How Original Is Original? Is Original Really Original? Must Go Deeper...

[gav240z]

So I recently read this article.

http://roadscholars.com/original-doesnt-mean-original/

 

The article talks about what constitutes as original vs restored and what separates the two concepts. It got me thinking about what makes an S30z original. Since different marques have their own standards and aspirations in what a car should or shouldn't be depending on what kind of class they want to be in.

 

It also got me thinking about what parts might be worth keeping and restoring vs replacing with reproduction parts. For example there have been fairly accurate reproduction tail lights made for early S30z's but I can tell they are different to the original Koito stamped units, so I prefer to refurbish the originals over buying reproductions.

 

The other thing that comes up often is engine no's matching, but this only seems to apply to some markets for the S30z. North American, Australian, UK etc..but as I noted in Mossy's sale thread recently. French market cars didn't have the engine number stamped onto the ID plate. (see below)

 

 

Likewise in home market cars (Japan) the engine number was never stamped on the ID plate of these models, rather just the engine type was stated.

 

An example is a genuine HS30-H here that was for sale recently here.

 

Here is a PS30 (Fairlady Z432) 1 of the most valuable early S30z's there is, yet there cars never had an engine number stamped on their ID plates either.

 

In those markets, there is no such thing as matching numbers. So does it make it a moot point? If a Z432 still has an S20 engine in it, but the original motor it left the factory with was destroyed at some point, does it matter?

 

Does this mean an L28 is as good as any other L-series in an L-GATA powered S30z from factory? Or should it remain with it's original displacement L20, L24, L26, L28 etc..?

 

My gut feeling on this is that the collector car market follows certain trends at a given point in time, the late 90s early 2000s saw a lot of what would be called "over" restored cars and as a result some owners may have discovered that their cars restoration work was not quite as good as they had been lead to believe. As a result there is more desire for under or never restored cars because owners are likely to be in a better position to judge what they are getting as there are less unknowns.

 

So a genuine used vehicle has more appeal and is likely to retain many of the factory fitted original parts, even if they wear a bit of patina and surface rust. It's the warts and all that appeals.

 

So with that in mind I thought it would be fun to kick of a discussion as to what are the features of an S30Z that make it original and what do you think are the most important considerations to make when restoring a car and aiming to keep the 'lightning in the bottle' so to speak.

[Gordo]

I wounder if there are many original dashboards out there without cracks.

[Six_Shooter]

I wounder if there are many original dashboards out there without cracks.

 

I don't know about "many", but I have one, and a friend of mine claims to have one as well, though I've not seen it, since his car is not together yet. These are LHD though, which might be easier to find than a RHD crack free dash.

[HS30-H]

I don't know about "many", but I have one, and a friend of mine claims to have one as well, though I've not seen it, since his car is not together yet. These are LHD though, which might be easier to find than a RHD crack free dash.

 

Obviously not enough sunshine here in the UK. All my RHD cars have lovely uncracked dashes...

[gav240z]

So that is a good point, is an uncracked original dash more desirable to have than a well restored and reskinned dash?

I'd say in the Australian sun it would be almost impossible to find an uncracked dashboard. Many cars that were only 5 years old at the time already had cracks. 46 years on and you would have to find NOS or import a used 1 from a cold climate.

[gilltech]

Hmmm...mine's uncracked, or maybe it is - there is a tiny amount of what could be surface crazing at each end if one looks hard enough. Car spent it's first 30yrs in NZ, more like the UK not so much sun...

 

"Original"??? Outside of the concours d'elegance crowd, the term seems to be most commonly used by those describing a vehicle in unrestored condition...ranging from a tidy well maintained vehicle with mileage & the usual replaced consumables, to a decrepit worn-out junker that's one block away from the crusher & seldom if ever received any love.

Each vehicle to be assessed on it's individual merits.

I'd argue that a vehicle is only original once. Even a top-end restoration to factory-correct detail doesn't make it original, it just makes it replica-original.

[PeterAllen]

As a former student of philosophy I can tell you this is not a new topic by any means. If these chaps couldn't agree on a resolution then I wouldn't waste my time trying. Just get down the shed and keep working.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus

[gilltech]

Good link.

Maybe it's a percentage thing.

But too involved for everyday life. Leave it to the concours d'elegance crowd.

I agree, back to the shed.

Like I said, "Each vehicle to be assessed on it's individual merits."

[gav240z]

Too damn hot in my garage at the moment, 35 degrees and it's got a tin roof. Hence I'm not in it, but the ship of Ship of Theseus is a great example, I guess as mentioned each individual vehicle should be judged based on it's own merits. So therefore each owner should approach their restoration in their own way.