LarryC
Curator of #10105275
Sins of modification! (See recent Technical Forum "Vapour Lock"), such as, how come my tag line says "all original" when I have got all these mods. This is actually an interesting topic for discussion and I believe there is some interest on this very forum in this very topic! This is also a question that gets batted back and forth among us older vehicle types. Variations on this question arise in most of the vintage car and truck forums. Maybe I should “modify” my statement to say the Crab is “Bob Brown modified” or, in other words, replacement parts and upgrades have been added that replace original parts but may be of slightly different manufacture; meaning things that can be returned to pure stock without welding, painting, and searching for mysterious parts to bolt back into mysterious holes.
OK, so here are my modifications:
-trunk and frunk carpet from an ’85 instead of the rubber ’79 mats
-Delco alternator (the very first mod, done in 1979!)
-headlight relay mod
-electric fuel pump
-Daytonas and 60x185 13 rubber
-Aluminum expansion tank
-aftermarket coil and plug wires
-modern thermal shield on the exhaust manifold instead of the sheet metal shield
-small scissors jack carefully mounted where the old death jack was located.
I am thinking hard here, but I think that’s about it. Most of my attention has been devoted to maintaining what its got. Everything else is just replaced. Like the exhaust system from exhaust manifold to muffler, right down to the hangers are all new but original equipment style.
Otherwise all of the factory-installed equipment is there and working or suitable replacements (struts and stock springs, new original style carb, new original weatherstrips, carpet), including emissions equipment and related plumbing. In some circles this is also known as either “well-maintained” or “unmolested”. There are tipping points where the mods or maintenance goes too far, and the definition of “too far” is specific to each individual no doubt.
But my point is that I have modified a lot of cars over the years and the results are variable. After most modifications, a lot of effort goes into fixing things at the other end of the cascade that occurs when something that was originaly there gets removed or “upgraded”. And I believe that it has been mentioned here before that modified vehicles sometimes get less attention than unmodified but well-maintained ones. I have a couple of other vehicle like that. The one with all the do-dads gets hardly a notice. But the more or less original one is hard to drive, because everyone is all over it.
So maybe that is where I am coming from on the X. Since the Crab has been kept pretty much “original” in this respect, I am enjoying driving it and not fiddling with my modifications so much. I can also focus on getting things working right when they don’t seem to be working right. For example, instead of all sorts of fixes for overheating brought on by power modifications or other things that cascade into the cooling system, I can just focus on re-newing the cooling system to spec. It is not a street-burning buzz bomb perhaps, but it runs well and pretty sweetly. Maybe I will change the signature to “unmolested”!
The origin of the name “Crab” is another story involving a seafood restaurant and a strange advertisement which I will save for another time:wink2:.
OK, so here are my modifications:
-trunk and frunk carpet from an ’85 instead of the rubber ’79 mats
-Delco alternator (the very first mod, done in 1979!)
-headlight relay mod
-electric fuel pump
-Daytonas and 60x185 13 rubber
-Aluminum expansion tank
-aftermarket coil and plug wires
-modern thermal shield on the exhaust manifold instead of the sheet metal shield
-small scissors jack carefully mounted where the old death jack was located.
I am thinking hard here, but I think that’s about it. Most of my attention has been devoted to maintaining what its got. Everything else is just replaced. Like the exhaust system from exhaust manifold to muffler, right down to the hangers are all new but original equipment style.
Otherwise all of the factory-installed equipment is there and working or suitable replacements (struts and stock springs, new original style carb, new original weatherstrips, carpet), including emissions equipment and related plumbing. In some circles this is also known as either “well-maintained” or “unmolested”. There are tipping points where the mods or maintenance goes too far, and the definition of “too far” is specific to each individual no doubt.
But my point is that I have modified a lot of cars over the years and the results are variable. After most modifications, a lot of effort goes into fixing things at the other end of the cascade that occurs when something that was originaly there gets removed or “upgraded”. And I believe that it has been mentioned here before that modified vehicles sometimes get less attention than unmodified but well-maintained ones. I have a couple of other vehicle like that. The one with all the do-dads gets hardly a notice. But the more or less original one is hard to drive, because everyone is all over it.
So maybe that is where I am coming from on the X. Since the Crab has been kept pretty much “original” in this respect, I am enjoying driving it and not fiddling with my modifications so much. I can also focus on getting things working right when they don’t seem to be working right. For example, instead of all sorts of fixes for overheating brought on by power modifications or other things that cascade into the cooling system, I can just focus on re-newing the cooling system to spec. It is not a street-burning buzz bomb perhaps, but it runs well and pretty sweetly. Maybe I will change the signature to “unmolested”!
The origin of the name “Crab” is another story involving a seafood restaurant and a strange advertisement which I will save for another time:wink2:.
It's all worth it.