What all can you remove/replace from a vehicle that won't cause it to loose value. My father recently purchased a 79 vette with 60K miles. Was thinking about redoing the exhaust. If we were to do headers would removing the air tubes/smog pump depreciate the cars value?

 

yes if it is complete and functional you will loose value with the antique nuts although make it look like the car was supposed to have your new headers from factory and it wont be to bad (IE no sawzall)

 

Yes. Technically anything that is changed from the factory will depreciate the cars value. Is the engine the original? I would hope so based on the mileage, but you never know. If its not the original engine, then changing to headers won't hurt the value very much as the value would have already taken a good hit from the engine swap.

If you're going for a show car, or a concours car then I wouldn't do it. If its just gonna be an occasional driver and put in small local shows then I wouldn't worry too much about it. Don't hack up the exhaust and keep the original equipment so you can put it back if you need to.

 

The only real proper answer will come form a Vette forum, not a 3rd gen one.

 

You only lose money when you sell it. Whenever you change something from factory you devalue it in the eyes of the collector but you have to look at who your market is. Its not like it was a 63 split window 69 427 tri power vette which are worth huge amounts of money due to its rarity and demand. The 79 vette isnt exactly the crown jewl when it comes to vettes and its value is not particularly great by comparison to other vettes. Although in the onset you will devalue it by swapping on headers and stripping out emissions stuff there is a point where you may start to increase the value of the car. This is where you need to think about your potential market. The 79 vette is not particularly valuable to collectors however to an enthusiast they may actually find extensive mods desirable and would pay more than the car was worth all original completely restored. This is particularly true because if someone really liked that fast back style offered on the later shark bodies none of them were offered with particularly stout motors so a modded vette would be the only way to get the performance people want out of that body style. The key is the quality of work done that will be the make or break in that deal. However like i said you only lose money when you sell it and on a car like that its unlikely you would even get your money back if you started to invest heavily into it or had to restore it even if only minimally.

 

Thank you for the replies!!!

 

I also have a C3 Vette, so here's my take. I agree with most of what's been said earlier. The usual rule of thumb is that anything that bolts on is OK as long as you keep all the original pieces so that it can be put back to factory setup. Heads, intakes, headers, etc. all fall into this category. I've even known guys who pull the original motors from their Vettes and put them in long-term storage, then put in a crate motor for running the car. In the end, originality really only matters if you plan to sell the car. If you're going to keep it, make it the way you like it.

 

No one will care if the 79 has all the original junk, a 79 is simply not a collectible car. None are, the collectible cars stop w/ the 73.

Turn it into what you want, give it a nice engine instead of the slug installed now (L48 most likely?)

My 77 was an ordinary 77 too, I don't think it depreciated with the mods I did.