O,K,, I'm about to be a hypocrite here. When I first acquired my '71 Mach 1. it had the décor group option, that's it. Wheels were hubcaps and beauty rings. It was factory-ish. The seller told me he had plans to "Boss" look the car, and included with the purchase an original chin spoiler and complete original factory ram-air set up from a donor car, complete with factory twist-locs for the hood. The previous owner had back-fired the carb ( without an air cleaner ), and there was a burnt paint portion in the hood's center, so I took the car to the body shop where they just re-painted the center part of the hood in the matte black finish to avoid a complete hood re-paint. It was then that I added the ram air to go with the hood motif.
Fast forward a number of years, driving it on the street, and a movie studio wanted to use the car in a movie. For their purposes, they felt the car would present more aggressive if it had side stripes and a wing, so I had them added, along with the chin spoiler I got with the car. They shot the movie, and I went back to driving it on the street as such.
In March of 2015, I got into a fender bender, and now was looking to have to totally re-paint the car because the new front sheetmetal wouldn't match the older "doors-back" of the car.
I'm enclosing a few photos of the car here. The car looks very cool WITHOUT the side stripes, really shows off the body. If I hadn't already had holes in the deck for the wing, holes in the front valence for the chin spoiler, or had holes in the hood for hood twist locs, I think the car would have been finished WITHOUT. A basic Mach 1 is so much rarer to find than a heavily optioned one. Thank God I've resisted putting Magnums on it. The original hubcaps and 'rings are harder to find and not often seen on restorations today. Most cars restored are heavily over-optioned.
Bottom line.....though I'm being a hypocrite here, and I like it both ways, I think coupes, converts, and sportsroofs show more class without wings, stripes, etc. You kind of expect it on a Mach 1, ( even though mine was produced without).