[dean from bozeman]

P.S. I totally agree with you on this one.

'It does have new wheel bearings, rear end bearings, generator bearings, clutch, tires, fan belt, radiator hoses, motor mount rubber pads, and new oil and gas. Can I still call it "all original"? You bet. You see, those items are maintenance items. If your plan is to park the car and never drive it, then you don't need to replace those items. Might as well just take a picture of the car and hang it on the wall if you're going to do that.' P.S.

Now here is a can of worms opening:

What if the car is an all original 20,000 mile survivor except for a gas cap that had been replace through the years and you put on an original gas cap with a patina that matches the rest of the car? Is it not original anymore? When the gas cap was replaced along the way, did that mean that it would never be original again?

The adjective definition of original is:present or existing from the beginning Therefore the lost gas cap from years ago doomed the 20,000 mile car from being "totally" original. I would therefore argue that there are degrees of originality.

Almost every year at the MARC national meet we get to judge a vehicle or two that is considered original. You can see that there have been some slight changes through the years to keep these vehicles on the road. Do we deduct for that? Yes, we do. Therefore, even these wonderful vehicles are found to have a degree of originality.

If we used the definition of original as 'present or existing from the beginning', we would have zero original Model A's.

Let's applaud those we have that are considered original. Though their degree of originality may differ, we can appreciate them and learn from them...whether they have the gas cap that came with the car when it was new or not.