Art & Inspiration What I am I missing about muti-thousand dollar paint jobs? The anti Patina counter

The thing that irritates me about the patina fad is reading "for sale" ads for rusted pieces of junk that the seller add that it has "patina" trying to cover the fact that it's covered in rust. Like vehicles that have original, decent looking paint especially if it's the original paint and even more if it had business lettering on it. But if the vehicle has only a few inches of faded, flaking paint it looks like crap. I got into a discussion with a person who was touting how a vehicle with a crappy rusty finish was only original once. His truck had the crappy look but it also had a narrowed rear end with wide tires, the front end was dropped and had a big modern V8 with all of the add ons. I told him his truck didn't originally come from the factory with all of that. He stopped talking to me.

The other argument for the paint fad is painting a vehicle is cost prohibitive. Not everyone can afford a $5K paint job. You don't need $5K to make a car look nice. The local farm supply store has a gallon of tractor paint, reducer and hardener for around $125. A little muscle and a weekend you can have almost any rust bucket looking decent, a lot better than patchy paint and rust all over. Also, the paint is a lot better quality that the paint they used back in the '40 and '50s.

 

I think your adage is exactly why I like cars with original, worn paint and am leery about painted cars. How many threads on here have you seen a car with a decent shiny paint job having to get redone because of the horrors hiding underneath that "nice" paint. I'd rather see some surface rust than split bondo and cars that are rotting from the inside out. Being young I've grown up seeing the effects of cheap older restorations that did more damage than good to the cars in the long run.

If you can afford to do a paint job right, more power to you, but your paint budget is going to be near the cost of an entire build for me.

 

I love real patina cars and I'm ok with rough cars. My 34 is painted with a brush. I am however collecting parts for my next car and that's gonna be so shiny you'll fall into another dimension if you stare too long.

 

Same here (although I'm behind you by about 6 years) - I totally agree. My car still has mostly the color it came out the factory door with and I have no intention to re-do it unless I feel that leaving it as is will result in structural damage (it's a summer only vehicle and is garaged when off road so I think I have things under control). Plus I can leave it at the local home supply or any car park without worrying about is constantly...

 

I paint cars for a living and I can’t believe the cost of it all sometimes. A decent car that needed a complete 30 years ago was 1500.00 to 2000.00 with roughly 300.00for materials. Last winter I blew up my 37 Chevy and painted it - my cost on materials 1800.00.

 

Frankly, I would love to have a nice paint job on all my hot rods. Realistically, I can choose to build it, make it fast and safe, or just paint it.
At least I can drive them when they are built, fast,and safe.
I don’t need any costly yard, garage, or shop art.
r


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

I don't like rust. So I simply cover it up with rust converter & flat black primer. I let the grandsons help renew the flat black on the 55 in my avatar. They put it on good & thick in places as evidenced by the runs!

 

The following is just my opinion. Take it for what it's worth, and coming from me, it ain't much.

But...

I like safe and reliable and something that looks to be regularly serviced, whether it has shiny paint or not. Some vehicles look good with crusty edges and cracked, delaminated glass. Some look good with glass like paint that flows over sexy, sleek lines. At the end of the day you're still a part of a hobby that most folks don't have enough motivation to attempt or is too big a task for their perceived skillset.

My thing is the guys that get all indignant about it. I like red-heads and asian chicks, but you don't see me bitchin' or snubbing my nose because you like brunettes. We all like the same thing, just different flavors.

Just pop open a cold one, chill, and maybe offer one to the "patina" or "16 coats of hand polished lacquer" guys . It don't matter. Life is too short to ruin a good time worrying about what Joe Blows jalopy looks like.

 

I am blessed to have a both, a shiny one for 32 years, and a natural one for 16 years.
There is a literary quote "the un-washed don't get it".
My Mercury has not been washed since I have owned it, and I doubt it was washed many times before that, it had a 1961 plate on it when I found it sitting in a field. I have spit on it, rubbed it in with my boot to piss off the guy with next to me with his $30,000.00 paint job on an un-driveable, trailer warmer.
Fake paint takes real money and I would rather spend my money on premium gas.

 

I agree with ALL this. Especially what people call patina; which is usually decades upon decades of neglect and/or abuse. They look like ass and their owner's use a term they think makes it somehow exclusive. It's not, it looks like junk.

True patina; which I define as paint that has been so well cared for through the decades that it may have been polished through to the primer or even bare metal in places, is admirable. I like it and if I had a car/truck with that I'd be proud to own it. My avatar '55 Chevy was a total mess so I sanded it and rattle canned it until I could afford a big dollar paint job. My only regret is that it is now too nice to park and leave unattended if I go out to dinner or something.

 

One line that always pisses me off is, drive your car and enjoy it. Like burning the tires off it is the ONLY thing that matters, not to me! The car is in the garage 99.9 % of the time, and you are going to look at so it better be as nice as you can build it. I like sanding perfectly fit body panels. Bob

 

I am not bashing the huge money paint jobs, I am just saying I don't get it.
I would much rather send my time and money on the chassis and drive line.
Things body gaps are not where I would spend my time. As long as the doors do not bind open and stay closed going down the road I am happy.

A friend of mine restored an old historic stock car. When he did he painted it with base coat clear coat. After painting the car he did not put the original headers and exhaust back on because he feared burning the paint.
(See the car below has the same style headers and exhaust) He used the car to pace the field at Fonda (1/2 mile dirt) about every 15 minutes he had his California Car Duster out, I keep my car clean but if I have to spend every minute hovering over it I am not going to have fun with it.

 

Could you possibly be more derisve ??

 

I draw the line at safety things line broken windows, dry rotted rubber and rust holes need to be replaced.

 

I just like building cars, its my biggest hobby and sometimes i make money working on other's cars to spend on my cars. I like making the metal work, body and paint as nice as i can to the best of my abilities, and like to think that i did the best job i could when im done, but it can also take months-years. I would be fine with old worn in paint, but id be compelled to fix it if there was exposed rust and rot on the body.

 

My car has the same paint as when I got it. It's black and the closer you get, the more flaws you see. I can do all the mechanical stuff to my car but, I never learned how to do body work. I decided NOT to put a costly paint job on it because over the years I sunk tons of money into my cars and normally you don't get back what you put into them. And I don't think nice paint could possibly add any more to the fun and enjoyment factor I get from driving this thing.

 

I could try

 

I like original looking cars.. Original paint and interiors.. Do what you want with engine swaps and suspension but original paint and interiors are the best for me.. Anyone can have a car painted or the interior done but the original paint and interior are only original once.. That's just how I like my cars and may not suit everybody....

 

I watched a U Tube show Turning Rust. and they certainly believe in Patina fake or real. Do patina work & lettering on old junk that don't even run ect. Before I would spend time faking patina and clear coating I would paint it with Farm Tractor paint & a brush. One old guy I knew when I was a teen. Every time the barn got a new coat of paint so did his pickup. barn red with white trim. Truck red with white wheels and bumpers and top of cab white. Musta been a 1/2 inch thick.

 

Ok I have this 55 ford Ranch Wagon. It was painted in the distant past with a brush and oilive drab army paint. No sanding or prep work just brushed on paint. Now most of that olive drab has peeled off. Revealing the original Turquiose . Of course the paint is completely worn from the fender tops and that's surface rusted. I was thinking maybe just spot painting the surface rusted places and calling it good enuf?

 

To add a bit more to what I said originally, I think it's all about attitude. What the owner thinks is important. I know guys that are Horsepower freaks, that think nothing about dropping 10K or more on an engine, driving it like they stole it, blowing it up, and laughing about it. Fine, no problem if it doesn't bother them.
On the other hand, is it any different that I spend a lot of time, and money to buy paint for MY car, make it pretty darn nice (Yes, I actually have won "Best Paint" awards), and then driving the wheels off of it. Yeah, it gets chipped up, bug guts imbedded in it, and eventually worn out, but I enjoy driving it, no matter how nice it is. What I don't get it guys who do the cars up so nice they refuse to drive it.
I usually tell guys I paint cars for, if they really feel like that, trailer it around for the first year, win whatever trophies you are going after, THEN drive the wheels off of it, and enjoy!

 

That is funny and kind of what I am talking about.
I know the owner of this car and I have never thought about the fact three of the wheels are sliver and one is red.
For two reasons the first is they are all weathered, the second because it was not uncommon for cars of this era to run with mismatched wheels. Due to damage or for handling people would experiment with offset/backset which sometimes meant borrowing wheels from a competitor.

What I noticed and drives me crazy is the fact it is a radial.

 

spending time and money trying for perfect paint is about the same as spending time and money trying to have the perfect lawn and landscaping. Even If I had millions of dollars would I spend very much time & money on paint or my front yard.

 

When I was able to purchase my dream car, first seen when I was about 14, I wanted to build it to the best of my ability. It is mostly home built as I couldn't afford to have other people do the work.
Many hours of body work, block sanding, painting in a home made spray booth, color sanding, and buffing resulted in a paint job I'm still proud of after 26,000 miles.
It will probably be my last build from scratch so I'm glad I did the best I could.

 

Had a friend who owned an OT camaro with a ten grand paint job. He found a tiny flaw in the top and wanted to take it back to the painter and have it repainted. I couldn't even see the flaw.

 

If you want to see patina on cars, go visit your local junkyard. You'll see lots of it there.
If you want to see examples of pride of craftsmanship (AKA shiny paint), visit the GNRS, Detroit Autorama, or LARS.
If you want to be traditional, paint it shiny. That's precisely how it came, way back when.
If you're into racing, you paint your car shiny because it's faster. That's a fact.
I can't believe we're discussing this shit for the thousandth time ...

 

Hope to see it in paint one day

 

My .02
Shiny = OK
Patina (selectively) = OK
Shiny patina (clear coated) = puke

 

I am 67 and my health is turning to crap. I had one chance to have a shiny car. It got a lot more positive comments when it was in primer.

 

My pickup has a 15 year old industrial enamel paint job. It is getting the UV damage and showing a little road rash. Some of my friends have cars with the "high end" paint jobs. I would like to repaint my truck. They are talking me out of it for now.

The other day I dropped a wrench on the fender. I didn't even get pissed.