It soon became apparent that while I could do a few minor things to make her “mine”, the fact that she was such an excellent condition survivor would prevent me from really wanting to make any changes.
Her original engine, while really not adjustable, was completely fully functional and still 100% stock down to the DVDA and original coil. Hell, many of her hoses were original and 38 years old.
The only thing I felt was wrong with her, other than her awful non-original EMPI spoke wheels, was that she had a black vinyl top but her cover was white vinyl. And that carried over into her sun visors which just seemed wrong for some reason.
When I was little, I had a small red convertible Beetle car that had a black cover and it always felt right to me that the cover should match the top since it almost implies it is folded down and the same piece.
Thankfully her previous owner had the original stock wheels she had. I had those retired (the tires on them were from the early 80s and totally rotten), and swapped out her original white top cover for a black one along with the black sunvisors to make her interior feel cohesive.
She’s perfect.
And that’s was kind of the problem.
There wasn’t anything I could do to make her mine without destroying her originality. And ethically, I just could not do it.
I still wanted a sedan like I originally intended, and I went out looking for a 74 brilliant orange Super to fit the bill.