Sam, wait until Cana sees your post. She's been called a lot of things, but mutt? Dude, that's harsh
Seriously, however, Stealth- this is secondhand info but I was interested in the Thornton W30 stick car at B-J and was told the paperwork was "iffy" I didn't get much detail, nor did I personally inspect it, but as we know docs are crucial with these cars. If the car was legit, it was a steal. I have inspected a few Thornton restored cars, they are very nice but imho the ones I have seen at auction have been not 100% OE level. Very few people get these things dead on with all original parts, etc. They are time consuming and costly to do right. $100k is low for a proper resto. Trust me, I know
Re the clone car- IMHO, absolutely no bearing whatsoever on the prices of real cars. Clones and tributes have been falling like a lead balloon while real cars are certainly down but hardly crashing like the clones.
Regardless of price/value/cost, any 70/71 W 30 ragtop is a damn cool car! I've owned one of my two since 1988. Paid a world record $2500 for it
Just my random thoughts. Sam, grow eyes in the back of your head and be on the lookout for a 5'8" blonde coming at you
Colin