Survivor

[HK1837]

It is the description used by Bloomington Gold in the USA for Corvettes, and has spread to other marques. It doesn't cover rubbish, the car still has to retain 50% of its original paint, trim, underbonnet etc. Anything replaced starts reducing the %. My Premier barely qualifies and it is in very good condition. But it has had some things replaced, like water pump, some hoses, radiator (early on with a genuine one), head gaskets, muffler, mudflaps, tyres, shocks etc. In some areas it is down to 55-60% factory original.

[V6HQUTE]

It is the description used by Bloomington Gold in the USA for Corvettes, and has spread to other marques. It doesn't cover rubbish, the car still has to retain 50% of its original paint, trim, underbonnet etc. Anything replaced starts reducing the %. My Premier barely qualifies and it is in very good condition. But it has had some things replaced, like water pump, some hoses, radiator (early on with a genuine one), head gaskets, muffler, mudflaps, tyres, shocks etc. In some areas it is down to 55-60% factory original.

geeze is it that strict, i understand paint/interior but hoses and headgaskets, thats like saying you cant enter your 35+yr old car becasue it doesnt have its original oil

[Taily]

It is the description used by Bloomington Gold in the USA for Corvettes, and has spread to other marques. It doesn't cover rubbish, the car still has to retain 50% of its original paint, trim, underbonnet etc. Anything replaced starts reducing the %. My Premier barely qualifies and it is in very good condition. But it has had some things replaced, like water pump, some hoses, radiator (early on with a genuine one), head gaskets, muffler, mudflaps, tyres, shocks etc. In some areas it is down to 55-60% factory original.

I never quite looked at it like that but see your point. My HJ ute, albeit (two owners of the one family) with a total of 167,000km on it, has had possibly too much work in some areas to now qualify by that criteria outlined. In my 13 years of owning it (so far), along the way (and at different times) I've replaced all the front end bushes, all the ball joints (bar LH upper), reco-ed the power steering box, replaced front and rear shocks (including high lift rears), tie rod ends, pitman and dunno how many idler arms - and that is just the front end! I would think that ANY original fitment upper or lower inners of the early to late 70's still fitted to any HQ-WB being even semi-regularly driven would be beyond shagged by now....

My original fitment 308 has also had the heads done up in 2007 to accept hardened valve seats while I was replacing the cam and lifters that had finally chewed a lobe after 32 years, and while I was there replaced most (not all, the two heater hoses into the heater box still bear GM part numbers but I couldn't answer if these were replaced or not by my grandparents when they owned it) of the hoses, water pump, timing cover (corroded out from sitting for so many years), belts etc etc. It does have the original fine core H/D radiator (in that paperwork I sent you about it Byron) that was opened-up around 10 years ago and just needed rods run through it and a lick of paint after being put back together.

While around 70-75% of my body colour paint would be original, where the black-outs were covered-up in 1975 before delivery is still apparent, especially now I've actually gotten busy on stripping it down, most notable around the front doors and in a couple of spots where the paint was blended in around the rear guards/overspray under the ute tub. The ute was delivered like that and I must say I've been fortunate enough to be able to keep the old girl mostly covered or in a garage/shed while living around the top half of the country over the past 10 years so it has kept its shine.

I've always looked at mine as an original vehicle, especially having known the vehicle all of its life and looked after its needs mechanically since the mid 80's. I feel a bit different now thinking about just how many components (that have been fitted as direct replacement of the parts removed) that are original or direct replacent for original but because those components were not delivered on the vehicle originally... Hmmmm, I feel that the strict criteria of "x% of everything must be original" might apply more to an "Original Unrestored" category, but I guess they could call it what they liked. Difficult criteria to meet if you're fair dinkum about it. But I guess they would have to come up with something. Good on them for doing it.