I fully agree with your love of the original patina cars. I particularly like cars which are survivors of the era's that all the new builds try to emulate. I am fortunate to own two cars of the type, both 32 fords. One a 5 window built in 56 with all the original paint, interior and old chrome, the other a roadster that still wears the primer applied in 53 and is built as a period correct car. What I find interesting is how little these cars actually draw the attention of the magazine types. While I hear almost everyone say don't touch those cars, leave em like they are, what I see coverage of are the new builds that look like the old builds. I appreciate those cars and find some of the new ideas applied very interesting. However, with a few exceptions, the coverage seems to be about shiny and new, or at least shiny and restored heritage cars. I am glad some of you leave'em alone.
My '39 has old weathered, chipped, scarred paint from my guess the early sixties. I will never paint it, it is an old Hot Rod, and that is it's appeal for me. Not into fake patina, rust, or either of them clear coated.
And, I might be wrong, but din't the car get involved in an accident and they had to 'match' the fix to the patina? I have wondered, when does patina just become a rusty old car, I plan to address this with my upcoming rebuild of my 40 pickup.
Rust and patina give any car an extra dimension...a sense of history that makes one wonder where the car has been, who drove it, how it was stored, how it got into the current owner's hands and so on. Psychologically, the same car with fresh paint dates back only as far as the paint job.
Typo41 asks... “When does Patina become just a rusty ol car?”.... Somewhere between here and there I’m guessing ... Paint applied to mine back in the 60s ... gonna leave it just as it is ... perfect....
I haven't had one of my Hot Rods painted since the mid 70's. Back then I paid $180 for a tutone job on my '55 Chev drop top. Jump to the early 00's and I was quoted $10k to paint a one color '49 F1.....that was the end of that. Now mind you that at that quote the guy probably didn't want the job but........it still would have been thousands to paint it. Every rod after that I buy seem never to be nicely painted as they ask more money than I'm willing to spend. So I look for the ones that are much more "worn in" but have good sheet metal and bones and go from there. At one time I liked nicely painted rods but the old hmmmmm where can I park it to not get scratched, bumped, dented anxiety is gone. My current rods go anywhere, park anyplace without worry about all that. If that's patina......then, right now, I like it! .
I discovered the appeal of patina in the 1980's when I could not afford to repaint my faded hot rod in my college years. Some folks asked when I was going to repaint it, the others said it looked meaner this way. One thing's for certain: it was far more fun to drive faded and beaten. It was just care-free, with no time wasted on wax jobs, and no door ding worries. I stopped parking it it the empty back parking lots and just crammed in between the riff raff wherever I went. Cranking it up between two grocery-getters and their startled drivers was always delightful. (this thing was extremely loud) It was just a loud, fast hot rod -- and it still turned heads. My level of enjoyment skyrocketed, and my stress level plummeted. Patina rocks.
It's nice that the patina look is "en-vogue". Regardless, my wife and I like enjoying our vintage rides by driving them. Of the last three vintage vehicles we bought, we purposely made part of the criteria the paint be "presentable, but sweaty with a few blemishes ok" partially because I don't like doing paint and body work, but also that would not be paranoid to drive and enjoy them.
While I don't believe that every rod needs a 10K + paint job this "patina" crap and "preserving it's originality" by letting some rides rot into the ground has gone way too far. You wonder how big the rust holes in the cowl of that 32 have to get before the owner decides he has to do something with it. I'd far rather see a hot rod that was solid and rust free and having an obvious spray can or brushed on Rust-Oleum paint job than see it suffer though cancer like that because the owner is too hard headed to repair it while it can be repaired.
To me fake patina is just a bad paint job. On this '32 where they tried to match it up after a terrible accident, I can accept their reasoning but knowing that it was faked changes my view of the car. Maybe it should have just been restored to look nicer all the way around and give it a new lease on the next chapter of it's life.
The first time I saw pa-shitta was on a rusty shovel in my dad's backyard leaning up on a fence probably in 1949...I didn't know about any of this back then. If I could have, I guess the best thing to have done was clearcoat it and wait until now an sell it for a $1.00.
I’d probably be enamored with a car with patina like that for many years. But sooner or later if it became a keeper, I’d bet I’d paint it. I just tire of the same look after a while whether it be paint or patina
I love faded worn paint, but the paint still has to be there. This car is a good example. Being in the midwest its very difficult to find one. Worn paint comes with the bottom 6 inches of the car missing.
I don't really think Don's cowl is rusting through. I bet he doesn't leave it sitting outside in the Southern California rain. I have a 32 sedan with similar paint. We built it into a hot rod a dozen years ago, and have been driving it ever since. There were a few bare metal spots on the body where the 70 year old paint chipped away. Those same spots might have a touch of orange color on the bare metal now, but nowhere near rusted away. Don't over react. A rain shower or car wash now and then won't rot this car into scrap.
the best part of that 32 is showing people the before pictures after you put a nice paint job on it and tell people "look how big a piece of shit it used to be" I don't mind faded paint, but that is just messed up paint
I saw Don's car before I knew the details of it's resurrection and the later crash. I looked it over pretty close and could not determine what was original patina and what was expertly matched. In several trips to SoCal I always noticed his car so I know he drives it a lot and it is well maintained and cared for.
When you clear coat rust and welds you've opened it up. Love your car. It I had it I'd strip it and paint it a color ... not flat either. But I don't have it.... you do