Ok, here's my predicament. I have a 1966 fastback, emberglo (red or orange depending upon the lighting) with white racing stripes and soon to be black interior, original Mustang steel rims, redline tires. Everything on it is stock. Not necessarily original factory parts but there are no modifications. I'm tempted to make a few changes but I really don't want to devalue the car and I'm not sure if the modifications would devalue it or not. So, I figured I'd ask your guys's opinion. Keep in mind the car is in absolutely pristine condition so it's not like i'm modifying a stock junker. Here are the small modifications I'd like to make:

- cutout exhaust
- replace black stock guages with white
- replace guage lighting with the bright blue LED's
- a-pillar guage pods for white air/fuel, tach and maybe one other guage
- adhesive hood pins

what do you guys think?

 

adhesive hood pins? you mean fake ones?


Leds arent gonna be to great for lighting up the guages since they dont shine in all directions, you would be better off buying diffusers the color you want
go with the guage color you like
mod your exhaust to taste

 

None of those mods would devalue your car as they can all be easily reversed. It's when you start cutting, welding and re-engineering that you deflate the value of an original.

 

I've battled with the question of whether or not to modify. I have two 65' Mustangs and wanted both to be factory correct but during ground up restorations I realized that it would cost me far more to take them back to stock vs. modifing them. So they both have been modded.
I think that most Mustangs scream to be modifided, but tastefully.
After this comment, I don't think all Mustangs should be modifided.
Good Luck with yours!

 

I personally think that modifying a car decreases its value is a myth for the most part. Sure you would loose value hacking on a shelby, boss, ect. but most cars it wont matter. I know if I was looking for a classic and found one with 4 wheel discs, air suspension, leather interior, light body mods, etc. I'm not going to think for a second that it should bring the value down. The only time I would is if the mods were shotty workmanship or distasteful. Most aren't worth a ridiculous amount of money to begin with. A really nice coupe is lucky to break into the 20s and most fastback would be luck to hit the 30s. Yet you see eleanor and shelby clones regularly go for over 40k. That just my thoughts on the subject. When I started modifying my car I got a few comments about ruining the value from some older guys and thought they were nuts and still do since it was just a V8 coupe with absolutely no other options.