Speed is the New Black
 

So when exactly does a vehicle become something other than the vehicle it was manufactured as?

On this weeks "Speed is the New Black", they took an original 1953 Ford F100 and after the rehab the only thing remaining from the original was the cab. The bed, fenders, chassis, doors, and engine were all replaced with new parts that most of which were not just repops of the 1953 stuff. The chassis in particular is a brand new model that is based on another vehicle altogether. My guess is that 90% of the original vehicle was replaced.

They do incredible work and the show is better than most of those types of shows.

My question is: when you do that much work and replace so much original stuff, is it still a 1953 F100? Or is it now something else that is based upon an original vehicle?

I have mixed feelings about the answer but am leaning towards this is a new vehicle with a couple of old parts to give it a vintage feel.

Good question.

I've seen antique airplanes "restored" where all they started with was the data plate. Nothing else of the original plane remained. Completely built with "new" parts, but to mostly original standards -- yet, still titled as a 1928 Whatever.

Similar changes made to some of Jay Leno's cars, where all that remains of the original is the exterior sheet metal and some of the interior. Frame, suspension, motor, etc., have all been modded. Sort of, any relation to the original is purely coincidental.

Problem is who/whom will decide how much is required?

With the 53 F100 the question is did you destroy the vehicle to build a new one? If yes, then I believe they went too far.

If most of the 53 F100 was a rusted hulk then more power too them for giving it a new lease on life.

Yeah, its hard to say. They touted it as a nearly rust free survivor but then chose to trash nearly everything. I could understand getting a new frame if the old one was too far gone then keeping everything else to preserve originality. If that were the case, I would call it a 1953 F100. But in this case, they seemed to just willingly get rid of everything regardless which makes me want to say it is a 1953 cab on totally new parts.

We went through this in a race series that had a fixed list of marque's you could run.

At what point have you changed the "soul" of the car?

We decided on a more simple formula of this: The drivetrain must match the marque and if you remove all the added/modified parts the car should still be able to drive.

In Canada, for aircraft you have to have 15% of the original aircraft in order to restore it to the data plate. I believe the FAA has a similar requirement. I have seen aircraft rebuilt from the data plate alone using rotables pulled from other aircraft in the fleet that once lived on the subject aircraft, as the 15% requirement is very poorly defined.
Not really relevant to cars, but speaks to rf5's point.

The shop hit the mark with their mid 60's rat rod Chevy truck that's twin turbo'd featuring some really good exposed metal fab work. Think classic meets rust meets high end street / road course vehicle.

The show has already become just like all the others very quickly, 'high end 'clients' with tight dead lines and manufactured drama. They've already lost me.

Watched that show once. There were more commercials than show, decided to not watch the broadcast version.

Saw several years ago someone was selling just the bits with the serial numbers on them from a 356 speedster. Was asking a lot.

I've seen a few boats with literally nothing left of the original. Lets replace a few planks. Oops, look like the ribs were worse than we thought. Now that we can see the keel its gotta go... You'd be hard pressed to know the finished product wasnt just a refresh, if its done properly.

I saw call it whatever you want, just be upfront about what was changed.

"Reality" car shows have jumped the shark as far as I'm concerned...

I respect the metal and paintwork that these guys do and the 'personalities' on the show do not grate on me but I have yet to see a finished vehicle that I like. Guess I just don't like their designs.

I watch when I cant find anything else I like. OK show.