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If I have a car that’s a survivor

Like the car.
Call it a suvivor to this point
and do what you want with
it. Any repairs from this point
forward negates the survivor
status. Who cares. It's yours.
I've a 1940 Plymouth. Some
parts survived.
I call it the Angry Bird. It’s a handful….manual steering and manual drum brakes. Zero options, except the most important one.

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I consider my car a survivor, it does still have what is left of the original paint but does not have the original motor and Haggerty set the value at about $90,000. Haggerty says if I would repaint the car they would raise the value to around $125,000 or so but I don't want to do that. I enjoy driving the car the way it is and occasionally someone else says they like the look of the car the way it is.....

66EBA953-5D7B-4CE2-B788-481D57B9B22F.jpeg


797C231A-A50C-4BA7-874B-B861F890EBC3.jpeg
 
I consider my car a survivor, it does still have what is left of the original paint but does not have the original motor and Haggerty set the value at about $90,000. Haggerty says if I would repaint the car they would raise the value to around $125,000 or so but I don't want to do that. I enjoy driving the car the way it is and occasionally someone else says they like the look of the car the way it is.....

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I agree with whoever said they like it the way it is….so do I!
 
This means so many different things to so many people… This topic could end up with 40 pages. All I have to say is the way things are going is that one day simply because it exists it will literally be a “survivor”…
 
I will never be in the class of "survivor'' as thought of in this thread.
Maybe I can be in the class of ''street survivor".
Some of you know how it was, you lived it.
Back in the '70s for me my Charger SE was a tool.
Meaning, if you wanted to be faster then a assembly line vehicle you made changes.
If you wanted to be faster then that "hopped up car'' from those other camps you made changes.
Would I want to have never lived those times just to hang on to what people call a survivor nowadays? Nope.
I do love to see your wonderful Mopars the way they were supposed to look like whether they are ''survivors'' or restored.

I still have my original interior, vinyl top, 15'' rims, HD springs, AM 8 track, Chrysler sheet metal, factory paint runs under the hood and trunk lid.
The body has only been cut once (with an hatchet because of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and the windshield was taken out with a baseball bat, same place and time).
 
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I changed the drivers floor pan because it was rusted by the gas pedal and the end of the crossmember was soft. I bought a stub from Derrick Fettig for $50 and fixed it. A guy called it an abortion, and told me he would buy it off my widow when it failed and I crashed it and died. That was 5 years ago, I’m still around!

View attachment 1685097

That "guy" has no clue what is in the rails of his car. He is a fool.

These cars had **** repaired by day two. By qualified shops and technicians.

Some recalls were done.......so, if it had a recall change then..............?
 
I'm changing my
opinion after reading a
few of the comments.
If you're still driving it, and
it has survived this long,
I'd say that pretty much
sums it up. I'm thinking the
term refers to an old car
that has put up with the
slings and arrows of a
vehicle's life over time,
and is still on the road.
What someone did to insure
it's survival just adds to it's
longevity.
Certain trends such as
petina are either a badge
of honor, or purposely
created. But that's just one
aspect that can be applied,
and still be able to call a car
a survivor.
 
Mine has survived a lot and still is.........
 
That "guy" has no clue what is in the rails of his car. He is a fool.

These cars had **** repaired by day two. By qualified shops and technicians.

Some recalls were done.......so, if it had a recall change then..............?
My GTX got a new factory floor pan while still under warranty, because the windshield leaked so badly. Ironically, the car exists today, with perfect oem sheet metal, because initial build quality was so poor. Luck of the draw, it fell into the hands of a dealer who made it right.
 
I will never be in the class of "survivor'' as thought of in this thread.
Maybe I can be in the class of ''street survivor".
Some of you know how it was, you lived it.
Back in the '70s for me my Charger SE was a tool.
Meaning, if you wanted to be faster then a assembly line vehicle you made changes.
If you wanted to be faster then that "hopped up car'' from those other camps you made changes.
Would I want to have never lived those times just to hang on to what people call a survivor nowadays? Nope.
I do love to see your wonderful Mopars the way they were supposed to look like whether they are ''survivors'' or restored.

I still have my original interior, vinyl top, 15'' rims, HD springs, AM 8 track, Chrysler sheet metal, factory paint runs under the hood and trunk lid.
The body has only been cut once (with an hatchet because of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and the windshield was taken out with a baseball bat, same place and time).
Was someone possibly upset with you over a female?
 
That "guy" has no clue what is in the rails of his car. He is a fool.

These cars had **** repaired by day two. By qualified shops and technicians.

Some recalls were done.......so, if it had a recall change then..............?
Oh, I agree there. My barracuda had bodywork done on the rear quarter under the original paint.
 
These cars were daily drivers back in the day, and weren’t built to last five years.

Weren't they built to last exactly 5 years.....or 50,000 miles?


When I bought my 73 in 2012, it was "just out" of the 50,000 mile part of the warranty.

Despite the minor mods and one really good single stage paint job, I still called it a survivor.

...and despite the additional mods I've done and another good single stage paint job, I still call it a survivor.

I may not be able to succinctly describe one, but I know one when I see one.
 
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