While red is a standout color and hard to do in a Subtle way, You can get the same custom look on a silver car with a much more subdued color like a nice medium blue to highlight the body lines and badging. Wife has a silver Mustang Convertible and I have been sticking different tapes along to it and viewing, the blue by far has the richiest look while not detracting the attention of the body lines. Just my 2 cents.....

There's a simple logic that anyone at the authority on the subject ( National Corvette Restorers Society ) who can give your collector's edition more resale value by simply going through ceritfication. The saying..."They're only original once." Once you do the damage, you can't put them back. These guys at NCRS know when you change things and try to put it back - they really do. You're talking about potentlially thousands of dollars of value on the right car. Is that worth it for a little flash now? You'll have to decide. Pinstripes will not fade the paint evenly under the sun, they will show after a few years when you remove them - they are sun tatoos to paint finsih. Whether the rest of the things can be restored when you go to have the NCRS inspection..hard to tell. You loose points for everything thats not 100% mechanical, functional, clean, and show worthy. As for mine - she's gets respected and talked nice to...she's worthy

i think it was stated earlier that if the only reason you have the vette is for an investment then no i would not touch it. as with me i have 2 corvettes because i love corvettes and want to enjoy driving them. i have done numerous things to both of them to make them look better and they are still works in progress. both of them turn heads. i put in things that i like but are not extreme. in my 75 i didn't like the 75 seats so i installed seats from an 86. they look great and look like they were made for the car. may decrease the value but i and a lot of other people like that"upgrade". my thought is to do what you like and makes you happy.

A friend has an 82 C.E., I dont really know why he has it, he is the 1st and only owner, He took off the original tires and rims and stores them for shows, in the 29 years he has owned the car it now has 17,000 original miles on it. It has the original spark plugs still in the engine, and he puts the original tires and rims back on it when it arrives at the few shows he takes it out for. Obviously it has been certified and is absolutely immaculate, But other than simply owning it, I really don't understand the purpose. It's a mechanical masterpiece that has never been allowed to do what it was created to do.

I fall into the category of "It's your car, make it yours" understanding that you might not please some people if and when you want to sell it.

When it is all said and done, did you enjoy your car? Stripes or no stripes, paint or no paint. I say that a Corvette should be allowed to relieve a little stress, row through the gears or finish off a wore out set of tires. If you keep it perfect, would that make you happy? Mine both have their rock chips and scratches, are not perfect and have been enjoyed... One has had an all over repaint, it gets so much attention with its atomic orange glow.