I really prefer them to be near original in appearance. However, I don't care what someone does with theirs. It IS theirs.
Ron
I tend to generally be the same way Ron. I do think that this one is mostly still original except possible hood cut and paint. I consider paint to be temporary (at least everything I ever painted has been
). Of course almost anything is better than the junk yard for melt down. I also don't feel too bad about something built up out of odd pieces and giblets. I do hate to see someone take a nice original tractor and hack it up. Then again, as you say it IS theirs.
My father had an old friend that built an early version of a motor-home out of a very nice Cadillac limousine. It was old enough to be pretty much obsolete as a limo but not old enough to be a collectible. This was about a mid 1950's Caddy that was about 10 years old with low miles and an extra nice interior. He wanted to make a unit like an Indianapolis company was making and he had the skills to do it. That company was the Van Bibber Co. who made early units like mini-motorhomes using old funeral coaches as a base. The friend drove that limo around for a month before he could work up the courage to make the first chop.
It had very little resale value but still was so nice... He finally got up the nerve to cut into it and started. He worked on it for almost a year and was in the final stages of finish work when he did something that disappointed all of us... He fell over and died with out any warning.
That is one of those thing that warn the rest of us to NOT keep putting off the things that you "want" to do...
The Van Bibber Co was making campers about like this picture but they were usually bigger. He had looked at many of theirs for ideas.
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