In my humble and entirely worthless opinion, it's overplayed. We had a small show (~100 cars) here a few years back. All mopars and a couple of my AMC's. I have an old photo somewhere where only five E-bodies showed up and they were ALL Hemi Orange. The funny thing was, I don't think a single one had been born Hemi orange. And yet at this small show in the middle of podunk BC, five orange e-bodies show up. My tastes tend toward the more unusual. REAL FM3 cars, FC7, FJ5 .... I like Hemi orange but it's just quite common. I guess familiarity breeds contempt?

I'm not a purist by any stretch. Hell, my buddy's '71 Polara 4dr HT with a 440 6-pack is one of my (thus far) favorite cars ever. But he's like me in a way where his car has an overall theme. The 440 installation looks 100% factory - even down to the fan clutch and the air cleaner. Manifolds, even. It has a Tuff steering wheel and an underdash 8-track player. NOTHING on the car seems out-of-place.

I don't give two fiddlers about batteries or tires when it comes to correctness. Anything perishable like that is off the table. It is cool to see reproduction batteries and polyglas tires though. I missed that generation so it really is neat to see these cars as they were. Sticking to their theme of OE correctness is fine.

CHEAP stuff gets on my nerves. $50,000 dollar car with 8-dollar, Canadian Tire floor mats. The corrugated wire loom stuff - worse if it's coloured.

I especially enjoy when people get creative and think outside the box. Create something nobody has done before, rather than buying cheap, mass produced crap off of WalMart's shelves.

Another buddy of mine created a 4-door cab 1972 Dodge Pickup and dropped the whole kaboodle on a modern Cummins frame. He made the box a dually and everything. It LOOKS like a 1972 diesel truck. He even painted it two-tone turquoise and white!! It looks amazing but it has all modern driveline and frame. THAT is super-cool.

I hope to one day get to that level of fabrication skills. One of my best accomplishments is the interior on my '75 Hornet. I've mixed and matched a lot of OE AMC parts, designed my own upholstery (yet still looks like vintage stuff) and love the result. I've had a few people at shows tell me they had one EXACTLY like it. I just smile and say "No, you didn't!"