ORIGINAL: ripped camel

I just inherited, or tobe correct was given a 1957 Chevy Bel Air that was a Car Craft cover car in 1963, aswell as a Street Rodder cover car, and also a spread car for Hot Rod's 1st annual yearbook. It was a state champion car back in it's day. My dad bought it for $50 when he was 16, and it sat in my grandparents garage for 43 years. They are moving and needed it out, so I got the car.

It was in an accident, but the damage wasn't too bad. The car as it sits has a 283 Vette engine in it, that used to have two 4barrel carbs on it. It has shaved handles, the doors open automatically by pulling up on the antennae, it has a chop top, lincoln headlights, a custom molded rear, and had a naugahyde interior (I think that's how you spell it). Most of the naugahyde interior was removed, but I plan on having it put back to how it was.

It's paint was a multi-coat candy paintjob that had 25 coats of Gold, and a few coats of a Wild Cherry color.

I know this car will probably take probably around $20,000 to make perfect again, but could overshoot that a little as most builds do.

I'm considering selling this thing on ebay, but haven't made up my mind yet. Being that the car is a piece of history, and has a lot of historic significance in the custom car world, it shouldn't be altered any way, and should be put back to it's original cover car condition. This however is not my style since I'm all about performance.

After doing tons of research, and going on a few boards (some of which my thread got over 5000 hits in 2 days!!) I've realized how important this car is in the custom car world, and don't want to be the guy that hacks a classic like this. I had person after person telling me the car was their favorite custom when they were kids (most of these guys are in their 50's now), Tons of people were posting up pics of it in magazines, people were posting pics of it that they took when it was in it's glory. I couldn't believe the following this car had.

Which has led me to my main dilemma. Should I sell it? Being that I'm about performance, and this car should only be restored to it's original custom condition, It's not inline with my taste. I don't want to dump ten of thousands of dollars on something that I won't be happy with. I'll always be thinking about how I could've made it faster. So I'm wondering if I should sell it, and buy my dream car in it's place (which my dad drove as a kid)a 69 Camaro.

Thoughts??

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