Exactly correct about the misrepresentation of vehicles and the anger and confusion it causes in the hobby. I don't know how it is over there, but over here now days if a car is found out to be something it's not, then the owner can sue the person he purchased it from. In quite a few cases the seller had no idea as the fraudulent activity was carried out many years ago, hence it becomes court case after court case of people chasing past owners until it's found out who committed the offence. One high profile case over here not too long ago was found not to be the sellers fault as the purchaser had got an "expert" to go over the car and claimed it to be the real deal. So now there's a court case now going on to sue the "expert" for the guys 100k+ shortfall.
A lot of these cars are "who really knows" type of cars. A guy I know who's dad or uncle or whoever worked in panel shops when these cars were new. He told us stories one night (had a few to get the conversation going) about these cars when near new were basically written off and they'd get a new complete body shell from Ford, GM or Chrysler and transfer all the good bits over to these new shells including all the I'd plates and stamp the old chassis number onto them. He said they probably did 4 or 5 XY GT HO in the first few year when they were new. He said they'd ring Ford Broadmeadows and have a new 54H body shell shipped over to them. These cars now trade around the 1/2 million dollar mark and before the GFC were trading for $800k with rumours of a couple for a million dollars.
But when guys like this blatantly lie about a car they have in the hope of finding that uninformed person to relieve him of his cash, then these guys get whatever happens to them, legally or not. As others have said what he believes and what the facts are, is two different things. Seriously A/C on a factory hot rod, it's like taking your sister to the dance, sure it could be done, but who in their right mind would. None of the factories did back then, heck even P/S on factory hot rods here in Australia (GT HO GTS 350 E49) wasn't an option for them back then. It was all about performance, not comfort for these cars. As for his "I believe I have information that it is" What's that then, your cousins mates uncles friends mothers brother in laws dog peed on the building at the time this car was built. If the facts don't add up then no matter what anyone tells you, it still is what it is and nothing more. Just more proof of buyer beware and research facts, not what somebody selling tells you.
