Im gonna start posting on all the threads with shiny cars and tell them they need to scuff them up and get their chrome pitted....I have alot of catching up to do...haha..
Look at the Wheel Weights! The peeling paint,Thats awesome! Those are the Things and details that cannot be replicated! I dig it!
Before you go patting your self on the back just remember, even a blind squirrel gets a nut every once in a while...
Personally, I think there are two very different types of patina. With a car like this, it isn't just a dusty old relic that's been ignored; but a time capsule. A tribute to the past. A car that has earned its marks and is the exact car that it was in 1946. A car that has seen better days, but still carries the love and the pride that it once did. A car like this should be preserved, loved, admired and left alone. The other type of patina is the the much more common form we see. A vehicle subjected to use, time and the elements. A surface rusted hood, or sun cracked paint; door sill paint that has been worn thin through use. Patina that has developed because, at some point of time in it's past, the car was unloved. A car that was used as just that, a car. Nothing more, nothing less. The latter form of patina can be fixed. Restore it, paint over it, renew it. But that former kind - this car - that is the patina of history.
Original patina is the only way to be different, cause every dent and scratch tells a story. Not every car goes through the same hands, therefore different things happen to each one. As years go by cars look different from each other, telling their own story along the way. A survivor like this car is an open book I like to read. We build our cars to be different because we get tired of looking at cookie cutter manufactured crap. Restore this car and you erase it's soul. It will look just like all the other ones restored before it.
I'm REALLY conflicted now! My rod has 62 years of patina and now I should determine which must be preserved and which must fixed? Some of the patina has become iron oxide (look it up) but some I am polishing smooth and clear coating for high lights. Several years ago "fade away paint" and "ghost flames" were in vogue. Can we not accept "fade away patina" as a new choice? Please leave CHROME out of this thread? It's my favorite color! What the hell else are we going to talk about when it's 12 Fricking Degrees outside?
When it comes to patina, I like to think what would the guy who designed/engineered/built the car prefer? A worn out relic of his once beautiful work, or a pristine well crafted version of the pristine well crafted version they initially built. If I had designed that car designed/engineered/built that car, I would have pride in its scars but would be disappointed in its condition.
Dude...its 12 degrees in Arizona? I like all forms of patina...I think youre safe...some iron oxide tells me its a steel car...love it all....it just seems that some guys have zero tolerance for patina...it just gives me more cars to drool over..
What a great looking car! I love beautifully restored cars, but in this particular case this car shows all the battle scars of it's years. I personally wouldn't want to lose this part of it's history, so I'd prefer this car as it is, with all it's scars. If it doesn't run, I'd want to carefully restore the engine, without any paint or polish, but running well. Thanks for posting this timeless masterpiece Larry!
You guys keep saying stuff like, "battle scars over the years". This car was FOUND after it had been abandoned/stuck away. It wasn't like it was sat up and watched over. It was forgotten. I love history and I can give a little on the patina side, but this cars condition wasn't from racing, it's from sitting alone in a dark shed somewhere... unloved. There's the difference from my perspective. I see a big difference in abandoned and kept.
Kept BECAUSE it was loved. Don't you have cars or projects sitting in your garage? Why do you keep them? You don't drive every one of them now do you? Some patina is earned over time as it sits waiting in the corner. Some is earned on the race track.
Fred,don't we see threads about,excuse me for saying this,Barn Finds all the time. I'm certain this car was never lost and was stored away a long time ago. I would like to think it's like so may cars that are found and make their way back into the public eye,,could this treasure have belonged to a person that when he took possession of it intended to restore it or even race it but somehow life got in the way and it sat for years. The owner may have passed away and the family wanted to keep it and they died off,,the grandkids didn't want it and the car is sold at a estate sale. I realize the analogy of the barn find 1932 Ford 3 window and this car is far fetched,,put they weren't lost and eventually they end up with new owners. As Deuce Roadster use to say,"We are just caretakers". HRP
Kept, as in kept up, is good. Abandoned, which is what this car was, is not. I only have one hot rod, so the rest of that doesn't apply to me. But if I DID have more than one, I'd drive them and KEEP them up. Not stick them in a shed and forget about them. If I had a project, I'd be hammering on it... daily. It wouldn't be stuck in a corner. Without getting into a drawn out drama thing, I think having a bunch of projects sitting around and nothing being done on them, is borderline hoarder material. But that's me and NOT this car. It was found abandoned. If it had been kept up or even washed once a year, the paint would probably be faded, but it really would have that "patina" that seems to mean so much. That's MY thoughts on it. If your idea is stuffed in a corner, covered with a tarp, cool. Having a yard filled with projects? Go for it. No harm done.
This was a race car(I think),so how long are race cars competitive? They are usually striped of there parts for other cars so this one got lucky to be left alone. Plus when this was built, would it have been a show quality or race quality? To me its just awesome the way it was found,being perfectly restored reminds me of a replica of its former self. Pete
to artsy for me. i did enjoy seeing the car, but the whole time i felt like they were trying to hard to make the viewers feel something. the music made me want to "feed the children".
Amazing unrestored European perfection. The owner of the car, garage and broom are living better than me.
Thanks Larry! Loved it. Proud to be Italian and know this car stuff is in the blood. Right 33anda3rd?
it all comes down to each persons tolerance of flaws, i have customers that have me buff out every little thing as soon as it happens. i have other customers that let the patina "grow" before they fix something. to one guy a old paint job, is done, to someone else it needs to be ripped apart a redone [see the coleman coupe thread]. although....i think that car went into storage mint, but the "caretaker" kept brushing the dust of with that broom and scratched it all off.
Would love to have it and if I did I the restoration would begin. Patina is fine but to me that's just neglect to each their own.
Thank you for the early Christmas present Larry! That hit home big time, hope the owner keeps it just as it is, a moment in time that can last forever. On a lighter note how do you pronounce CISTIALIA? There was a guy in New Jersey that had a coupe and he called it a Cheese a talia. Car should have been taken away from him. Bob
The Jalopy Journal
