whats the deal?

Whats up with people being so in love with patina, its rust, its bad to have on anything metal. If its there on the surface its that much closer to rusting through and being junk

I like earned patina. Faded paint, worn and faded leather from years if use but not cut or torn. No rust though, rust is bad. Just an honest used but clean old car or truck that shows the signs of being used. I hate fake patina though.

There are a bunch of reasons. The high end collectors are valuing originality over all else. Just like antique furniture whatever is left of the original finish is preferable to a refinish.

After a few dozen years of seeing 100 point restos it is refreshing to see a car that is a bit rough around the edges. It is still a bit different.

We performed a full restoration on this 51 chevy pulled out of a Kansas pasture after 30 years. Before we started we had a long talk with the owner about how much it was going to cost and how little it would be worth when finished. It was his grandfathers farm truck and he remembered riding in it as a kid in the late 50's so sentimental won out over sound financial reasons, he decided to make it more unique and honor his grandfather by preserving the wear he created over the years. I think he made the right choice.

Every single part underneath this truck is new. The old babbit 216 is there hooked to a three speed and a torque tube rear end. I did a fair bit of rust repair and any new panels were blended in to the existing finish. The owner loves it. That is the truck he remembers his grand dad driving. The drivers side window ledge and fender are paint free from the years of him leaning on them. That is his family history that we preserved.

In reply to Ditchdigger:

Thats jsut an awesome truck with a great story, to bad there isnt more like this around the interwebs....Build thread?

great truck, love the originality

I'm a huge fan of patina on race cars. Not as in half-eaten by rust, but as in put away after their last race and not restored.

patina is a tough thing to 'get right'. The Chevy above is a good example of getting it right. Like race cars too. Rusty hood on a late model VW? lame....

The Chevy pickup above looks nice. It's the cars that were pulled out of the sea and then clearcoated that bug me.

Had this guy show up at a local Cars and Coffee:

It was a pretty big hit. Not really original, but what work was done on it was very old (e.g. repaint). The interior was original and WELL worn though.

This guy saw it driving by to another event and had to check it out (same car, later year). Note the gravity feed gas with the sediment filter. Also note the custom "heater" add on next to it (there is a sock stuffed in it) that was just a hole that went through the firewall that picked up whatever hot air blew over the exhaust manifold (I am thinking it wouldn't exactly cook you out of the car!)

Interestingly I liked the first one better.