Re: Original vs restored

Posted by Leeedy On 2016/9/5 18:53:19
Quote:

skateboardgumby wrote:
I just discovered the reality TV show "Chasing Classic Cars" in which one of the hosts said he'd prefer an original car with patina to a restored version of the same car. He said the patina added to the originality and value of the car.

This brings me to question which is preferable to a buyer/collector: an original 1938 Packard 120 hardtop coupe with patina or a restored one?

I need to specify that the guy on "Chasing Classic Cars" defined "original" as a car that is functional, not rusted, and is basically good to go.

as always
Garrett Meadows


"Patina" is what we used to call weathering, rust and oxidized paint in desperate need of cleaning and waxing. Until we started having TV shows and auctions making up whole new meanings for what used to be simply colloquial English, "original" meant original. No hidden meaning. Original... as in unchanged from the way the factory made it.

And "restored" meant "returned to original appearance and function." NOW in this crazy world of today..."restored" means anything the person saying it wants it to mean. And the silliest, most modified stuff on earth is called "all original!!" Just recently heard someone decribing a poor prewar Packard with a "crate Chevy 350" dumped in it termed as "all original" as if this is a term rather than English language,

Nobody wants to stand up and say they have modified or rodded a car anymore. They just use buzzwords invented on TV and in auctions. And worse, there are folks like auction companies that have bank accounts and make up these long, professional-sounding descriptions of shiny thingamajigs they have messed with... and people buy them. People like SPARKLE AND SHINE. Months later they MAY figure out what they really bought.

Look at the Four Hundred on a popular auction site. Now painted in colors that Packard never used (looking at the serial tag it apparently was Corsican Black and Maltese Gray when new) but now they call it "red," It has an interior made of fabrics and colors Packard never used either. Also with a new aftermarket A/C dangling under the instrument panel, but with factory A/C doors on top and disconnected. Under the hood, an imported-looking modern compressor and the factory A/C stuff all missing (the blower port on the firewall is all blocked off with some black stuff and whole blower unit gone!). The exterior trim rings painted gold instead of plated gold... the black lines all removed from the ribbed side trim. And whatever those rear-mounted twin antennae came from-it wasn't a Packard. And the trunk is customized with carpet. Of course the incredible low miles claimed would mean it barely ever got out of the garage. So why all the presto-chango modifications, half-removed A/C and weird paint and weird interior on a virtually new car? And the write-up makes it seem like hey... might be this... might be that. One minute the history is known in great detail... the next, it's a mystery. Yet... with all this going on, looks like folks are climbing on top of one another to buy it!

Restored? Original? Those are terms that only once had meaning... but that was a long, long time ago.

And speaking of TV shows, one of my head-scratching memorable episodes is when they call a Panhard a "pan-hard"...HUH????? Wonder how many people were "taught" by that show? Important to remember... it's just TV.

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