Preservation Conundrum

This is a difficult situation for sure! I bought an unrestored '57 Chevrolet that still had original paint, but needed an interior. So the original plan was to keep that unmolested exterior appearance, but just redo the interior, make it mechanically sound, and drive it. Well, 3 years later, I'd done a complete rotisserie restoration every nut, bolt, wire, and piece of rubber! It's hard to draw the line because, as you say, the fresh areas will make the unrestored areas look worse, potentially.

Aside: I have a 1947 Lincoln Continental Cabriolet “preservation car” with less than 19k miles. It has original paint, top and interior except for one piece of carpet. If I could find someone restoring one of these cars with the matching original carpet I would love to put their original carpet piece in my car. Hold that thought.

I have purchased a 1936 Cord Phaeton that is 90% restored. Now I just need to do the last 90%.

Amazingly, it has the original leather interior in quite good shape. In a Phaeton! If I had any original paint, the original top or original carpet and so on, preserving the interior would be a must. As it is, with new paint, new carpet and a new top, the original leather may look out of place.

So if anyone has a Phaeton with original blue paint and wants matching original leather, please get in touch with me so we can work something out.

It occurs to me that this is uncharted water for preservation cars. Is it OK to have an original interior but not the original interior? In the LC example above it seems pretty natural to swap in one piece of carpet. When I have shown the LC in preservation classes I am always asked if it has original paint. But I have never been asked if the leather has just been dyed much less replaced with other original leather. But what about replacing all the leather with another car's original leather? I guess these are as yet unanswered questions. Hence the conundrum.

Anyway, I would love to hear from anyone with a blue Cord Phaeton preservation car.