that.

Performance upgrades that dont really alter the body/appearance of a vehicle (esp bolt on stuff) can easily be removed to restore the car back to factory specs for those who like that sort of thing. But forming new panels and permanently welding them to the car and modifing the frame are not really returnable. I wouldnt mind hacking this car if they produced more than 6,000 of em. My research shows only about 4,200 surviving, half rusting somewhere, and most of the second half are beaters/daily drivers with owners who arnt car ppl, leaving only a few hundred of this car in collector hands/thoes who apprechiate it.

Id sooner buy this car at the reduced price, and then sell it for its true value to someone. Id make money doing absoloutly nothing, then again, same could be said for 12% of all the cars out there being sold by desperate ppl.

I dunno - I dont think I'll bother with it. Its just every now and then Im faced with something like this. My answer is usually to scratch build the design rather than try to extremely transform an existing rare car, but thats not allways economically feasable.


Say you had a 1986 Zimmer Quicksilver (only about 150 were ever made for that yr), cost about 55grand brand new, today they are under 20grand. Would you hack it and irrivocably change its structure and appearance?

What if ya had one of the Mustang wagons or 2 seater Mustang trucks?