davidmiles wrote:funny thing originality, if originality means as it came out of the factory, then thats only one aspect of the vehicles life, a vehicle like that is great for shows or a museum exhibit, but these things were designed for a working life on Farms,small businesses like landscape gardeners. they changed throughout their practical lives, so it's at what point in the vehicles working life are you depicting it in? Mine is as it was when it worked for the small engineering company that gave it to me. That was toward the end of it's life and many minor modifications were added to make preservation and working day to day easier.
I'm really struggling to see what you're trying to say. Originality is a very very simple concept to understand, and there's no middle ground.
For something (a car in this case) to be in original condition, it must be as it was when it was new. Not after 20 years of successive owners have added bits, taken bits away, and generally screwed with it.
In real terms no restored car can ever be 'original' it's quite impossible to effect repairs to a vehicle, maybe replacing sections of bodywork, fresh paint, new rubbers and assorted mechanical bits, and then suggest it's original. The original bits have gone in the bin so at best what's left is a car that's been restored to a current condition which has (depending on what work has been done) the possibility of being 'like original' or very far from original.
These vehicles were like most other vehicles designed just to be used and then thrown away when finished with. As a result those that are left are generally in very poor condition, and bearing the scars (or open wounds) of not just the years of use and abuse on the road, but maybe years of not so good storage.
Worse still if said car has been the subject of an amateur 'restoration' such work will almost certainly have done more harm than good, and eradicated most if not all of whatever originality the vehicle had left. Those who really know what they're doing know that you're far better off finding a car that has had no previous amateur 'restoration' work.
In my opinion any work done in the name of restoration should be to as good a standard as possible, if corners are cut you run the very real risk of being little more than another mechanism to send the poor vehicle closer to it's doom. Patching over rot, is not restoration. If this means leaving work to someone who is capable of carrying out work to a better standard then so be it.
In addition to all this, if we want to be pedantic about it, any 'restoration' that is to anything less than 100% original specification (note I said specification, not condition) isn't a restoration at all. It's something else. A rebuild maybe.
Just for clarity, the aim of this pick up project is to end up with a vehicle that is rebuilt to a specification that whilst not 100% original, is (save for the aforementioned minor modifications) a vehicle of exceptional quality in 'near' original condition. Just because the owner and I feel that radial tyres, or an alternator are more practical than crossplies and a dynamo does not mean that any other corners should be cut. After all if something has to be painted, why not at least research the correct colour, as it was originally.
