To customise or not to customise?

I have been thinking about this, is it a bad thing? It's not my thing and it would be a shame in my view if the Brazilian van ended up modified. Mind you if the only person to take on the van wants to do this why not. Below is the well known 344CNM, now this has been around for many years in various forms.This second picture shows the very same van in 1977, yes 33 years ago it was captured on standard 8 cine film at a HOT ROD car show. At this time it had the doors hinged at the top, gull wing fashion (with both doors open it was over 13 feet wide). So in a way the old van was saved and has given the various owners over the years a great deal of pleasure and of course it has survived.

If you want to see this cine-film in full it is now on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BJ-hTnWwNg its only 4.30 minutes long and the first view of the J is at 3.20 minutes.