Didn't have to be beat on and thrashed to have the "goodies" removed. Those were some valuable $$ parts that would bring the bucks at the swap meet or save some bucks fixing up another car. Like I said in another one of your threads, I had a similar experience with a '71 Cuda that was originally a 340 4-spd Shaker car. The previous owner before me replaced the gilled fenders with slick ones, replaced the Shaker with a J54 "double-bubble" hood, and replaced the 340 with a 383. He pulled all the good stuff off of the car for some other car project he was building. It was a fairly common practice back in the '70's and early '80's and I did the same myself more than once. I don't think the words "factory correct" and "restoration" really came into vogue until the late 80's about the same time that the muscle car prices went verticle and took off for the moon.
I hear you Tom. But I do remember now that the guy we bought it from was adament that I restore to original
form . I understand now because for the first time in 26 years I finally looked at the fender tag. With the help of this
sight and all the great info on it I understand my whole story with this car. Talking to my Mom and recollecting on when
she bought it for me we recalled what he told us. The car was beat up in some movie and he bought it as a real Mopar
Man. He had already restored a hemi Cuda, a Super bird and some special Duster. The GTX 440 was a beauty. Burnt
Orange with white final top white interior.440 GTX down the sides. All original unrestored. He said that I needed to restore
My Cuda someday to its original form. Well until recently I thought wrongly that it was. So my journey to put it back now begins.
Cheers
