GT mowog wrote:
This has always been a question of mine (and I think many others).
At what point would it change from a repair to a re-birth? Nearly all panels are available new, and for that matter, it is still legal to use second hand panels, so if the car was rusted and all that was worth salvaging from it was the firewall and little else. If we repaired this car and used say one or two donor cars from which to obtain spares is this re-birthed or repaired?
Ah the old "Ship of Theseus" paradox
I think Douglas Adams puts it best in
Last Chance to SeeQuote:
I remembered once, in Japan, having been to see the Gold Pavilion Temple in Kyoto and being mildly surprised at quite how well it had weathered the passage of time since it was first built in the fourteenth century. I was told it hadn't weathered well at all, and had in fact been burnt to the ground twice in this century. "So it isn't the original building?" I had asked my Japanese guide.
"But yes, of course it is," he insisted, rather surprised at my question.
"But it's burnt down?"
"Yes."
"Twice."
"Many times."
"And rebuilt."
"Of course. It is an important and historic building."
"With completely new materials."
"But of course. It was burnt down."
"So how can it be the same building?"
"It is always the same building."
I had to admit to myself that this was in fact a perfectly rational point of view, it merely started from an unexpected premise. The idea of the building, the intention of it, its design, are all immutable and are the essence of the building. The intention of the original builders is what survives. The wood of which the design is constructed decays and is replaced when necessary. To be overly concerned with the original materials, which are merely sentimental souvenirs of the past, is to fail to see the living building itself.
A Cooper S is a Cooper S
I hope that the police are not looking.
