My concern is that part of a really nice patina is a soft edge between paint and bare metal and it looks like the WHOLE paintjob is flaking/bubbled, as if it’s not bonded to the steel at all. If you buff it to try and smooth it out, or really do anything to it I think you will lose even more paint and I think you are gonna find severe, compromising rust beneath. Even the chrome is bubbling and it looks pretty new. Even if you manage to save 80% of what’s left I don’t think it’s stable whatsoever under the paint and will just keep getting worse. I agree with Clark in that I understand the dilemma but I think your car is rotting like meat, not aging like wine.
making patina is dumb, there is a difference between original paint thats thinned and had the metal rust underneath it and intentionally causing rust.
At the end of the day if it was mine, i would chemically treat the rust/bare metal areas to stop it. then take a DA and sand off the edges to see if it will feather out at all. If it will clean everything up and spray red oxide on it to seal it up. If it wont, or you keep coming up with more rust under all the paint that you sand off around the exposed edges, it time to stop and reevaluate. I'm afraid that this one is to far gone to save any major portion of, but you don't know if you don't try. worst thing that happens is you have to strip it all off and start over. If so you can seal it and primer it or repaint it all back to how it was originally. that may be the best way to do it in the end.
I agree with you 100% on the fake patina thing. I think it looks silly . but in this instance , if the OP does not have the time or funds for proper body and paint work . At the very least a quick spray or brush job is at least stopping further rust and deterioration until he can fix it properly . Like I said in a week ends worth of work he can have the car looking “ decent” and the “ fake patina” is just a quicker way ….. I think to avoid extra body work which will need to be removed and delt with then the correct job is done. The paint and body work are pretty rough on this car, looks like it was stored outside under a tarp or very humid environment for a while . I’m lazy , I like easy most times ! Lol
Thanks all. Im heartened to read some others can see why Im torn now and to be clear again Im not down on the seller about the condition of the car. Having sat under a tarp for 20 years it could have been MUCH worse. The longer I have it the more Im embracing it. It may even be almost @IronTrap 'perfectly shitty'. LOL. Getting it started this week was a big part of that and will be more so next week when I get to drive it on a temp plate. Have thought about a quick blast but getting caught here with no rego is a $5K fine and will kill my application for permanent residentancy. Moving forward I've applied a liberal amount of Gibbs to it yesterday and it already looks better (sell sort of ). @Nailhead Jason's approach is appealing and Im thinking if I can soften the bondo edge on the roof section at least that will help some. Someone suggested earlier trying to engage one of the inspectors to come look and we may try that although Japan being Japan that's unlikely as it would be unsusual. With snow due here next week and it being tucked away in the garage I probably wont do much with it now until the spring except, check fluids, give the interior and engine bay a detail etc. The windshield also has a crack in it and I'll have to replace that which I can do when not snowboarding or looking after our guests (We own some AirBnB condos). On the upside the welding of the roof insert looks pretty neat which is encouraging and the car seems to be pretty solid so things could be much worse.
Since you can keep it inside, you probably don't have to worry about it disintegrating from new rust, like some folks are worried about
Ordinarily I would opt for the patinated finish, but in this case the heritage is probably from an era closer to static shows than real hot rodding, don't get me wrong its definitely a real hot rod and looks like it was a cool car in its day. What's not so cool with this one is that its displaying a lot of plastic filler which is less cool than worn paint . I would be torn as well but if this was mine I think I would strip the roof and worst areas , eliminate and treat the rust, fix the dent in the roof and refill to smooth it, prime it and get as good a paint colour natch as you can on the repair areas, rub out the whole car give it a quick polish and call it done .. I said refill it because thats how its already done and if you were happy to see filler as part of its heritage then there isnt a big problem refilling it in the same manner to achieve a decent finish on the areas that have popped. What you might find with this car is that it was bought as a good finished car, after a while the owner noticed some filler lifting on the roof . Thy then did what we do and started digging. It looks like a huge chunk of filler popped out. The rust stain on the roof looks like the classic water under filler damage. The result left the owner pissed, the tarp went on and they hid the car promising themself they would et around to a rebuild that never happened .. Suddenly they were much much older, time caught them up and old age wore them out .. Looks like it was a real cool car in its day, Even the blue wire re wire has had some care put into it , even though it would be a pain to trace a fault .. Interior is super cool .. This would be a great car to own and bring back to life, improving and replacing as you go.. It would be interesting to see the underside, how well it was constructed , some of them are terrible but others are pretty well laid out and put together .. great looking car regardless..
My concern would be the 'under a tarp for 20 years'... How well was the inside of the car painted? Trapped condensation gets everywhere, it would sure suck to have rust holes show up from the inside out. Some of the rust you show is well beyond surface rust 'patina', it's pitting pretty deep. If their inspections are as tough as you say, somebody might get concerned about structural integrity. It also doesn't help that you live in a salt-air environment. I have to go with the 'primer spots' crowd. If appearance is a big deal, maybe some tinted primer will pass.
Razor blade all the loose stuff off, then sand it with an orbital sander with 80 grit disks, POR15 all the rusy and cracked places, bondo as needed, , then sand it with 80 then 220 and primer it, sand it, then shoot it with Black acrylic enamel with hardner, color sand it and buff it. Or pay to bead blast all the paint off and go from there.
I don't think you'll have any problems with this looking like a cookie cutter car no matter if it is in primer or repainted. A true vintage masterpiece. The paint looks too far gone for a long term solution. N To each his own though. Would look great in that color though. imo
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