Where to draw the fine rusty line between good patina and just worn out and nasty?

Hey folks,

So I have been struggling a bit with ‘patina’, what makes good patina, vs just worn out. When I began screwing around with cars at 14 years old I never had the scratch to make things really nice, so the thought of something looking worn out strikes me as incomplete. But, I have been drawn to the rugged look of some ‘proper’ wear and fade, and turned off by faux patina on big dollar restomods. I came across a really nice EB 5 years ago (and dang it got away, with the 93 Mustang LX 5.0 coupe that got away in 1994 off the dealer's lot) that seemed to be perfect. Faded paint, a dent here and there, no rust. I could see doing an EFI and OD swap, building the suspension, making the interior nice (gross interior is just a turn off for me..no such thing as patina inside in my book..) and calling it a day,

I also recently sold a grille I had new in the box because I was kind of drawn to the weathered look of my original. I was thinking of leaving the weathered Wimbledon white alone, adding a stainless Ranger trim strip to separate the weathered WW from the Viking red, and repainting the Viking red part Ferrari Rosso Corsa when I paint the rest of the truck (no way could I duplicate the factory tape line).

So I wonder what you all think in general and on my rig. I am repainting my doors, fenders, and duff quarter panel protector plates (leaving the quarters JD blitz black underneath, and if I don’t like that I may vinyl wrap…I am trying to avoid a body shop and leave things ‘cash and carry’)
I also have a new tailgate being worked on with some graphics and will save the old tailgate if I ever sell the truck which I don’t have any plans of doing. I think this is a ‘dead guy car’- a reference to Seinfeld and comedians in cars getting coffee for those who watch.

My doors need to be painted but I wish I didn’t have to paint the inside of the doors. My dash is a new BC unit that Jason helped set up. The doors won’t match though a little fade inside is ok in my book on the doors, but not the dash. The paint has a little shine left on it but with the holes welded up that is too far gone to be cool Patina, and of course the bondo with rust coming through is far from cool IMHO.

I am curious what you think!!??

Brett

I like the patina look but for me it has to match. If a rig has fresh paint outside and obvious old paint inside it looks unfinished to me. Also agree the primer with rust coming through is a no go for me. Some guys are really good at fake patina it you just need to match a panel, but to fake patina the whole rig I think would be more work than just painting it.

suckerpunched said:

I like the patina look but for me it has to match. If a rig has fresh paint outside and obvious old paint inside it looks unfinished to me. Also agree the primer with rust coming through is a no go for me. Some guys are really good at fake patina it you just need to match a panel, but to fake patina the whole rig I think would be more work than just painting it.

Click to expand...

I agree with suckerpunched. For me, it's past the proper patina look.

/\/\/\ What they said +2
Mismatched colors, old paint, patina and new paint?
Too far gone.
Once you start repainting then repaint all of it.

Agreed. Patina has to match and be uniformly / naturally weathered. Once you have to paint a portion you might as well paint it all.

Mine is the original paint, and it is fairly heavily weathered and worn in all the normal spots. Even wear on the tops of the fenders where you can tell someone leaned over to service the engine through the years. If any panel were replaced or damaged, it would be painted entirely.

Patina is all subjective, or at least in my opinion. For me patina is NORMAL wear from use and not rust or significant damage. So wear on tops of fenders, scratches and wear around gas caps, paint worn where the arms sits on the top of the door with the window down, minor stone chips, sun bleaching, etc are "good patina". Rusted out rockers, significant accident damage, holes from things previously installed, repainting are bad examples. In the end the whole look has to work.

Yours is well past patina.

The best one I saw was a facebook for sale one, missed buying it! He did basically the rockers then blended paint and put it on top of a fully redone chasis. It would have been a nice ride.

Have MAACO paint the entire Bronco, you'll have patina in 6-8 months! Problem solved ;D

I enjoy seeing a light patina too. It looks good on old shop pickups and delivery panel vans.
But, It's become a fad. Too many cars with faded original paint, and it's become commonplace.
I really think most people like their cars to be shiny.