Pin Striping [and other modifications...]
When our beloved Pagodas were new 50 years ago, and even 30 years ago when Vinny added the pin stripes, I would suggest that they didn't have the cachet (the cars that is) that they hold today. They never sold for six figures, they were plentiful on the used market, and they were "just" attractive, aspirational cars. At that time, nobody could or would predict the penchant for complete originality revered today. Owners can and did do minor things to dress up or change their cars. The late Bob Geco's (one of our group's early members) who got his car from his late father, had chrome "fender spats". Others have pin stripes. Others hopped on the wire wheel bandwagon. None of these cosmetic additions are that drastic that they cannot be undone with a little effort, so any "devaluation" is subject.
I think Vinny's red pin stripes on black are quite nice as shown. Maybe not for me, but if I bought his car I wouldn't touch them--they add just a little tasteful something to an otherwise beautiful car. I would not go out of my way today to add them, but may 30 or 50 years ago, I would have. When I bought my new 1979 E21 BMW 320i, it was white with rather large Alpina tape stripes. I didn't order them, [but they may have been a factory option or a catalog option from BMW] but when the car arrived at my dealer, he offered to remove them. I took a look and said, no, let's keep them. They always received unsolicited high praise.
If you look at my signature, you'll note my daily driver is a 2023 Ford Maverick. This is a small pickup truck. There are two forums for that truck--the Maverick Truck Club and the Maverick Forums. While bearing little resemblance to our group here, there are active forums for this new vehicle introduced for the 2022 model year. I am baffled and astounded at the same time at the lengths new owners go to for modifying their new vehicles. While this Maverick will NEVER be a Pagoda 50 years from now, the amount of changes people are making to their Mavericks to "personalize" them is remarkable. They raise the suspension. They lower the suspension. They use larger tires, they use smaller tires. They remove the nice alloy wheels and get other nice alloy wheels. They add underbody protection plating for off road use. The more invasive are removing parts of the IP, and substitute different IP parts from other Ford vehicles; notable are a number of swaps from Ford Escapes. The most daring of the modifications involve getting software for a laptop, plugging in the laptop to the OBD port, downloading the trucks thousands of lines of code for all of its computer modules, and re-writing patches of code to do or not do certain things. I can only imagine screwing up something so bad in that latter modification that you'd have to sheepishly tow the car to the dealer to "make it right".
So do what you like. If you decide now or later you don't like it, undo it. With AI today there's probably a way to accurately visualize your car with whatever modifications you like, including pin striping!
