I'm posting this not as a debate about the merits of factory correct this or that but out of curiosity as more of a survey of the hive.
I for a email from CM about a particular car having factory correct paint.
My thought was that while I know it means a lot when it comes to the dollar value of the car those things aren't valuable to me. If I like the color cool, but if not I'd either find another or (shriek) paint it a color I liked.
I'm a living example of the duality of man; while I'm always impressed with cars & motorcycles restored to perfect factory specification (right down to the decals under the hood) I put more value in what I like. Note I'm cheap; restoring something to this level costs money that I'd rather spend modifying it, albeit it minor modifications.
I am having a cracked wheel welded rather than buying a refinished wheel because refinished wheels are generally the wrong color, and I cannot find any used for sale.
I appreciate someone taking the time, effort, and money to show the world what the automobile looked like the day it rolled out of the factory.
In reply to Tom1200 :
Originality isn't my thing. I'm a strip it out and let's go racing kind of guy.
Yet here I am trying to copy group 44's colors and style.
In reply to Tom1200 :
I think I know exactly the car you're referring to. 
I'd say it's a situational thing. If I'm in the market for something to take to a concourse, then yeah, It's cool to know if the color is factory correct.
But for pretty much everything else, I'm not too concerned about what is and isn't factory correct. If someone chose to repaint their car from silver or white to something like bright green or orange, that's cool with me because that matters to me more (in that moment) than period correct.
I think it's neat.
I usually want something different from the way the factory did it, and often bigger than a color change.
As long as there are museum examples, I don't really care about getting "this one" "correct." If I had infinite money and storage I'd probably have some vehicles in perfect original condition. And some vehicles aren't crying out for modification the way others are, while some make great canvases but are pretty useless without changes.
To make a long ramble shorter, sometimes factory correct is what I would want, but much of the time it is not a consideration.
Or to distill further, "It depends."
In most cases, I don't care, but the one area I'm finding that I do care is fasteners. I hate when good OEM nuts and bolts have been replaced with hardware store junk, especially the wrong head sizes, wrong length, wrong grade, etc. I get it, somebody was doing a quick fix and it was cheap and easy to just grab whatever the hardware store had in stock that was close enough, but if I'm doing it, I will try to use the right hardware.
Don't care
As a racer, Motorsports guy and someone who enjoys personalizing things to my tastes, it's hard to care too much for things like factory correct paint.
Seems like it's more prevalent the more it's viewed as an investment item which makes sense. In the Porsche world especially, clean Carfax and no paint/body work rule all. Personally, I don't really care as long as whatever was done was done well, largely because I don't really view any vehicle I own as an investment. My cayman has a "dirty" Carfax, some minor bodywork and, as best I can tell, has been fully repainted. And that's a big part of why it was 20% under market value when I bought it. And it hasn't bothered me a single moment except when I occasionally notice that one side of the rear bumper doesn't quite line up how it's supposed to. Similarly, a friend of mine has a 997 GT3 that's been not only repainted but color changed as well (oh the humanity!) Watching the selling process was entertaining, the price slowly lowering over time as people got scared away because it wasn't all original. IIRC at one point somebody passed on it and paid more money for a car with more miles, less options, and in a boring color...but it was all original. Eventually the price got down into my friend's budget and now he has a basically one of one car in one of the best colors Porsche has made, and it was also around 20% below market value. The repaint was super throrough and super high quality, I think only one person has ever figured it out without being told. We joke about how the original owner probably spent $15k or more to take $15k of value off of the car. Clearly that person didn't care about originality, they just wanted their car in a color that Porsche wouldn't let them order it in.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha.
No. If you're preserving a car to some arbritary specification, you're doing that for a future owner, not yourself.
obsolete said:
In most cases, I don't care, but the one area I'm finding that I do care is fasteners. I hate when good OEM nuts and bolts have been replaced with hardware store junk, especially the wrong head sizes, wrong length, wrong grade, etc. I get it, somebody was doing a quick fix and it was cheap and easy to just grab whatever the hardware store had in stock that was close enough, but if I'm doing it, I will try to use the right hardware.
I think that's just "correct".
Depends on the car.
A '69 Yenko Camaro, I want that original regardless that modern cars will out perform it. A '67 Mustang 6 cylinder, I'm doing everything in my monetary ability to put a built Coyote, sorted suspension, big brakes, etc.
Before they got stupid, I always wanted a stock/restored E30 M3 EVO and a gnarly 2.7 S14 built E30 M3........because reasons.
For me it all depends on the car (similar to what z31 posted). If it were something of historical significance, built in low numbers, or was a special model, then yes I would want it as close to factory correct as possible. If it were a "run of the mill" kind of car (higher production numbers, meaning not that rare), I really dont mind if it's not correct.
Great question.. (Very, very rare cars notwithstanding), I build my cars for me, with almost no regard for how the next steward might wish for it to be. Just because the factory had to slap on those wart-like marker lights, or tack on those ridiculous impact bumpers doesn't mean that I have to live with them... That 1970's poop-brown is not aging well, and I don't feel 1% compelled to keep it as the manufacturer built it... Just because AC wasn't an option doesn't mean it wouldn't be an improvement..
Mod it fearlessly!! It is yours; make it yours.. inject a little personality! The purists can go do a 'nut and bolt' on their own version of the car (as opposed to harping on how your mods 'ruined' yours).
We've seen that model/make/year in stock trim to death; show us your take on how YOU would do it!
*I know shaving lights and swapping bumpers etc, etc is often illegal. yet still I'm able to sleep at night..
--ccrunner
As long as I can return it to stock I am fine modifying anything regardless of value. Big plus if it makes it safer or more usable in traffic. I keep a "purity box'" of stuff I pull off cars that goes to the new owner when I sell if they want it.
Well, let's see. Current projects: a 67 LeMans getting an LS6/T56, a Ford 9", minitubs, aftermarket chassis components, and Blue Mica Pearl Mazda paint. Also working on a 66 Bonneville with a 10.5" 14 bolt FF axle, 3/4 ton truck front spindles, and getting a Duramax/6L90.
Past projects: 87 Cutlass with a 455 Buick, The 66 Bonneville was rocking a Caddy 500 for a while, a 62 Cadillac SDV with shaved door handles and cut springs, a '51 Mercury with a 425 Nailhead, a 50 Ford with a 400" SBC, and a Model A pickup that had an Oldsmobile steering column, chevy motor, mustang radiator, buick hubcaps, seats from a greyhound bus, and a Dodge Brothers banjo rear axle.
I will straight up take a sawzall to a 63 Split-window coupe and sleep like a baby that night.
I can appreciate all original cars, but I don't really want to own one. From guitars and bicycles, my need to modify is irresistible.
No. Zero qualms about changing something to make it better or make me like it more.
As to paint, a pet peeve of mine is door jambs. If you going to change the color, paint everything.
Keith Tanner said:
Ha ha ha ha ha ha.
No. If you're preserving a car to some arbritary specification, you're doing that for a future owner, not yourself.
Mostly this, but there are some people who seem to enjoy preserving and admiring things in a certain state rather than using them, even though it's incredibly difficult to understand. I used to work with a guy like this - he put a few basic performance mods on his RunX and then proceeded to do nothing but gently DD it, I stopped trying to convince him to try motorsport when he said he'd have to start charging me for the time I spent doing this 
Our manager at the place later told me that this guy did the same thing with a road bicycle before I started working there...the flesh-eating variant of this disease are the people who care about "numbers matching" and original (as in applied at the factory, not just stock-spec) paint. I guess that some people like this have lots of money, and these are the people who most of those in that crowd are preserving their cars for...
Keith Tanner said:
Ha ha ha ha ha ha.
No. If you're preserving a car to some arbritary specification, you're doing that for a future owner, not yourself.
What if you are the future owner you are preserving it for?
I have been around enough modified cars to greatly appreciate a bone stock one and would desire to keep it that way. I'd LOVE to have an all original '83 GTI...
In reply to obsolete :
Believe you me, I really really REALLY was trying to use 12x1.25 fasteners everywhere on the Mini because that is what Subaru used.
Eventually I gave up and decided that it still made sense that all fasteners that I installed would be 12x1.75. All Subaru fasteners are 12x1.25. And all Mini fasteners would be 12x1.5 but I am fairly sure all Mini fasteners are gone.
Which is another weird thing to think about.
Nope.
I'll never financially be able to own anything that originality would affect future resale value, so anything I own will get modified and tweaked or 'ruined' to fit my personality.
Pete. (l33t FS) said:
I have been around enough modified cars to greatly appreciate a bone stock one and would desire to keep it that way. I'd LOVE to have an all original '83 GTI...
I like near original cars; I would love a 83 GTI but I'd likely do things like upgraded shcoks and brake pads. If the motor needed freshing up I might increase the bore, clean up the ports and perhaps install larger valves.
Keith Tanner said: If you're preserving a car to some arbritary specification, you're doing that for a future owner, not yourself.
I don't usually worry about the future owner, but when I broke the piggybank to paint my 911 I figured it should be Oll Korrect and went with factory-level orange peel versus flawless.
FTS, still catches my eye 3 years later.
Let me check...
Turns out, I'm not running a museum, so no.
