[Trackrash]

You can see my discision by looking in my GARAGE.

Basically you need to decide if you want to hot rod your car or keep it stock.

FWIW, when I first got my '71 T I thought it had great performance on the street as it was.

If you want to go the hot rod route, you have two choices.

First do some upgrades to the motor you have. More compression, more displacement, bigger cams and carbs. You know the drill. There are a number of options available for these motors. E cams and more compression would be a nice bump in performance.

Or if the motor you have is the original you could always put it on a shelf and put something bigger in.

Brake upgrades are probably over the top, unless you plan on tracking the car, IMO. However they could be bolt-ons and undone in the future. "S" brakes are a nice upgrade, but you will have to change out the struts to do it, but IMO worth while.

As far as value goes, the rule of thumb is original is best. But if you look at the $$$$ that some of the hot rod back dates have been going for the argument may no longer be valid.

As far as color goes, are you going to strip the entire car to bare metal? Or just do a basic respray? Again value may be a concern. If it is the original color, is it a common shade or a rare color? If it is a common color probably not much worry over value if you change to something you like. As long as the respray is quality.