Re: 12 voly conversion lessons learned

Posted by Owen_Dyneto On 2009/4/10 19:03:38

OMIGOD, another 12-volt conversion. Oh for the good old days when folks wanted to save a piece of history and experience what it was like to own, maintain and drive cars of a prior era. When I started in this hobby longer ago than I want to remember, it was all about preservation of cars of an older era, learning to maintain them, and getting the driving skills needed which were often different that we had learned. And preservation meant authenticity. Sure there was some restoration, but not to the standards we see today, more often than not a "restoration" was a home paint job, some reupholstery done by a handy owner or wife, and some plating. If you didn't have the mechanical skills to do your own work, you probably weren't in the hobby in the first place. We felt like we were preserving a piece of automotive history for future generations.

Today it seems the goal of so many is to have a Packard skin covering as many of the modern features as we can cram into it, A/C, disc brakes, alternators, 12-volt conversions, replacement transmissions and engines in some cases, tilt steering columns, etc. And of course a rationale for all those things. Nothing historically significant in that kind of a vehicle, and in some cases it certainly detracts from future value, but it's your $, just don't call it "restoration" - (from Webster's Unabridged - bringing back into a former unimpaired state)

I don't mean to rub anyone's nose out of joint with this, just reminiscing about how the hobby has changed. And in some ways, not for the better.