HorsePowerSports

Horsepower Classic Cars and High Performance

Fake Patina – Hot Rods Jump the Shark

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Has auto restoration and custom car building “Jumped the shark?” A growing but hopefully short lived trend is the attempt to make a new custom car or completely rebuilt car look old and worn, this is not the same as leaving an original unrestored with scratches, dings and dents as is, fake patina creates new damage and distress where none exists. Is there anything more phony or pointless than introducing holes, rust and faded paint to make a car look like an unrestored original?

Fake patina is an attempt to gain credibility and reputation without time and effort, trying to say you were there or the car was there when, in fact, it’s not true.

Fake patina may be a sign the builder has run out of ideas and would rather be dishonest than creative, it’s like a 20 year old dying his hair gray.

If this trend continues for too long it will be a sign that at least a part of the hot rod community has burned out and perhaps they should move on to something else.

Update: A comment below made me rethink what I wrote here and as I look at it, it’s a bit harsh, I must have been having a very rare (for me) bad day. I think the idea I had in mind as I wrote it was someone who was adding fake patina to a car with the intention of misleading others, motivated by the thought of fast cash. If someone simply wants to finish a car this way because he likes the look, that’s another matter entirely and whether anyone else likes the look really does not matter. Nuff said.

Comments

  1. What’s up with this Paul Crowe guy. What is so wrong with a guy making a fake patina ride? He talks as though he was there for the first hot rod to be built (as if anyone knows when this event actually ocurred). He should come off his high horse and realize these reproductions are actually a tribute to the origin of hot rodding. I’ll bet that’s the responce he would get if he did talk to an owner rather than making asumptions and condeming someones hard work. Our hobby is for everyone to enjoy. That enjoyment may come from a replica cobra, a fake patina, or a one off custom, doesn’t matter. It’s the journey and how we got there that is so much fun to share. No room for narrow minded observers if we want to keep it alive.

  2. After looking back at what I said, it probably would have been better if I had shown some examples, since what I was thinking and what a reader might think as he read it could be two entirely different things.

    There are some rat rods, for instance, that have patina that looks very cool, a nice matte paint job, no chrome, it works. No over restoration, just enough to make it look right. Sometimes they hardly restore at all, they just work with what they have, fixing what’s broke, modifying what isn’t until it all hangs together.

    There is also what could be called an obviously fake patina, scuffed up to reflect worn paint then cleared over to keep it that way. If done right, that can look good, too. This might be what you were thinking of.

    The fake I refer to is the fake that tries to look real. The work that tries to mimic real rust holes, dents and scratches right up to the point of creating real rust holes, dents and scratches. The antique furniture business is filled with that sort of thing, someone turns out a new table or chair then hits the wood with chains or other tools so it looks 100 years old, usually with the intent of misleading a buyer but sometimes just to mislead the person viewing it.

    Perhaps each example needs to be looked at individually, but then, whether the builder carried it off well is in the eye of the beholder, some might smile and some might cringe. When you stop to think about it, the same thing happens when no patina is involved. We’ve all seen brand new builds that looked good to some and others just scratch their heads and wonder what the builder was thinking.

    I’ll keep that in mind the next time I see an example of this and try to figure out what the intent was and how it comes off. Maybe I’ll strike up a conversation if I can find the builder around and see what they had in mind.

    Otlman, thanks for the comment.