Opinions wanted, owner or caretaker?

[Saito2]

If someone pressed me hard to name my favorite car on the planet, it would probably be the star of my favorite movie, Two Lane Blacktop. Without going into much too much detail, there were three 55 Chevys used in the movie, a main or "hero" car, a camera car and a stunt car. The camera car has been restored (thankfully!) to its proper guise in the movie. The main car got recycled, receiving some tweaks and a black paint job for use in a more well-known movie, American Graffiti. These 55 Chevys were no mere prop cars, but real-deal, built street machines that ran 10s in the quarter mile.

After American Graffiti, the now-black 55 made its way through several owners, each preserving the movie heritage of the car. Eventually it made it to a fellow in Maryland, a state just south of me. I got to see it in person at many car shows I visited and honestly, I was furious at what the owner had done. He had the car completely customized, removing many of the parts that made it the unique movie car it was. Ironically, the shop that was paid to ruin the car (in my eyes) for this owner was located one town over from my hometown, about 5 miles from where I live. The guy wanted it to be a more streetable show piece. Fortunately, he no longer has it. A couple Youtube videos have popped up recently where the new, current owner has taken measures to bring the car back to its movie-correct appearance. Of course that will mean a lot of "un-doing" of the thoughtless customization and many of the original movie car parts are gone for good. At least the current owner is being respectful of the car's heritage.

So, the question is, when someone owns something such as this, do they do as they please with it? They are the owners after all. They had the money at the right time. Or, should they be more of a caretaker, understanding its history and value for the future? In the above narrative, the fellow who ruined the car's originality could have purchased any 55 Chevy to cut up and make his own. My question is, why ruin something of historical importance just because you can? I think my stance on that subject is pretty clear, but what's yours? Mine is just personal opinion. There's no right or wrong answer in the end.

[ImALlama]

I think if someone’s buying a movie car it should be left the way it was in the movie, or last movie was used in, though I can see some exceptions being for things not seen/discussed in the movie/tv show. Example being if the engine bay was never seen, talked about, or relevant in any way and you wanted to make some changes to make daily driving it more reliable that’d probably be fine. I agree if your going to take it and change everything buying a movie car seems pointless, even if you don’t care about the particular movie there is someone else that does (not that most people these days consider that unfortunately) and it’s hard to imagine there isn’t another non movie one in similar condition available, and for less money. Being in a movie or show is part of what made that particular car rare and special, changing it takes some of that away. If you want your own spin on a movie car just build a tribute car instead.

Though conflicting with the above, I also feel even if i wouldn’t, they can do as they please, as I’m often asked a similar question about work I do for people “does it bother you that you spent all this time/energy/thought/etc into making whatever and you go back and see they destroyed or don’t take care of it?” And my answer always is ‘they paid me to create it, what they do with is their business, I think it’s stupid to destroy something you spent thousands to tens of thousands on but it’s their money to waste’.  Of course this second opinion of mine might just be because I’ve seen so much of this sort of thing that I gave up on caring 

 

[Saito2]

7 hours ago, ImALlama said:

Though conflicting with the above, I also feel even if i wouldn’t, they can do as they please, as I’m often asked a similar question about work I do for people “does it bother you that you spent all this time/energy/thought/etc into making whatever and you go back and see they destroyed or don’t take care of it?” And my answer always is ‘they paid me to create it, what they do with is their business, I think it’s stupid to destroy something you spent thousands to tens of thousands on but it’s their money to waste’.  Of course this second opinion of mine might just be because I’ve seen so much of this sort of thing that I gave up on caring 

Although I'd personally stop at wreaking something of historical significance (they can take something like that somewhere else to have it butchered), I feel you when it comes to customer's desires when building their more pedestrian personal vehicles. The first "bigger" job I had as a kid was to take a '67 Camaro, orange with a white top, and put new quarter panels on it, give it fresh interior upholstery and a new paint job. In the process, the owner decided to paint it teal and have a black top installed. Not my preference, but a paycheck is a paycheck. The day he picked up, he brought his big dog. The dog promptly leapt in the backseat, muddy paws and all, ready for a ride. The guy loved it and evidently drove everywhere with that dog. The last time I saw the car, the door sills and plates were covered with scratches from the dog's claws and the fresh backseat was basically ruined. Like you, I learned to stop caring what people did with my work as long as they were happy and payed their bills.

[ADRay1000]

9 hours ago, Saito2 said:

So, the question is, when someone owns something such as this, do they do as they please with it? 

Ultimately, yes. 

but it is painful to see people trash things that were perfect with their lack of taste. 

[Saito2]

2 minutes ago, ADRay1000 said:

Ultimately, yes. 

Sadly, this is the truth.

It does raise another question for me however. Why are some people compelled to ruin things of importance to others? Ignorance I understand. Many, now rare, cars got hacked up before they became collectable. No one knows what the future will bring. The Graffiti 55 in question was known to be of importance and was well preserved by earlier owners until this guy got it in the mid 80's. Why pay a premium for something like this car and then go about altering it? Is there some perverse pleasure in such a thing. A local, well-off amateur racer took great joy in tearing apart a numbers-matching, restored 60's Corvette to make it a drag car. He literally spend more money on the car to ruin it just to make others angry at his actions. It might be his choice but I don't understand the psychology of that.

[Pablo68]

I love muscle cars, both Aus and US ones. I will never have that kind of money though. Prices down here in Aus are stupid btw.

Probably the most famous movies cars from here, are the Ford Falcons in the Mad Max series of films (Road Warrior). I honestly think if Ford Aus could have exported and sold those Falcon Coupes in the US, they would have sold well.

Anyway, back on topic. My basic philosophy is anything historic, hard pass. There is a responsibility involved to keep it as it was. I used to chat with a buddy in the US about Dodge Chargers, the 68/9 years. He was talking about numbers matching and all that. Even back then they were expensive.
Myself, I said I'd like a non matching dunger. That way I could do what I want with it without worry. For me that would meant up rating the suspension and breaks....and something to make the steering not vague. Undecided on power train.

Enh, it'll never happen.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Pablo68 said:

I love muscle cars, both Aus and US ones. I will never have that kind of money though. Prices down here in Aus are stupid btw.

Probably the most famous movies cars from here, are the Ford Falcons in the Mad Max series of films (Road Warrior). I honestly think if Ford Aus could have exported and sold those Falcon Coupes in the US, they would have sold well.

Anyway, back on topic. My basic philosophy is anything historic, hard pass. There is a responsibility involved to keep it as it was. I used to chat with a buddy in the US about Dodge Chargers, the 68/9 years. He was talking about numbers matching and all that. Even back then they were expensive.
Myself, I said I'd like a non matching dunger. That way I could do what I want with it without worry. For me that would meant up rating the suspension and breaks....and something to make the steering not vague. Undecided on power train.

Enh, it'll never happen.

Who couldn't love this thing?. It is a work of art. 

[urban warrior]

7 hours ago, Saito2 said:

It does raise another question for me however. Why are some people compelled to ruin things of importance to others? Ignorance I understand. Many, now rare, cars got hacked up before they became collectable. No one knows what the future will bring. The Graffiti 55 in question was known to be of importance and was well preserved by earlier owners until this guy got it in the mid 80's. Why pay a premium for something like this car and then go about altering it? Is there some perverse pleasure in such a thing. A local, well-off amateur racer took great joy in tearing apart a numbers-matching, restored 60's Corvette to make it a drag car. He literally spend more money on the car to ruin it just to make others angry at his actions. It might be his choice but I don't understand the psychology of that.

I guess in many occasions money and sanity or style do not always go hand in hand. But as you stated quite early, it's their money and business and at least you cannot change it ... so why bother? We can get mad about this (I surely don't understand this "weird" mindset either!), but what will it help us. There are no laws preventing idiots from ruining treasures. There are loads of folks trying to get any other similar car to match a car they saw in the movies (The '55 Chevy from "American Graffity", the '58 Plymouth Fury from "Christine", the '69 Dodge Charger from "The Dukes of Hazard", ...) and there are people destroying the real deals. Sad but unavoidable. 🤷🏼‍♂️

I remember a video shortly after 2000, where a guy incinerated his custom build Clod-bodied Bruiser with tilt-bed and other goodies with a flamethrower he had mounted on another RC car. People were mad at him and I also couldn't understand why he was destroying that real peace of art he created. But it was his model and he build it and he decided to end its existence. I have no idea what lead him to do it and I couldn't change it so tick it off and go on. 🤷🏼‍♂️

[Kowalski86]

If I owned a car with any Hollywood historical significance, I'd restore it (but not go over board) and keep it clean, I'm not much of a customizer when it comes to 1:1 cars.

If someone else owned say...a General Lee and painted it green with giant donk wheels, I wouldn't really care. It's still a machine, not a living creature. The next rich Joe who gets it can always return it to a General Lee.

That being said, I always thought that this movie car had an interesting history:

https://www.geocities.ws/lovebugfans/moviecars/oilsquirting.htm

[Saito2]

5 hours ago, urban warrior said:

We can get mad about this

I admit I was furious as a stupid kid in my 20's when I saw what happened to the car. Now I'm a stupid adult nearing 50 and am not bothered as much. I'm still perplexed and sometimes seek to understand the mindset of others.

5 hours ago, urban warrior said:

(I surely don't understand this "weird" mindset either!)

I gave that some thought. Perhaps I need to check myself. Why am I bothered about the destruction of historical things, not just mere cars but buildings, artwork etc.? The truth is, I respect history, in general, overall and think there is much to be gained from studying it and not repeating its mistakes. Still, my distaste for its alteration or destruction is an emotional response and sometimes not governed by logic. It very well might be a "weird" mindset to care about such things especially to those who don't. It comes around again, those that have the money may do as they please and the protest of others may seem just as weird to them. Perhaps it is I who am in the wrong.

[Juggular]

I'm going to go a bit off tangent (when am I not?)... This question reminds me of "evaporating people" in Japan.  And how their schools don't have janitors so they clean after themselves.  

Should you litter as much as you could because there is a janitor?  It's "not your job" to clean after yourself?  How much is your responsibility?  You didn't pick on a particular kid, but you were in the crowd laughing when that kid was being picked on.  When the bullied one has ended his/her life, what's your share of responsibility?  Absolutely 100% clean conscience?   

Back in mid 1990s, I was taking a course in Japanese. There were several students.  We ended up spending about 3 hours together everyday in the summer.  Strangely, "the Breakfast Club" thing happened. (We were not in detention, nobody brought a flaregun).  There was nowhere to go between classes, so we'd sit and talk.  After about a month, I felt oddly responsible, as if these random classmates were my brothers or sisters.  We were not a mindless "crowd."  If one picked on some random kid, one of us would've said, "dude, that ain't right."  Like I wouldn't want my brother being a bully, we all felt somewhat responsible for each other.  

After that, I wish our educational system had more "unit-cohesion" for lack of a better term.  

Too much would make them disappear, though. About 80,000 Japanese self-evaporate themselves, to escape from the social pressure to conform.  Most are found, but few cut ties with everybody and stay underground for years doing odd jobs. That's bad.  Though I think "going out with a bang" in the west is worse. Like some sad poor soul bringing a weapon to school... we've all seen the news.  

I have a feeling that in a close-knit society, people are more likely do a responsible thing.  Even for a car. It'd be difficult to say, "I'll do whatever the heck I want to do with it because it's my dang money."  More often, it'd be seen as "I'm only one of several owners, including future owners."  And they'll consider themselves like a 70% owner.  He could still do things, but somewhat restrained by expectations of others.  

I suppose each culture would decide what's a cool behavior.  As for me, I may drive my vintage Wild Willy 1. But I would not jump it off the rooftop. I'll keep it for life. But I'll keep it historic, even though nobody may want it 100 years after its release in 1982 (that's depressing ---but I don't want any toy from 100 years ago. Does anybody? What we like is our generation thing.)  This made me realize that I've got to seize the moment.  

 

[Mouc-RC]

On 4/3/2025 at 3:04 AM, Saito2 said:

If someone pressed me hard to name my favorite car on the planet, it would probably be the star of my favorite movie, Two Lane Blacktop. [...]

Once again Sir Saito, thanks. Because I didn't know this movie. Managed to watch it yesterday evening, and... It's just a great movie. Seen a few in this "genre", but this one never, don't know why. Love some others, American Graffiti, Vanishing Point etc... But this one is more "open", and set solid bases I'd say

 

 

[Wooders28]

I'm not sure why someone would buy a genuine movie car, with the extra pedigree premium, just to make it not a movie car anymore, seems a bit counterintuitive, when you could can get a cheaper example,  and have the same result? , but then again, it's now mentioned in an RC forum, so does that suggest its more famous than it was before? Whistlindiesel has made a career out of doing similar, just a bit more extreme...

 

[markbt73]

If you've got an actual, bona-fide famous movie car, then yeah, I think you have a responsibility to leave it alone and preserve it.

If you've got another example of that car that someone has turned into yet another replica of that movie car, feel free to change it. In fact, please change it. Not every DeLorean needs miles of cables stuck to the outside and a fake flux capacitor between the seats. Not every Charger needs to be orange with turbine wheels. And the world does not need another Firebird turned into KITT or Bandit. Show some originality. (Of course, this comes from the guy who usually goes out of his way to not paint his models in box-art colors, so I may be a little biased.)

What's funny is, several years ago, I was perusing an auction site in Los Angeles where a studio was getting rid of some TV and movie cars for cheap. I was actually a little tempted to bid on Barb's VW Cabrio from Stranger Things. It wasn't running, so I passed.