![]() Earlier and original titles are of course of value to the car's history and provenance. Since new titles are issued every time a car is sold, a current title is basically meaningless as far as provenance is concerned. Well, please pardon my language, but, THE NUMBERS ON THE TITLE DAMN WELL BETTER MATCH THE NUMBERS ON THE CAR as the title would NOT be legal if those numbers didn't match! Sorry about that, but I hate it every time I see someone brag about having a title that "matches" the car they are selling, and therefore it is a "numbers matching" car. Many people use the "numbers matching" phrase to mean that the title they have "matches" the serial number on the car. Many cars even up to WWII did not require "numbers matching" identification tags. Most cars before 1930 never did have a given serial number in any places that it needed to match. Beyond that, "numbers matching" has become used on thousands of cars for which the original meaning never did apply. Just so they can claim it as "numbers matching". Since then, so-called professional restorations shops have gone to cutting part of the firewall and frame from a destroyed car and welding them into a pieced together recreation with parts from a dozen or more other cars. That was an important distinction for high end muscle car collectors. "Numbers matching" was originally used to differentiate a nice muscle car that still had its original major pieces from one that had been raced and abused for many years with replacement parts used for repairs of damage or to enhance performance beyond its original design. Many of them now restored or modified a few times, anything from the worst amateurish bad fix-up to show winners. Most "barn finds" today have been restored at least once (whereas before it always meant a car that had never been restored). They come out of modern shipping containers, storage facilities, and carports. ![]() It can be found in any place from an attached garage to a back field. Now it has come to mean any old car that hasn't been out for a couple years. And basically everybody in the antique automobile hobby knew what meant. "Barn find" began as finding a decent true original car in a barn (generally a car that had been in that barn since about WWII, or before). While there WAS an actual meaning some time ago, they quickly morphed into buzz words meant to trigger a reaction rather than convey a meaning. To me, the word "patina"is right up there with phrases like "barn find" and "numbers matching". I do not think a gleaming coat of black paint (or God forbid, taking it back to "original" touring car configuration) would be any kind of improvement:Įdited Januby Matt Harwood (see edit history) It drove like new, but looked every bit of 100 years old. The engine and transmission were rebuilt, the brakes were new, the front wheels had been freshly re-spoked, and all the hardware had been freshened, but they left the look alone. Go to any show and you'll see virtually everyone walks right past all the shiny, perfect cars but a vehicle with some age and "patina" and signs of use will make them stop and admire and ingest the car's history almost through osmosis.įor instance, I don't think this Model T would have been nearly as appealing with a shiny, fresh restoration. I've discovered that it's very liberating to have a car that doesn't worry about bugs or road debris or weather. I wouldn't trade it for a brand new one.Īnd I have to admit a low-maintenance collector car has its appeal. My favorite leather chair is creased and rubbed bare in places-it took me years to get it that way and in my opinion it has only gotten better. A machine that works properly is a joy so go ahead and do what it takes to make it operate to your standards. I also understand the new hardware underneath-at that point the patina isn't a financial choice but an aesthetic one, and I still get it. I don't much care for the fake patina, but if your car has earned it honestly then I'm all in favor of keeping it that way if it pleases you. At a glance, it may be viewed as a cop-out and an attempt to cut costs, but there's an undeniable appeal to a well-used but still functional piece of machinery.
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