Affect of mods on resale value Options

[bbrock]

I have a couple decisions to make soon on my restoration that could affect resale value of the car. So I'd be interested to hear opinions.

The car is a numbers matching (I'm pretty sure - need COA) '73 2.0L so on paper, very desirable. But it is currently a rust basket case, but becoming less so every day. I'm trying to restore it to a very high standard but it seems silly to think such a Frankencar would ever be a concours contender. I certainly have no interest showing it. But I am kind of a fanatic about originality with a few exceptions. I'm keeping the car very near original with a few "bolt-on" mods that are easily reversible like euro signal lights, reproduction parts for budget (no thousand dollar OEM interior light going in here), etc. The biggest mod is that the engine has been converted to carbs, including cam. But I still have the original FI and may start working on restoring that down the road. I'm contemplating a couple of mods that won't be so easy to roll back but I don't want to sacrifice potential resale value of the car. Below are the mods and my twisted rationale for doing them:

Delete Fender Warts - this is the biggie. I hate them and the warts I have are in bad shape. I hate to think of spending money to replace something I think is ugly and Porsche didn't really intended to be on the car. My rationale is that no warts and euro lenses ARE original in European markets. But if I sold the car, would that kill the originality premium?

Late style fuel pump location A PO relocated the fuel pump to inside the steering rack and did a crap job of it. I recently picked up a 75-76 fuel pump blister with the intention of cutting the firewall to relocate the pump the way the factory did. Makes sense to me. It's a factory improvement, right? But what would a buyer looking for an original car think?

Black anodized trim My car is performance group, but not appearance group so it has black bumpers which I like. Decades ago, I lightly sanded the scratched up window and targa trim and painted it satin black. I really like the look and am thinking of having them black anodized as part of the restoration. Or would it be smarter to go back to bright anodized to preserve resale value? Seems like this would be an easy one to reverse if someone wanted to.

I have no plans to sell this car but never rule it out. Just curious how far a person can deviate from dealer delivered original before the car loses that "all original premium"... And realizing that such things are impossible to predict.

[RickS]

Took a 71 rust and accident free appearance group 1.7 and wanted it to be a sleeper with the following mods:

Conversion to 3.0 carbed 6
Front oil cooler
Full Elephant polybronze suspension
Widened rear fenders to accommodate 7" Fuchs
Full 5 lug conversion
911S front calipers
Euro front and rear turn signals
H4 100/80 relayed lights
Quad gauge
Hidden Engine cut-off switch
Solenoid operated trunk release with emergency manual release
Later model backpad
Vintage Seats Nurburgring driver seat and movable passenger seat
Side shift with bronze bushings
6" and 7" Fuchs
Porsche back panel (blacked out) with remote trunk open
Fogs replaced with driving lights rewired to use as daytime running lights
Tunnel mounted fire extinguisher
LED brake/running and strobing third brake light
Genuine 6 heat exchangers and oil tank
Warts changed from orange to clear to better blend with silver paint.
Console delete
Cup holder added to extinguisher mount
High torque starter
GT style engine grill/s
Fittipaldi stearing wheel
Coco mats

So how does my value now compare to stock with 65K miles?