Restoration: how far should it go??

From: peter tremewen <ptremewe_at_bigpond.net.au>
Date: Sat Jun 14 06:19:00 2003

Hi all,

        Being a new comer to the hobby, I have not posted much on the forum
before. The subject however is one that has recently been brought to my
attention, and hopefully will bring about some debate.

        Here is the scenario. You've just come home from the Antique
show/Trash and treasure/garage sale. You've picked up a nice new toy,
hopefully at least a little less than the price you should have paid. (With
the blessing of the other half of course) You know it's not a worker and have
a general idea of the condition of course. You just can't wait to get it back
to the workshop. You take the cover off and......

        How much do people think is too much restoration??? Now obviously
you aren't going to spent thousands on a system that even in the distant
future will not even generate hundreds, and obviously you aren't going to
rebuild and replace every part in the item, because then it's a replica not an
antique. Obviously however a going system is more valuable than a broken one.
So to what lengths do you go to fix it?? For quite some time I have had in my
possession a fairly old system that I am told is "historically significant".
For those that know what one is it is an EDUC-8 a descrete logic
CPU/Programming trainer from the mid 70's. There seems to be two main
opinions among computer collectors.


        Opinion 1: The collector who collects entirely for the sake of owning
the object in question and is not concerned about operating it or whether the
item works as planned. They will buy an antique for preservation and think it
is sacrilegious to do any restoration other than maybe a "spit and polish".

       Opinion 2: The collector who collects with the intention of
restoration. Who might go to extreme lengths to rebuild and restore the item
he has brought, because to him the idea of keeping something that isn't
working as planed is against God and nature.


        Without getting into protracted discusion about the theology of either
collector, I would like to hear the opinions on the list about how far a
restoration should go before it starts detracting from the value of the piece.
I know this is a complex issue, and obviously depends on allot of factors, but
surely there are SOME guide lines that should or could be followed. I am about
to start a complex restoration on the EDUC-8 and am hoping the experts on the
list will give me some ideas based on their experience with other systems.
Idealy I would love the thing to be actually working. Possibly with some
replica I/O interfacing. I must say the the system is at best in "fair to
poor" condition, and without some attention it will probably deteriate
further. I supose I could just clean it up and place it in a "display case"
but I tend to be a collector of more the second opinion than the first.
Obviously however I do not wish to "distroy" the "vintage" significance of the
unit either

                Hope to hear from you soon.....

                        Peter T.
Received on Sat Jun 14 2003 - 06:19:00 BST