Well as I have said many times “ your car your choice” the only one that has to be happy is the owner and other’s opinion really doesn’t matter. With that said I’m really not a fan patina especially fake. I like a good honest car with faded paint and a few imperfections but when it comes to rust holes it’s time for body work. Your mileage may vary. Was at a car show wandering around and looking at a car that leaned very heavily toward what I would call a rat rod with fake patina and some questionable craftsmanship. The owner walked up a very young guy and said he bought the car from a guy and that the car was built just like in the sixties. I started to walk away but the guy insisted on showing me the details of the 60’s. I finally told him that in the 60’s no one had project cars at least where I was from. Most guys had cars that were daily drivers and were works in progress. You worked on your car on weekends so it would be ready for work or school on Monday. Not one of my friends thought rust was cool the goal was always fixing a little bit at a time, primer it, fix some more but ultimately get the car painted. Not all paint jobs were good but they were all the same color. I never once saw a rusty car that was clear coated in gloss. I’m sure the guy probably told the same story to anyone that would listen. But at the end of the day as long as he was proud of the car and liked it that is all that mattered. Not my cup of tea and I only spoke up because he persisted.
Every "patina" thread turns into exactly this: a flood of personal opinions. And of course, nobody's mind ever changes. Me, I don't like absolutes. "X is always bad and Y is always good." I think you have to see the car to decide. I've seen patina cars that look great. I've seen high-end paint jobs that look overdone.
I like your car, Jerry. Just wash the dust off of it for now, and go over to You Tube, do some patina searches, and some product searches. Let your thoughts marinate. It's a cool car, you can't ruin it. Anything you do will eventually age off. FWIW, patina is a lot of different things to different people, but one thing it isn't is old barn dust.
This guy is the one and only go-to guy when it comes to patina. No clear coats, no applying paint and then scratching and sanding most of it off again, no bullshit, just an authentic unbeatable job. All others that think they can do patina are just a bunch of pretenders. There is only one. From memory, his name is Old Fart Time, or something like that.............. No, wait, it's "Old Father Time".... that's it !!! I don't know how to contact him. Apparently you just leave stuff out for him and he will eventually get it done. He's not fast, but the result is worth waiting for. Perfect job every time. He has been working on some stuff for me. It seems to be taking forever, but I am very happy with what I am seeing. I have not had to pay for anything at all. I can't recommend this guy highly enough. I would not trust this job to anyone else...........
Can we see pics of the car ? Without seeing it, CLR the whole car, Naval jelly the pitted areas, brush paint over the pitted areas with heavily thinned matching paint with a little flattener, may take a few coats. Buff the hell out of what's left and keep it waxed. Make it look as good as it can, even though it's worn. Don't do any fake shit, even the pros at it - looks fake.
Just wash it like people are saying and dry. if you want to take off some of it use the CLR with a sponge, after washing, then rinse again. Clear coat over patina isn’t part of this board-BTW I vote to get the car running and leave as is wash when actually dirty and keep it in the garage. Here is one of my ‘57s Was out in the elements 20 years I recently started driving a bit again. I just sort of wash it. A friend was pushing sweetpatina product to do the whole car but I tested it on the rear catwalk and it doesn’t do very much and you cannot tell it’s on. More of a semi-matte finish. But I’m planning on cleaning this car further and maybe painting. So I didn’t want to get too much other chemicals on the body.
I'd like to see what CLR and wax does for that paint. It might surprise you. And Quick-Glow would really improve the chrome windshield. Nice car!
For what its worth, I used to use BON - AMI cleanser on my dads old 65 Checker marathon, it worked pretty good at getting a lot of the crusty grime off of it, your results may vary.
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