What’s your flavor: Patina or showroom new?

[Cobra Jet]

So when going to car shows, auctions or reading multiple forums regarding Antique, Classic or Muscle Cars/Trucks, what’s your flavor:

1) Fully and totally nut & bolt restored to showroom new
2) Aged Patina (surface rust, faded paint, multi-color primer layers, dull chrome, worn interior), etc.

I’ve seen true “barn find” Mustangs, and I just think an unrestored Shelby GT350 just has more allure than one that looks like it was just built sparkly new. I also like the patina of Antique trucks, old 49 Mercs, late 30’s/40’s Ford coupes and late 40’s/50’s Caddy’s...

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[Anthony 05 GT]

I like them fully restored although I understand all original and why people prefer vehicles that way. I would be good with an all original condition car if it is in great shape. Several years ago I took possession of my dad's 1966 big block 427 Corvette coupe. My memory of the car was it was in pretty good shape and my plans were to get it to my shop and just freshen everything up. After a year and a half I pretty much went over everything.

I pulled the engine to re-gasket everything and do an inspection internally, but I found heavy bearing wear and it just looked like shit. I rebuilt the engine and heads, ended up doing pretty much the entire car inside and out. The underside of the car is now like new and I guess it was a case of once you make one thing right, then what's next to it looks out of place. I did leave the paint alone and just hired a paint guy to professionally buff it and it really pops. It had been repainted in the 70's and had been garage kept.

 

[Cobra Jet]

I like them fully restored although I understand all original and why people prefer vehicles that way. I would be good with an all original condition car if it is in great shape. Several years ago I took possession of my dad's 1966 big block 427 Corvette coupe. My memory of the car was it was in pretty good shape and my plans were to get it to my shop and just freshen everything up. After a year and a half I pretty much went over everything.

I pulled the engine to re-gasket everything and do an inspection internally, but I found heavy bearing wear and it just looked like shit. I rebuilt the engine and heads, ended up doing pretty much the entire car inside and out. The underside of the car is now like new and I guess it was a case of once you make one thing right, then what's next to it looks out of place. I did leave the paint alone and just hired a paint guy to professionally buff it and it really pops. It had been repainted in the 70's and had been garage kept.

Oh c’mon now, you go and post some cool stuff like that and no pics?

 

[Anthony 05 GT]

I'll have to work on that. My wife accidentally erased every pic on my phone in recent months. I downloaded an app called disk digger which restores pics, but it brought back every pic I have taken ever with the phone all mixed up several times over in different quality. I need to sort through it.

 

[Strokerswild]

My problem with #1 is most often such cars are restored to a level that never was when the car was new. To me they're over-restored. Cool to look at, but you might as well own art since many of these are rolled on and off trailers. And a car is only original once.

The body/chassis of my '67 Cougar is largely unrestored except for one repaint in 2006. It still carries a ton of assembly line markings underneath, and I couldn't bring myself to obliterate all that. Plus tons of patina after five decades, which I've grown to appreciate. I'm not much for shows but when I have showed this particular car, I get a lot of comments on how solid and original it is, I've had guys crawling all over under it taking pictures. I have no qualms about getting in it and driving it either.

 

[Strokerswild]

I took this picture a few years ago at a large car show. This GT350 was completely original. Patina in spades. I was far more impressed with this than a trailer queen, and the guy had driven it there.

 

[Dusten]

Depends on the situation.

Is it patina'd because it was neglected? No thanks. I prefer really old cars to be near new looking and stock(pre 60s)
Is it patina because it was forgotten and found? that's usually pretty cool, as long as it can be driven.

 

[Hack]

I prefer neither although I lean closer to patina. I like to see cars that are modified and upgraded with more modern components. I also prefer cars that are driven, so I don't mind seeing paint chips, etc.

To me the original cars are boring because I've seen (many) original cars before. I know what they look like. There's nothing cool to discover. There are no surprises and nothing to learn from them. A modified car can teach a lot, though.

 

[Strokerswild]

To me the original cars are boring because I've seen (many) original cars before. I know what they look like. There's nothing cool to discover. There are no surprises and nothing to learn from them. A modified car can teach a lot, though.

To take my earlier comments further, I really like "Day 2" restomods, an original car that's been modified with period parts. Engine internals are fair game.

That's basically the route I took with the Cougar I mentioned above. I didn't want to mess with the original interior/body/chassis of the car and wanted to preserve that and its patina as much as possible, but stock underhood is lame. So I installed an original Cobra dual-quad setup on my built original engine and added Tri-Y headers and side exit exhaust (i.e. ala original GT350R), all of which were available over the counter back in the day. The car had factory styled wheels with redlines until last summer, when it finally got some old school Torq Thrusts like I've pictured it with for years (I've owned it since 1986). It's all a nod to the Trans Am cars of the day.

 

[Hack]

To take my earlier comments further, I really like "Day 2" restomods, an original car that's been modified with period parts. Engine internals are fair game.

Day 2 is cool. I think your Cougar is awesome.

I also like to see suspension/steering/engine/transmission swaps to modern components - EFI conversions of old stuff, etc. I love body mods if they are tasteful. I think the more difficult or innovative the change is, the more I like it.

 

[Anthony 05 GT]

I also would like to restore a '66 fastback with modern touches like rack and pinion steering, coilovers, modern 5 or 6 speed. My dad's '66 Corvette needed quite a going over especially underneath. The frame was in good shape, but on the verge of not being anymore. Blasting it and refinishing was the best bet. From there everything else just looked like hell. Now the car is more or less like it was way back in '66 except for a few details. For example, I used a modern silicone gasket set, MLS head gaskets and a Quickfuel carburetor. I went with Bilstein shocks, I hand made a nickel/copper fuel line from rear to front too. Oops, I installed a quartz movement in the clock and a modern replacement speaker for the radio.

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