why buy the good stuff?

I was thumbing through my latest copy of Speedway magazine, which sells parts for hot rods and classic cars. I'd say 75% of the parts are custom, super high quality. Many are billet aluminum, all sealed quality ball bearing, grade-A , and so on. As such they are expensive. But the irony I see in all of these is that whenever I go to classic car shows, about 90% of the cars there very seldom get driven. Most just get driven to the shows. A lot of them are actually trailered in... "Trailer queens" as we call em'.

Anyhow, to me that makes zero sense. I have a 55' Mercury with all stock parts. If I buy new parts, they're usually re-manufactured. They work fine. People still like the car because its old. In fact, some people like it better than the other cars at these shows that are chok-full of gaudy, glitzy chrome and aluminum.

But getting back to my previous thought, I can't help but think how stupid it is to restore an old car and fill it with way over-engineered parts that are way better than the original stock, only to drive the thing 500 miles or less a year. Why spend $50,000 on a resto-job when you could spend $10k and still be able to drive it daily?

 

I think it goes both ways. I've been to swap meets where the oem stuff was crazy expensive to purchase. Some parts for certain makes remand is also more costly than the high quality aftermarket.
When I was helping pops restore his pickup it was less expensive to get a high quality polished water pump for his flathead vs a remand plain jane.

Just depends I guess, but I get your drift.. I like original for the most part. With all the quirks that came with an original car. If I wanted a port injected small block in a Chevelle I would've just bought a new Vette.

 

It's all a personal preference - and - what the vehicle MEANS to you.

What I mean by that is.... some guys will totally restore a vehicle from the ground up, go the extreme route and do everything perfectly & spend loads of money on all the best parts. They might never drive it....
But you gotta ask, are they thinking of the future and what the vehicle is gonna be worth to resell? Is it Barrett Jackson material?
Perhaps they have a lot of money to spend. Perhaps, they're gaining themselves a reputation for being a perfectionist in the motor world with their peers. ???

While other guys just restore & rebuild their vehicles to make them run, be able to drive & enjoy them.

It's a different culture to one guy then it is to another.
As long as you're happy with your own creations - that's all that matters.