Vintage Cars: changing paint color on Mustang, old adage, paint job

Question
I have a 72 Mustang Convertible with under 20,000 actual miles. It has a 302,Auto and A/C. It is white with red interior and could use a paint job. Would I decrease the value if I had it painted 72 Mustang Red or another shade of Red?

Answer
Bob, I apologize for not responding earlier, but your message came in about an hour after I left for a vacation.

I am assuming that your car is completely original - an original car is ALWAYS worth more if nothing major (other than maintenance) has been done to it. You don't mention any special packages or options on the car, so my advice would be to leave the car alone if it were a special interest vehicle (say a Mach 1 or something). However, if it is not, then a paint job might actually help the value, provided that ALL of the original color is covered by the new color - door jambs, inside the trunk, under the hood on the firewall and so on. If you don't paint those parts of the car, I believe that your value would be diminished more than just leaving the car as is.

I am not truly a "muscle car" era expert, but rather a 30s and 40s car expert, so you can take this advice with a grain of salt. An old adage in the collector car business is that a car can only be original once. Re-doing the interior, changing the motor, re-painting the car - those are all generally detractions from the value of the car unless they are done meticulously.

I hope this helps you with your decision.

Regards,

Dick.