Am I the only one who doesn't get "patina"? especially when someone has otherwise done the interior and drivetrain very nicely, and then goes to extra trouble to clearcoat rusty metal and worn-away paint?

One board I was on, someone had a sig line said "Patina does not mean holes big enough to sling a cat through".

Maybe I'm not meant to understand such things...

 

When I was a kid primer gray was a car color. Each to their own.

 

When a high quality body and paint job costs 10k, you start to understand why people choose the "patina" look

 

I don't get the wagon wheels.

 

I can appreciate authentic patina, I figure if a car/truck has made it thru the years long enough to acquire the patina, the time and effort to replicate the look could just as easily make the vehicle look original. The patina look to me means faded paint, not big rust holes or neglect.

 

Try 15-20,000 for high quality.

 

I'm a bodyman by trade. I love making cars slick. But I also love rusty sleepers. Its partially an underdog thing. I found people really love works in progress ., they can relate. The patina thing is relatable. Someone who wants to get into the car hobby can find comfort and may even start a project because he can find a group of people he can identify with. Keep in mind cars and car culture are a big part of one's identity one way or another. If I wasn't a body man and used my car as a real life resume i would have left it in primer. Besides the nice paint job my car lacks a "real interior" and lots of trim. But she scoots and catches people's eye. I've parked next a real deal w30 at a cruise night and got more attention. I learned something that night.

 

Patina is fun. I’m not always worried about something happening to it, trying to keep it clean and it’s cool having 50-60 year old cars with original paint, I to am a bodyman and painter and love patina (that 70 c10 is my 12 year old son’s truck he bought with his own money..proud dad!!!)

 

To me Patina is a fancy term for, rust, distress, abuse and the like but mostly happens over long periods of time. IMO it works some of the time but should not be used when trying to sell a rust bucket for more than its worth. My Cutlass wagon has a bit of patina inside on the painted surfaces at door panels, lower dash, etc. Its not horrible but evident and I kinda like it.

 

I've got mixed feelings about this. My 62 F-85 wagon is the epitome of patina after sitting in the desert for 30 years. It gets way more attention than it probably would if it were totally restored or even rodded. On Power Tour last year there was always a crowd around it. Opinions are about evenly split between "paint it" and "leave it alone". Frankly, it's kinda nice to have a car that you can just get into and drive without worrying about rain, mud, or having to wash it all the time. Having said that, I'm REALLY tired of "rust is a color". It was bearable when it was just surface rust, but now there are holes, and it pi$$es me off. I'm pretty much over the patina thing now.

The worst cars are the "fauxtina" cars. Fake rust on a fiberglass street rod is just stupid. Gloss clear over that is really stupid. And putting all the effort into carefully extracting a patina'd shell from the frame and dropping it over a brand new frame and suspension is way more effort than it is worth.

 

Many of my daily drivers have been scrapped because the patina had so weakened the structure it was no longer safe to drive......

Roger.

 

I bought and drove a lot of cars with "patina" and dents when I was growing up and couldn't afford better.

 

In it's place I like it. Some Rat Rods look a lot like what we put together as kids in high school and if one ever gets to the top of my bucket list it will probably have patina. Hell I have three rag tops and no place to park another indoor car, something gotta set out in the snow and rain sun and dust it might as well be a already rusted heap..... Tedd

 

If you restore a car, you should paint it. If you can't afford a good paint job, get a gun and learn. If a car is original, and you want to leave it that way, fine.

One of my other hobbies is beer signs; I collect two older Indiana brands. A lot of the signs show at least some wear, and one realizes that that adds to the authenticity, but one
does not deliberately seek out worn signs as a "look," rather, the worn signs are cheaper and one looks to upgrade to better versions as one collects.

Putting clearcoat over rust and worn color paint and bare metal reminds me of guys who refuse to graduate high school or college and keep coming back for more years. It is time
to step to another level and not try to "restore and preserve" something that is basically a call out for restoration and preservation.

 

For me, patina only works on well worn original stuff. Not dilapidated, broken down interiors or rusty bodies. I love a decent honest ole car. The hobby is over ran with pigs wearing lipstick. I would rather buy an original paint rust free example than one with fresh paint. Who knows what lies beneath that glossy surface. As one who does my own body work and paint, I can freshen it up in my own schedule when I think it is time.

Here is a paraphrase from Roy Sinor (Corvette fame) that has stuck with me. "Some cars you can walk around one time and know most every thing of it's past.. Other cars you can walk around the rest of your life and never know anything about it".

It's nice to know what you really have.

tc

 

"Patina" cannot be faked. If it's faked, it's like buying "distressed denim" or "distressed leather", it looks sort-of like well-worn clothing, but it isn't. It's phony. It's commercialized abuse looking for extra profit from faking "style"; or it's a cover-up looking for extra profit from an inability to make the product "nice".

All my vehicles have "patina". That's what happens during normal aging and normal use. It's not crash damage, it's not abuse (my vehicles have that, too.) Patina is accepted, but not bragged about. The people who brag about patina are the ones who don't "get it".

Rat rods are an abomination. They're the "sad clowns" of the automotive world. What sort of sick mind deliberately puts time, money, effort, and enthusiasm into screwing-up a vehicle? Rat-rod owners and builders need psychiatric help.

 

Rat rods are cool and you need to look at them to appreciate them, there is a lot of creativity and custom fab work that goes into them, a nice car doesn’t have to look stock and have nice paint . I assume people with tattoos are All losers to?

 

Time worn but cared for is cool and represents history.
Fake patina is fake and a desperate stab at legitimacy.

 

As with anything in life, sweeping generalizations are bad. You are right - the ones done with thought and creativity are cool. Most I've seen are just random rusty crap thrown together with no thought and with really sketchy workmanship. There were several on Power Tour that were really well done. These are unfortunately the exception.

 

Tattoos used to be for motorcycle club outlaws and sailors. Later expanded to other armed forces. Tattoos are inappropriate on women and typically, on both genders, indicate a lower social class. Please note that that was "a lower social class" not "low class." An example would be an assembly line worker would be more apt to have a tattoo than a doctor.

 

This is extremely well said.

 

Hi all,

Patina is a running joke about my 65 Buick as my wife hates the peeling paint, but car was put together back in 09, before the term rat rod was in vogue. Car was a rebodied 65 Gran Sport put together in 6 weeks, slowly its getting done but the paint and bodywork hasn't yet due to cost, keep thinking about getting a go fund me page for the complainers

First year I took the car to Back to the Bricks I had people yelling at me about bringing such a ugly car to a show, last time I attended 2018 I had people taking selfies with the car, my how tastes have changed.

Bottom line what you do with your car is your choice, unless someone else is footing the bill be happy its still on the road jmo

Regards,

 

I agree with the comments about restoration cost and extreme rust and holes the size of a basketball - common on our NY beaters since inspection doesn't flag corrosion unless the suspension is about to fall off!!

Not everyone can afford restoration where a quality major body & paint job can easily approach 20 Grand and that's hard to justify for the average family guy. And even if affordable to some, it's getting to the point where it's crazy to restore any car worth less than at least $35-40k .

Learning to DIY? It takes a lot of practice to do really decent paint & body work in my experience, particularly with metallic paints when using correct single stage acrylic. Personally I was able to do an OK job painting an olive-drab matte finish on a CJ-7 Jeep, and farm-grade trailers, but wasn't satisfied at all with any car paint jobs I've done. At 70 I sure won't be getting any better either, so it's either go with patina or fork out big-bucks that won't make driving any more fun!

Surface rust, sunburn, paint defects, worn interiors to me are OK, but a rusty rotted junk-heap that just happens to be old? ... not. And regardless of cosmetics, any car driven on the road should run well, not pollute, and be safe. My $.02.

 

Cars/trucks are original once. Assuming the patina look is just faded paint and typical parking lot battle damage, if the owner wishes to preserve those “battle scars” I’m all for it. Let’s face it, how many of us in readerland don’t have some creaks or scratches that weren’t present when we were all brand new?


Having said that, if the vehicle is a rusted out unsafe turf, either restore it, repair it to be safe, but don’t “polish a turd” by calling obvious neglect and wear and tear patina.

 

I like patina, real and faked if done right. I also like high end restored classics, but I want to use and drive my cars a lot. I am not worried about using my highly original 66SS Chevelle , because is has a little wear and tear on a 70k mile car.

I have a 66C10 that is a natural patina texas car, it has small dents, scratches, some faded paint, and is clear coated. drove two round trips florida to California and it gets major thumbs all the time. it has modern drive train and all the goodies, AC< disc, 350/350. Cruces 80 all day long.

also have a original 50 88 2 door sedan, original wear patina car, that is in great mechanical shape, and a sweet driver. people of all ages come running to see this car when I take it , out, which is every day. I did not clear coat it just used boiled linseed oil to give a little gloss.

https://s958.photobucket.com/user/al...tml?sort=3&o=0

all my cars are rock solid with no rust , or damage, other than light surface patina rust and wear.
I also collect vintage guitars, but have several newer high end guitars, bay Gibson and Fender Custom Shops, these are hand crafted to original specs of various classic guitars, like 59 Strat, Les Paul, etc,. they hand build them brand new, then do a patina process using chemicals, temperature, scratching, rubbing, to make them look like original year guitars in various states of wear. however they play and sound totally amazing. I equate these to todays patina cars, and I love them all. Allan

 

al1950 that 88 looks perfect!! Don’t change a thing.

 

Patina > over-restored cars which their owners even fear to drive out of their garage.

 

There are a few "patina" cars that look really nice in their original condition, but those are mostly those rare desert survivors. Most of these "patina" cars are driven by people to cheap to get them painted.

 

Those would commonly be called "tribute, replica's, reproductions, clone or fake". They look like an original, but they just aren't original. I think of Patina as a natural surface condition.

 

In my humble HUMBLE opinion, clear coating over patina is like putting whipped cream on s[(CENSORED)].

 

This is probably a fad that will eventually just fade away in favor of fresh paint.

 

I wouldnt say fade away. The whole street machine look from the 70's is coming back. Paint and all.

 

Agreed on that point there. I once had a 1967 GTO back in 1977 that had some pretty nasty Patina all over it. As in the car was probably over 17 different phases of paint, rust, bondo, primer, etc.......I got pulled over on the NJ Garden State Parkway for pulling a hole shot out of the Union Toll Booths (southbound) and the bewildered trooper asked me what color the car was. To which I replied, I don't know, pick one. To which he replied, well what does this "Champ" mean in the color spot on the registration, what is that? I said oh, that's short for, "Champaaaaaaaaaaaigne". Never ever saw a State Trooper laugh like that and I never have since. No ticket.

 

When I was kid in NJ, one of the annual inspection items was rot with sharp edges would fail your car. Don't know if that's still true today or not as I left there in 1980.

 

REMEMBER THOSE LINES? Holy cow, what a nightmare. I used to go to the one in Paramus, NJ. Always backed up for hours and I KNEW I was going to fail just about every time. This was back in the mid 70's. I think my carbon footprint is still there. And a lot of oil too. Now on occasion in my travels from CT on south, I pass that Inspection Station right off the GSP (i think it's closed up now) like someone whistling past a cemetery.

 

back in early 60's in Oklahoma, they started the inspection requirement , one day a farmer came into our local chevy small-town dealer . he had an ancient pickup held together with mud, rust, and bailing wire, he asked them if they did the new inspections, they said no, but we sell stickers, roll it in. true story I was there.

 

And speaking of selling stickers, there is a company that re-pops these, and they offer the infamous inspection sticker you got if you failed in NJ, it was a red octagon shaped stop sign on a white background. They even have one with the word FAILED put on it if you want that. I was thinking of getting one for our 69 Camaro and putting it on as a gag. But too many really, really bad memories. I decided against it. Why would I want to put something on a car that back in the day I tried my best to avoid getting? I would bet you that if I placed one on the car and drove it in NJ I would get pulled over. Why tempt fate. I'll just leave that one be.

In the winter we used to put snow over the failed sticker to hide it. Sometimes it worked, sometimes no.

 

In 2015, my son found a 1950 Chrysler Windsor on Craigslist when he was 16. A "worthless" four door sedan, with 63,000 miles, with the original flat six, and Prestomatic transmission. It had never seen a barn, because it was an Iowa field car. We dragged it home, cleaned out the mice, and then spent about six weeks of QGT getting it running, and safely stopping. Then he wanted to drive it! He was sixteen, and didn't want to spend another year doing paint and body on a car with little "collector value". So, I welded in new rockers (They were packed with Iowa farm mud.), and fixed some floor rust. Then my son helped me strip the trim, and we wet sanded the car, and did the CLR treatment, and then clear. The first one I'd done like this. We bought the car in October, and he was driving it to school in the following spring, but the work was completed in early December. We have as much fun in that car as any of our others. My teen son "wanted to learn some things" before he went to college. It has served him well, and I have wonderful memories of our time working together. Costs are what keep many young people out of the hobby. In my opinion, patina cars have a place, for many reasons. That's our story.

 

I love the look of some of the cars with the "patina" rust... That said, these days patina is a word abused as bad as rare. My wifes car is original paint and dents and dings everywhere. I have people on both sides say to leave it alone and the others say restore it. I am restoring my car and will be keep as perfect as I can but we plan to leave hers just as it is so that we can still drive it any time we want without any worries. I get to have it both ways and the cars even match in color

 

I started restoring my H/O but have that on hold for a while. Call it patina, call it a beater, either way I'm having more fun with it in its current condition than I do with nicely restored cars. My 'cuda is a nice car that needs nothing more than some detailing/refreshing in spots, and it sits under a cover. Once I finish pouring another $40k into the H/O to finish the restoration, I'll be paranoid to drive it...

I appreciate beaters more than half-*** restored cars these days. Everyone has their preferences...