Oh.... My Gawd.... Ebay Depresses Me

[Ragtop_Renegade]

Currently on ebay - one of the rare, almost unheard of Pontiac 308 Mera dealer special-ordered Fiero conversions. The guy selling this thing misspelled so many words it's pathetic. If he's got a high school diploma, the public school system has obviously failed.
The car has a laundry list of bolt on aftermarket stuff that would be cool on your 86 GT, but NEVER on a rare collector car. It would probably cost over 20 grand to restore the thing back to original condition, IF you could find all of the Conversion Concepts specialty parts. What a shame. I'm nearly in tears.

Does stuff like this bother anyone else, or is it just me?

[MagicRat]

Originally Posted by Ragtop_Renegade

Does stuff like this bother anyone else, or is it just me?

No, it's just you.....















j/k!
Some things that people do to rare, vintage cars really pisses me off.
It's okay to bolt something on to a rare, vintage or collector car, but keep the old parts and imho only do stuff that is easily removed or reversed.

A guy I knew a few years ago spent years hunting down a particular 1953 Buick Roadmaster. This car was untouched original......... factory original paint interior, everything........ The previous owners had taken great trouble to preserve a treasured museum piece, probably the only one in the country (Canada).

So what does my buddy do? He cuts off the front half of the frame, welds in a Nova subframe, throws away the original drivetrain and replaces it with a 401 Buick V8, trans and accessories. ( and scraps his decent '60's Buick Riviera for the parts.)

So he has destroyed 2 valuable Buicks to make a very expensive retro-rod that he hardly drives.

[Old Lar]

I like my 98% stock 87 GT. My 88 GT was going to stay stock, but there were too many things wrong with it, so the engine, transmission interior were replaced. The engine is a 3.4, with a 440t auto and Mr. Mikes interior. I put a chin spoiler on the front. More invested than you can get out.

I also have an 88 IMSA wide body coupe with a ZZ4 V8 from V8 Archie. None of these cars can be sold for what they cost to maintain or build. Most all work that has been done on the cars has been done by a "professional" mechanic, although I did the Mr Mikes interior.

They don't get driven much any more, just to some car shows, which seem to be mostly several hours or days drive away.

The few times I get into them, they do bring a smile to my face as they are fun to drive.

It is a shame to take a limited production car or rare car to pimp land and screw them up.

[Ragtop_Renegade]

Originally Posted by Old Lar

My 88 GT was going to stay stock, but there were too many things wrong with it, so the engine, transmission interior were replaced.

Now that's exactly what hod rodding is all about. It's that fine line where historic preservation is no longer a reasonable option. While the 88 GT is one of the highest (but not THE highest) demand - lowest supply Fieros around, there are still enough to toy with and not have to feel guilty about it. You had a trashed interior, dead motor and a weak tranny, so you took the initiative to upgrade.

I wonder how many t-top Fieros (total produced was around 1,200 in 88, I believe) were molested, hacked, kit-car'd or (eek!) parted out.