Usually, everyone that has a project car like this has some goals in mind for what they want the car to be when they're finished.  Sometimes it's really simple, sometimes it's not.  There are a million different things that people do to their cars, most of which they do because they are looking for something that will set their car apart...to make it a little different than the rest.  I guess that's one of the good things about being in this hobby - no two cars are alike.

Here are a few of my "rules" that I go by when deciding how to make modifications to my car:

• Exterior changes can't make the car look much different than it did when it rolled out of the factory.  No extra plastic body add-ons, no vinyl stickers, no wings...none of that stuff.  I want my car to look stock, like nothing has really been done to it.  My exterior mods are pretty subtle...Z28 grille, painted T-Top moldings and door handles, and that's about it.  Nothing that wouldn't be noticed by anyone BUT a person that knows a lot about these cars.  In other words, the way I see it is simple...if it looks like it shouldn't be there, then it won't be there.
   

• Interior mods follow a similar idea.  I don't like anything that doesn't look like it should be there to begin with.  I don't mind gauges, and a shift light or something like that, but nothing that doesn't really serve a good purpose.  These cars weren't made to perform like many of us want them too, so certain things literally HAVE to be added - whether they look right or not.
   

• Performance mods follow one simple principle:  Do it right the first time.  There is no point in doing ANYTHING to your car if you have to do it again when something goes wrong because you used crappy parts.  Yeah, it may be a little more expensive to use a high quality name brand part instead of an off-the-shelf part at Pep Boys, but that's just the way I have always been when it comes to building my car.  Even if nobody else can tell that I have a certain high quality (usually more expensive) part somewhere under the hood, I know its there, which is important to me.

Basically, I want to have a car that looks pretty much stock, but that performs much, much better than stock.

I want it to be able to be reliable, and to be able to be driven to and from wherever I may want to go on a daily basis.  That is a lot easier said then done.  At least in my experience.  Everything works well most of the time - but whenever you have a car with so many changes made to it, there are going to be some issues that have to be worked out.  Many cars like mine are a little temperamental, and aren't very user-friendly all the time.

But, most importantly, I want it to be able to go fast, and get there in a hurry.  After all, that is why I do 99% of the mods I do to my car.  As it stands right now, I feel that I have done a pretty good job with this.  I took a stock 17 second car, and made it into a 13 second car.  So, that's good enough, so far...