[Shotimes] Plastic Hood Poll

[Donald Mallinson]

Ron,

I have been there (buyers side) a lot of times as you know.

My point is that I have seen lots of SHO's built after 5-91 
that do NOT have the plastic hood.  That is a fact. So that 
is why I don't and can't agree with the premise that they 
were ALL built with the hood after a certain date.  Plain 
and simple. I have never seen a true plus without the hood. 
  These are not hard concepts to get a brain around.

Why don't we just start checking VIN's at the next 
convention and see if we can come up with an answer.  Loser 
buys a couple beers for the winner.


Now to make a short answer long....About adding the parts, I 
agree the hood is easy to replace, but that act leaves clues 
when you do.  Also, you can't just add on the spoiler,  I 
don't know of too many people that can, or would go to the 
trouble to punch the factory style holes in the two layers. 
  It will be REAL easy to spot an added-on spoiler, unless 
they change the entire lid, and then there will also be lots 
of clues on the bolts, and in the color.  Tough to take old 
parts and have them match in color/wear/tear etc when they 
have been on two different cars in different environments 
for years. Possible, but hard.

With collector cars, absolute factory built originality is 
valuable to some and not to others.  An added spoiler could 
ruin it for me maybe, but not for someone else.


As for replacing "missing" parts of packages on collectible 
cars.  If you are saying to add something that was never 
there, and sell it as "factory original" then you could find 
someone waving a fist or worse, a gun, in your face in some 
places!

If on the other hand the spoiler or hood was removed and 
then replaced to bring the car back to factory original, 
then that is OK to most collectors that buy restored cars. 
As with almost anything, you can't just say it is OK to add 
options.  It is to some, not to others.  The SHO will 
probably never be valuable enough to make this a real issue, 
but not so with quite a few other really rare cars.

Don Mallinson



Ron Porter wrote:
> Don, as I mentioned in a private post, look at it from a buyer's
> perspective.
> 
> I may find a '91 with a steel hood and no spoiler, being sold by a
> SHO-illiterate person. I can better determine whether the car was a Plus by
> the other clues (chrome trim, blackout, body-color moldings) than by the
> presence/absence of the hood or spoiler. I may then be able to get an
> original Plus at a very good price.
> 
> Frankly the hood and spoiler are the easiest things to replace.
> 
> As you know with other collectible cars, if you find what was an original
> model of something, you can then replace the missing parts and not be
> dishonest in what you're doing.
> 
> Ron Porter