The car is 45+ years old and it's not completely original? Shouldn't have to explain,but here's why....

Got some flack over the last post from the type of people I hate. The type that turn up their nose at a great car because it has aftermarket wheels on it or a different carburator or gasp!-a non original engine. What these idiots don't realize is first off-the car is 40 or 50 years old. Secondly-these were cars that people drove to work and raced and wrecked and abused, just like to you do your Chevy truck or whatever it is you have for a daily driver. Since '60's and '70's cars didn't have all the electronic dreck that they have now-a lot of guys worked on their own car. Some still do. If you had a 2011 Mustang GT right now-and it blew a radiator hose on Friday night would you go to Autozone and get a replacement or would you park the car until Monday when the dealer opened so you could get a "Genuine" Motorcraft hose and clamps? If you bought that same Mustang new-would you keep it "Just as it left the factory" until you sold it?  No-chances are you might put a Flowmaster exhaust on it, a K&N Air filter, some aftermarket wheels, maybe even a performance prom chip or a Hurst shifter. That's what guys did 40 years ago. And think about this-when I was in high school in 1978-a friend had a 440 Six-Pack '69 Super Bee. It was only 9 years old. That would be like having a 2006 Hemi Charger now. One night he missed a shift and grenaded the engine. I mean, rods out the side of the block grenaded. What did we do? We went to a junkyard and got a used 440 out of wrecked Chrysler Imperial for $250. And the only reason he did that instead of taking a FREE 383 from a buddy was he wanted to keep the Tri-Power on it and "B" and "RB" intakes don't interchange. The car ran great-it seemed as fast as it ever was-and when he sold it five years later-doubtless the person who bought it was miffed that the engine wasn't numbers-matching. I had a '68 SS396 El Camino and the 396 blew up one night. My cousin gave me a 327 out of my aunt's wrecked '67 Impala. The 327 actually made it a nicer car-it handled better with less weight on the front end and it was still pretty quick-but it didn't fry the tires at the slightest touch of throttle like the Rat motor did. This happened a lot to a lot of people. Think about this. Your a working class, do-it-yourself kind of guy. It's 1977. Your '72 Chevelle SS454 is long out of warranty-but it's still a nice, fairly new car and you love it. One day on the freeway it throws a rod. You can't afford to pay a professional shop to rebuild it so you go to a junkyard and get a used 454 out of a '74 Impala wagon and install it over the weekend, so you can drive to work Monday morning. In 1980 you get married and your new wife has twins. The musclecar has to go for a family sedan. Again-did the guy you sold it to grind you on the price because it wasn't "Completely Orignal?" Probably not-because back then no one except us hardcore gear heads cared about musclecars. To everyone else they were just old gas-guzzlers. That was before the craziness started-I.E.-people paying a million dollars for Hemi 'Cudas. So if you look at a nice '69 GTO and it's got a 400 out of a '73 Catalina I wouldn't be surprised. And if it was otherwise nice and rust-free and the price was reasonable-why not buy it? Honestly-one Pontiac 400 is as good as another-unless your looking at Ram Air IV Judge-yes then I would definitely want the original engine. Ditto for a '69 Z/28-if I'm going to pay top dollar for it it damn well better have a "DZ" code 302 in it. But If I'm buying one of the 243,000 '69 Camaros that AREN'T Z/28s and came originally with a garden-variety L48 350-is it a deal breaker that a previous owner put a GM "Targetmaster" replacement 350 in it in 1981??  If your looking at one of the 1,603 '69 Boss 302 Mustangs-yes you absolutely need the "Boss" engine. But if your looking at one of the 70,000 plus '69 Mach 1s that had a garden-variety 351W to begin with-is it catastrophic that the car has a 351W out of a '73 Mercury Montego?  No. See what I'm saying?  I can see wanting a numbers-matching engine-if it's something special-an LS6 454, a W30 Olds 455,an RAIV Pontiac,a 340 Six-Pack , Boss 351, etc,etc-but if the original engine was garden variety-like a 300 hp L48 350 in a '70 Camaro or an L78 400 in a '70 Firebird Formula 400-I mean the same engines could be had in a Malibu or Impala or a Catalina or LeMans station wagon-for god's sake-does it really matter that much that it's not numbers-matching?  In my mind it doesn't. What really irks me about these people-is they'll pull this shit over a carburator or a distributor. Really?  Do you really expect a 45 year old carburator to work flawlessly?  This is why the Pure Stock drags, MusclePalooza, and many Concours show organizations have amended the rules to include "Original Type." In other words- your '71 Z/28 is legal if it has a 3310 Holley 4bbl on it. It doesn't have to have 1970 or 71 date codes. Your '57 Corvette is legal with a late-model T10 4-speed trans. It doesn't have to have 1957 date codes!!!  I hope this clears some things up. But probably not. However-I swear the next time someone says a pristine SS396 Chevelle is "Ruined" because it has radial tires, a Hurst shifter ( instead of the horrible Muncie ) and an HEI distributor-I'm going to kick him in the nuts so hard he'll have to part his hair differently!!  Mastermind