Hot Rods Original Steel or reproduction?

If a car is an all Steel reproduction, is it worthy? Or does it have to be original factory Steel for you to give it the time of day? I'd like to know your opinion, and why...

 

I always like original better, but I can appreciate a good repro. Fiberglass not so much, but there have been a few good glass cars built.

 

IMO an all steel original will always be worth more .

 

Depends on why you want the car. For how it looks, how much fun it is to drive, how it makes you feel. I personally think old cars have a personality, and a soul, that reproductions simply do not have.

 

I've done around 15 Brookville 32 roadsters several finished but also Pkg cars for customers. I enjoyed each one I did. I've also been fortunate to have owned 5 original 32 roadster bodies over the years. I currently own an original bodied 32 Highboy but if the right money came along it would be gone and I'd start another build with a Brookville body. It never bothered me that the bodies were original or reproduction and apparently it didn't bother the buyers as they all stepped up to the plate to buy my finished products.

 

I don't really care what its worth if if isn't my car, but I personally would prefer an original steel car just because its an old car. The new repro stuff like Brookville bodies are ok but its kinda like having imitation ice cream...its pretty good but lacks character and taste.

 

worthy to me? yeah, old steel means more to me than modern steel shaped like old steel.

But as we know, it's pretty difficult to have an old car in great condition that is 100% old stuff. So, we have to compromise.

 

Having worked on a pile of original rusty bodies, I can tell you I have nothing against reproduction metal bodies.
Where is the line between original steel with just about every patch panel available welded on, and a complete rust free reproduction body? How much of the original body has to remain to keep its original "personality"?
I think if a car is completely rebuilt but not as it was before the rebuild, it forms a new personality, and weather or not there is original metal left doesn't make much difference. If you take an original car, and turn it into a hot rod, its original personality has been altered. If its more cost effective to start with a new reproduction body, go for it. Gene

 

Original steel is the most significant to me. The only thing more worthy and significant would be if you can reproduce a car in even OLDER steel than original.
For instance if you want a reproduction 49 Ford, take 2 original 32 Ford s and cut them up. Hammer weld all the steel into a 49 Ford body. It then becomes better and cooler because its built from even OLDER metal. Older DNA. I think most people on here would agree with me.

 

If you do a Studebaker, well at least one from the midwest, you will have half of the car replaced with patch panels, ask me how I know. With my panel working skills I'd be better off to buy a repro body (Brookville or??) and a repro frame, like Clint Eastwood said, "a man has to know his limitations"

I am just amazed at the talent that some folks have on here. The guy with the Willys that was built from throw away tin is a magician, and he is not the only one that posts on here. I like 'em all.

 

Reproduction is too perfect, got to have some warts for character.

 

Reproductions to me have the same connotation as a reproduced painting . Nice to look at but does not hold the same meaning. An old car has a history whether you know the history or not. Getting behind the wheel of a '55 Chevy you know it is a survivor , kind of like you are the caretaker. Jump into a newly reproduced car you just cannot draw the same feeling.

 

had I been born rich instead of handsome I wouldn't mind owning a steel repro car. maybe a Model A roadster pickup. I could even see buying all the bits and pieces and bolting one together, that would eliminate all the dirty rusty greasy shitty part of building a car.

the point is moot however since I could not even afford to buy a new glass body. let alone steel.

 

Need a "definition" here : does "original" apply only to a rusty, bent, with bullet holes, half-buried hulk or does it also apply to a total "restoration" with replacement parts, new(different brand) engine, fresh paint, etc? OR should "restoration" apply ONLY to "brought back to like when it rolled off the factory assembly line", even though replacement parts, patch panels, new upholstery, etc were necessary?

 

Insert graphic of a dead horse being beaten here

 

How would you know if a piece of art is original or reproduction? There have been several "fake" paintings in art museums that have fooled the experts.

 

First off, I have a '30/'31 Brookville "A" roadster that I bought as a "mocked up" rolling chassis mounted on a P&J repro '32 frame. I've had every nut, bolt and screw out and back in at least 3 times, and changed a lot of the setup from what I bought. I've used, TIG, MIG,and OA welders on it, as well as every machine tool in my well equipped shop, plus others for work I couldn't do with my equipment, all on this one car. The car isn't "finished", as no true hot rod is ever truly finished, IMO, but it has been driven quite a lot, and acquitted itself fairly well on the drag strip when this now 81 year old doesn't fuck up the deal, and to me it's worth all the efforts I've expended in the approx 10 years I've had it.
Before I bought it, I spent a lot of time and drove lots of miles looking at rusty old bodies out behind barns and at swap meets. And I knew that none of the ones I found were within my capabilities to build in my remaining active years. The weather conditions here in GA aren't kind to exposed old tin!
By the time I completed it, and drove it a few years I knew I was happy with my choice, but that I also needed a closed car for my driving in unfavorable weather, and also that it wasn't in my physical capabilites to build from even the point I built BGII, my roadster. So I started looking around and bought a nice, and completed '40 Ford coupe for bad weather.
Very happy with both, could give a shit less whether the original tin or the repro is worth more respectively, as I intend to keep them til;l I die
And those that don't like my choices can make theirs as they see fit, and as far as what they want for themselves, that's their choice.

 

I prefer original steel. But I have no problem with reproduction either. My Model A is a combination of original parts and Brookeville. My Roadster pickup will probably be the same, because it's hard to find some original pieces that are decent.

 

Amen brother!

 

For me, it all comes down to availability. I really wanted an original body for the "soul" it may or may not have, but it really is impossible to find a really good Model-A Roadster body in my part of the US, so I opted for a Brookville. It will sit on repo 32 rails with Model-A cross members, I am doing my best to use vintage original parts everywhere else. For me, using old vintage (pre-60) components contributes to it's soul and gives the car it's character more than just a body anyway. Let's face it, only a car's builder knows a car's soul, not somebody that purchased a finished project.

 

This is the gospel. I’ll take a tattered old car over a shiney repro all day long

 

A car is more than a body, I think we'd all agree on that.
I was lucky enough to buy an original '32 chassis that was under a nice body going off to be a street rod.
Now my metal working skills are next to nonexistent, so I opted for one rather large patch panel shaped like a '32 roadster from Brookville.
I understand it's not 100% original, but with unboxed rails, Lockeed brakes, a latter 3 speed and Mercury flathead it should be just what I wanted.
And you ask "what is it I want?" How about a fun to drive old car. I've been thinking about a vehicle like this since about 1972.
-Dave

 

I think at some level this question is pointless. The guys with original cars it was obviously important for them and they got what made them happy. The guys with reproduction steel bodies got what worked for them. Guys with original cars that needed patches probably didn't go cutting up another old body and only use that in repairing their "original steel" bodies. Chances are good they used new patches somewhere. Also the character or soul of a car comes from its owner and its history over time, which can be applied to both cases. My reproduction steel car is built by me from the ground up so as far as I am concerned I have put my soul into it. I intend to have it a long time so it will get some history to it too before I'm gone!

 

Who cares, build it and drive it

 

Shape an design are king...........................................................................................
I even loved the OUTLAW,an it started out as kind of paper mache.

 

I've had both, and I can tell you once you put your blood sweat and tears into it and they come alive and move, they all have their own soul.

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I like them all, including glass cars and IMO they all have a place in our great Hobby. To each their own said the farmer as he hugged his cow. Again IMO getting all snobby/shity over real, repop and glass is childish and can't help but notice some of the biggest whiners/bitchers on this subject don't have any Pic's in their profile/media page. No Pic's, Never Happened.

 

Brookville body. I think my sons face says it all.

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Love my originals! But never gonna knock anybody else's ride either way. Just be proud of what you got!!

 

I think the repro stuff has plenty of warts just different warts...

I'm not joking either Flop points it out all the time and glass has so many variations from fantastic to not so...

I'm open to all...the Late Langy and many others have done wonders with glass

I mean bottom line, if you ace the Traditional look that floats here I'll park beside you at the cruise no problemo...we are on the same page...I hate to say it but these type of threads generally alienate a portion of the membership and that is really not where we should be going.