We recently purchased a 500F in Italy. My wife and I go between Italy, Greece and Australia and she has always wanted one and, so what better place to own one. I have started a restore on the car but not sure if im doing it any justice. After driving it home and realising how analog this was my concern was on my wife's safety, so I have started the upgrade of the brake system to disc and increased horse power, and while im at it I may as well rebuild the engine to a 695 abath standard, My question is will I devalue the car by doing all this? at what point do you start devaluing one of these gems. The goal is to update the running gear, engine and transmission while keeping it cosmetically historical + a 695 badge on the back.

Mike

Interesting thought. I suspect like in a few other classic vehicle circles, there will be a fairly healthy mix of 'purists' and 'restomoders'. I'm more familiar with classic smallframe Vespa scooters, where rare, untouched examples will fetch decent money, and equally, tuned up monster machines change hands for just as many notes, albeit with a different clientele!
I suppose the question is a matter of taste, and personal choice; these cars were made in their millions (like Vespas) and their sheer volume lends towards a bit of artistic license, whereas it perhaps wouldn't with a Dino Ferrari! If the modifications also go some way to improving its (and your) survival rate on the road too, then that can only be a good thing, right?

As your main concern is to improve safety and add a little more power I would say go for it. As to whether or not it could devalue it that is difficult to say as a purist may decide it is now worth less someone else would appreciate the mods and decide it will save them money and effort doing the mods themselves. If you have storage space you could keep the running gear and engine/gearbox you remove so that it could be returned to standard if need be in future.

It all depends what you want out of your car. If you want a pristine 'as it left the factory' showpiece then do NOT alter the car. However,if you want a car that you, and your good lady, can drive around sensibly, and safely, then go ahead with the improvements. Modern traffic is so much faster than the traffic was when the 500 was first available (and its performance was marginal at that time!) that improving bothits 'go' AND 'stop' can only be good. As "Ant Knox" and "Fiona500f" have both pointed out, when it comes to sell the car, which ever way you decide to go will appeal to different buyers.
The suggestion from "Fiona500f" to retain the original engine and gearbox is a sound one, and WILL enhance the 'sell' value of the car if the new owner has the option to refit the original parts.
What ever you decide to do, welcome to the Forum, we are here to help

If you have a read through many posts on here there is a mix of original and fairly well modified cars...

It is easy to swap out engine and gearbox, and to a certain extent brakes etc...

As pointed out it is also easy to swap many things back....
and if you have the original engine and gearbox it could be a long term project to rebuild them so when/if you come to sell you can offer a choice and sell the engine that is left on to another owner....
I like Original but also understand that such old cars can be dangerous in modern traffic, in some cases other drivers may not realise you don't have quite the same acceleration or braking as modern cars....

So i would say keep all the original stuff it does not take up much space...

ThanKs everyone for your suggestions. i will go ahead with the modifications as hobbler pointed out, traffic is very different today to what it was back in the day. I have three engines that I will do up to sell. 700 in the car, 650 i'll convert to another 700 and the original as tempting as it is to keep it fiona500, I think I'll do that to a 600 and upgrade the gear box and sell it as a matched pair. time will tell.

I have a couple of older cars and this comes up frequently. As Tom (hobbler) mentioned, the big question is what is the car for? There are people who collect and want everything like a museum piece, and there are those who drive. Many fall somewhere in the middle. I tend to make upgrades where it enhances safety and many of those tend to also be reversible, so I also keep my original bits stored away. The mods you seem to be looking at should fall under that category. If it's to be a regular driver I say go for it. Also these cars have been assembled, dis-assembled, swapped, modded and upgraded so many times anyway it would be pretty rare to find one where everything is truly original anyway.

I too have a classic 500 with a 652 engine I don’t think adding many upgrades will devalue it, but i would advise NOT to fit rear disc brakes, the person I bought the car from fitted them & no matter what adjustment you make the handbrake is virtually useless.

So I might of made mine unsellable?...

I've even modded my daily driver....

My Lambretta LD 1952 is standard...just

Unless you're going for the concours restoration, quality of the components and work will often offset any devaluation from minor mods. It's when wiring is shoddy, body-filler used too liberally, and other generally half-assed mods that your value will plummet. A well kept, cleanly modified 500 will still hold its value for a long time to come, so fear not.

...and just based on your question, you're not a concours nutter, so you're safe.