In this industry, there is one word that is by far the most overused phrase in the business. "Restore".
Webster dictionaries definition of restore is the following:" Return to it's original or useable and functioning condition". That is what we call in the industry as Concourse restored.
When I am roaming the internet highway for potential cars to purchase, it's amazing how many collector cars I see that throw the restored phrase into their ads. How about the phrase rebuilt or renovated? Those are words that would describe alot of these so called restored cars more accurately.
Let's take this car for example. This 69 Camaro is claimed in it's ad to be "rotisserie restored". Don't get me wrong, this looks like a nicely built car from it's gallery of pictures but restored is the wrong phrase to describe it. This car is highly modified inside out and should be better described as a modified built car or restomod.
Let's move onto this car . This is the kind of ad that drives me bonkers. This car is not even remotely close to being restored. Essentially this car has had some painted slapped on it , a few things rebuilt on it and its called that overused phrase. It is clearly stated as restored. Oh, but it needs some patch work on the floors and all kinds of other crap that the owner didn't mention. Cars like these should be called what they really are. Highly misrepresented.
OK, let's move onto something that's a little bit closer to the definition of restored. Although I would not call this car Concourse restored, it only lacks complete NOS Ford parts to qualify it as concourse. This car was completely disassembled and pain stakingly put back together while every nut, bolt, washer,clip is either replaced or restored to new. This is the definition of restored.
Hey, I'm not here to bash people or their cars. Everyone has a different level of what a cars appearance is of good quality. I just wanted to try to help people who are interested in the collector car industry a little education on something that is very wrong in the business.
The next time you are in the market for a muscle car, street rod or whatever, please keep this information in mind. If you have any questions or comments, send me a line or give me a call.
Til next time,
Nick