Patina - to paint or not to paint

I picked up this nice set of 56 F100 doors recently for my truck. The truck that these came off of had been a local auto parts store truck ever since 1956. I had never seen a Victor welding logo like this...seems a shame to paint over but it may give someone else an idea when they are looking for some cool art work to use...

 

Leave them alone, score another set! You asked. And they are really cool, I envy your find.

 

IMO......if the doors fit, slightly match & YOU dig the logo (I do too) then bolt them up.

Paco

 

Is the rest of the truck "polychrome" colors?
Looks like some rust issues at the bottoms...
If you are planning on using them as is, to not decide, right now, is to decide...
I'm having the same decision problem with our '55 Chevy truck right now.
I had to the replace the left fender,which is rusty bare metal that I'm going to blast and paint, the bottom of the doors are rusted out in the usual places and I don't want the drip rails to dissappear for lack of protection but the patina is otherwise beautiful...
I think I'm just going to repaint what needs repainting to keep rust from making it disintigrate

I would maybe mask off the graphic and paint the rest of the door.
I've seen that done on trucks (and buildings) anyway, when they got repainted and the owner didn't want to redo their logo.

 

Definetly don't paint, maybe some other hamber will sell you another set so you can keep these

 

Don't paint them!

 

The logo says "70's" to me, could be wrong, but doesn't give me the warm fuzzy of older logos.

 

That was my thinking as well. I have taken graphic design and that style of script is only about 30 years old at the oldest. If you like it so much, I could see saving the better of the two and buying another.

Trying to keep that "warm, fuzzy feeling" you get from seeing something old can be a pain and just not really worth it. I got that feeling when I found some gennie lamps for my T Bucket. Two weeks later, I sold them. They just wouldn't have worked in the style I was going for.

 

You could be right on the money...the F350 was the shop/welding truck since new but I can't find anyone at the shop who can tell me when the doors were painted. The words "Auto Parts" over the logo and the phone number below are all but gone. This truck was fire damaged in the front by the big fire that went through here a few years ago...I felt fortunate to be able to salvage the doors and the pristine stainless trim from around the windshield. Kinda ironic to see a "Custom Cab" on a shop truck, probably looked pretty hot in it's day.

 

Jump off the bandwagon into the present....Patina is worn out and so over it aint even funny....Paint it.

 

...them doors are kool, no matter what you do with em, I'd use em myself. Just dont paint em