Quote:
Originally Posted by johnco
wow! that's supposed to be a secret. don't tell anyone
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You might be the one with twisted panties. Several people, including you, have posted pictures of rusty old cars that are not particularly valuable. That is not patina. It's unfortunate and inevitable that the term is being wildly overused to describe crap these days with the explosion of the collectible car market but it has an actual meaning and it's not rust.
In old cars or furniture, it means items that show their age and normal use but are still in good condition. Character. Paint that is far from new but still decent. Leather seats that are nicely broken-in but not cracked and dried-out. A shift knob that has been used, a car that's been driven and enjoyed. Not a POS that needs total restoration.
The reason it has so much value in something like an older 911 or 356 is that they are only original once and no restoration matches what the guys at the factory did back when it was built. Some come a lot closer than others but those are the extremely expensive jobs.
I'd personally pay more for a good original than a freshly restored 911, even if it was not perfect, any day of the week. That's not to say a crap example that has been neglected, rode hard and put away wet, etc. Some people know how to take care of their stuff and most don't. The good ones that have been driven and enjoyed but taken care of and maintained correctly are extremely rare now and would be correspondingly very expensive.
