Changing The Color,,,

[86turbonational]

Hi,

I am in the process of my frame off and im really trying to decide what to do with the color on this thing. the car was a 1985 t-type that had bench seat, column shift, no power anything, and is silver. this is a 1 owner car with 60k actual miles.

I am keeping it hotair but building it along with a fresh rebuild due to sitting for the last 11 years. the car will appear to be stock but im hoping for a mid 12 et. out of it. I am converting it into the bucket seats with center console simply because its more desirable and with the car stripped this far it will be easy to do.

as i said the car originally was silver with gray interior. im planning on keeping the gray interior and was seriously thinking of painting the outside a very light gray, almost like a dull silver. the more t-types i look at im finding more colors i seem to fall in love with.

My question is, do you think if i was to paint this car blue or something would it take away from the value when i sell? if i stay with the light gray it would somewhat match the rpo codes. I dont think anyone would ever really pay much attention to that. it would be more obvious if the rpo codes states its a silver car thats blue.

so dollar wise would this be a mistake? would you buy a car because it was beautiful and was a different color? im paying almost 9k for the repaint and thats with me completly stripping the car myself!!

thanks for help on this tough decision..

 

[Turbo6Smackdown]

absolutely. If it doesnt match its rpo sticker to the T, itll be worthless when its in its prime collector status. In our world, rarity obviously dont play a part with desirability (i have no reason why though). So, to break it down, you have two things that makes a tr worth what its worth. Rarity and performance.
For now, since theyre really not fully there yet, in terms of true collectability, all you have is performance. But, in about another 10-15 years from now, I believe all of these cars (hot airs and intercooleds) will be worth a lot of money, because of what they were, and their rarity, which, will be a lot more then, cuz people are CONSTANTLY crushing and stealing these things.. I say return it to stock, tune it right, then start adding the mods one by one, to get to your desired performance level, never making a modification that isnt returnable to factory. Youll thank me in 10 years...
Just go to a concours d' elegance show in 15 years from now, and see what a mint, bone stock grand national of ANY year will fetch.

 

[Ormand]

I don't think that the color of a "T" is that big of a deal as far as resale value. For a GN, or a GNX, it's pretty important, but since a "T" could have been any Buick color, I don't think that repainting it would hurt it. THe "T" was rarer than the GN, but the sales price doesn't show it. Maybe in twenty years, but that's a real long shot.

 

[Turbo6Smackdown]

Id keep her original.. youll thank me later.

 

[turbofish38]

I'd say stick with stock since it is a low mileage one owner. If it was a multi owner high miles and the repaint was done right with a factory color than I would also say that is also a good choice. I think the only things that can devalue one of our cars are crappy paint color selections and modifactions that aren't easily reversable like IC conversions on a hot air and roll cages and frame notching. Not that you would want to go back to stock if you did those things. I doubt that the value will ever get that high to warrant that sort of thing.

 

[86turbonational]

keep in mind also that i AM doing the bucket seats and center console which is somewhat unreversable. the actual floors are different i will keep the original bench seat and column shifter in my garage just in case....

 

[Turbo6Smackdown]

go look at all those original owner barracudas, darts, chargers, camaros etc, that swapped their engines and sold em... and ask them how much they would like to still have their oem stuff.. we are going to be those 65 year old guys at the car shows, saying.. "man, i wish i didnt sell those parts..."

Had a guy, parked kitty corner from me at a car show at wild woodys here in roseville... had an all tan on tan numbers matching road runner, get offered right there in the parking lot, a 6 figures number to buy it right there on the spot.. dude turned em down... key words...numbers matching.

"Well yea, its a road runner..our cars will never rise to that status..."

Yea ok, you keep telling yourself that. And by the way, since you have a real time machine, tell me the next winning lottery number too while youre at it.
Noone but noone had ANY IDEA what they were driving back in 1960-1974.

My parents, when they were young, saved up enough money to drive off the lot, a brand new 74 duster, and a 74 charger.. they paid PEANUTS for those cars.. drove them till they had a trillion miles on em, and sold em for DIRT. NOW? i would KILL to have those cars back. I could EASILY, and with a blindfold on, turn those cars back to bone stock, and have a small mint on my hands.. Point is, dont listen to the people that say our cars wont be worth anything, cuz you simply DONT KNOW, and WILL NOT KNOW, till youre actually THERE. Why not error on the side of prudence, and keep her stock, or returnable to stock, and find out then. Look at the buicks now, that are fetching 20 grand already.. Dont be that man.. youll be kicking yourself later bro.

(and while youre at a carshow, with whatever you got... Ill be there, with my then, mint, bone stock grand national, laughing all day, cuz mines allll original. Why? cuz I have every original piece to my car, from day one and can easily re-install it whenever I want. )

 

[bison]

I think your crazy if you dont do what makes you happy. Dont take peoples opinions very seriously. It was mentioned that performance and rarity are what makes these cars valuable. This is not totally true. Stock performance was mediocre on the 84-85's and they are not rare imo with the thousands that were built. Demand is the key here. Not much else when determining the values of anything. You can pick up a very nice low mileage 84-85 TR for under 7k. If you have a car that you are probably never going to sell than i advise painting it whatever color makes you happy. I bought an 86 GN in Jan that was blue metallic with a little pearl in it. A very sharp car. Would it be worth more with black paint? Maybe. Maybe someone wants a blue GN that has a pocketfull of cash. Could be worth a lot more to that person than a black one. I wouldnt have bought that one if it was black. It wont stay anywhere near stock either. Probably have a cage in it next year. Btw this car is blue everywhere. I didnt see much evidence of black paint on it till i pulled the door panels. Everything that is visible or could be made visible under close inspection was painted. Even under the hood insulator is painted. Dont get me wrong if this was a 2 owner 10k mile original car i wouldnt touch anything on it. I wouldnt have much fun with it either, unless i enjoyed looking at a nice car. If you change colors do it completely. No half a$$ skip the door jambs etc. paint job. Have fun.

 

[86turbonational]

Well this is not a car that im gonna have forever. this is a car that i want to restore and eventually sell, i will probably keep it for a year or two and then sell it to restore a 1987 gn.

I like the responses from everyone, its always nice to hear others comments. Like i said i want the car to be worth something but i know i will probably never get what i have in it back. I got this car super cheap and im gonna put about 15k into it, i love the projects and how the finished product looks. once its done i will loose interest and sell it off.

At this point i am thinking about repainting it silver but a little darker silver than factory. I cant stand the color it is right now.

keep the comments comming

jamie..

 

[corymc]

yeah you should do what you want with it. but also back then people didnt think that what they where driving would be collectable. and now everybody is keeping everythiing and thinking that it is going to be worth so much money. in my own opinion if people are holding on to everything thinking its gonna be worth money then there will be alot more (cars) for example around thus making them not as rare. Another thing is that yes they may go up in value but not every car is going to be a barret jackson car pulling in major $, and the car is only worth what that person is willing to buy it for. But im considering changing the color of my turbo t and i am unsure too. just see what others have to say