Classic/Antique Car Repair: muscle

Question
Hello:  I have a 2 door Chevy Chevelle, that I have owned for 35 yrs.  It is a small block 1971.  The interior needs a bit of work, but the rest of the car is spotless, and has never seen snow, or salt.  I am 53 yrs old, and I am approaching retirement.  I had planned on just driving my Chevelle while retired, but I have noticed there seems to be less people interested in old muscle cars.  The small block is very strong, and has been built since I was in grade 11. Many years ago. Do you think there seems to be less people interested in muscle cars? The good news I quess is there is also less people willing to seperate from their muscle cars.

Answer
Answer 1971 Chevelle.

Some where in the mid to late eighties a group of us that derived a good portion or all of our income from writing about cars and the auto industry formed the International Auto Writers association.  One evening a bunch of us were sitting around in an adult beverage establishment talking about, what else, cars. The conversation centered around when cars peaked in both value and interest.  The consensus that evening seamed to agree that the peak was between 35 and 40 years old. The reason was that when a person was ready to spend  money he or she would look back to the familiar or cars that were remembered from a significant part of his or her past. We kind of agreed that would have been the late high school early college years. That theory has been born out in my own history with collector cars. My main old car is a 1941 Ford Super Deluxe Sedan coupe with a lightly modified flat head. The second place in the garage is occupied by a 35 year old Mercedes Diesel. The Mercedes  Diesel caught my fancy during the years that I was a corporate animal and drove them as company cars. Being a technical/engineering type the machinery of the beast caught my fancy.  Now that said lets look at the auction results recently of the 1970’s muscle  cars. It is not uncommon to see Mopars, Vettes, and others topping $100,000. Currently I live in Southwest Florida where on any given night of the week I can, within 10 miles of my house,  attend a very well attended cruise night, that is 40 cars or more The Monday night event draws routinely 300 cars or more. In all of this the 70,s muscle cars are very well represented with only a hand full of 30’s and 40’s cars showing up.  I guess that my conclusion is that the 70’s muscle cars are now coming into their own, purely an unscientific observation.