I agree completely. I am restoring a 68 BGT with the "pillow" dash and I
plan to keep the interior 100% original. First, I chose that for the sake
of originality. Later, the pillow began to grow on me as I noticed that
they were getting more and more rare. I looked at another guy's 69 BGT
where he had swapped the dash out because he wanted a glove box, and
decided that his car had now lost its character and charm, originality
issues aside. Nothing wrong with him doing what he wants with his car,
but I think that a couple of decades from now, either he or the new owner
will regret that he did that swap. Reminds me of a story that a
historian at the National Corvette museum in Bowling Green told me. When
the 1963 Stingray came out, it had the now famous split window in the
rear. The next year, when the 64 model came out without the split bar down
the middle of the window, Chevrolet sold a refit kit for 1963 Corvette
owners that would remove their split window and replace it with the
one-piece back window the 64's and later had. He said a lot of 63
Corvette owners did this modification to remove that "annoying bar" in the
back window and to make their 1963 Vettes look "more modern" like the
later Vettes. Now a 1963 split window coupe is very desirable and rare
and I imagine that the folks that did that modification to their 63 Vettes
(or more likely, the now current owners) deeply regret modifying the car.
Granted, this Corvette analogy differs from the MG "pillow" dash story on
several levels (mid-year Vette afficianados are fanatics on originality,
and the cars themselves are worth a great deal more money), but the
fundamental lesson for me is still the same.
Greg Hutmacher
Denton, TX
Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 15:27:59 -0700 (PDT)
From: "David Breneman" <idcb@airborne.com>
Subject: Re: Center console help
...Frankly, I just don't see what it is that people object to
in the "pillow" design....
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