Summer of car shows

Feel sorry for guys who feel they must dye their hair black. The Head Groundskeeper at Stately Blaska Manor has earned his touch of gray the hard way — through sustained substance abuse!

Social media recommended keeping our 1949 (or is it a 1951) Allis Chalmers model G tractor as is. Display its hard-won, in the sun, working battle scars. Clear-coat the thing and leave it. We ignored this good advice and spray painted single-stage urethane sealer and Persian Orange #1 anyhoo and are happy with the results. The majority of car restorers, judging by the car shows we’ve visited and the Mecum etc. car auctions on cable TV, want that new showroom look.

Some vehicle restorers even fake the patina. Seems to go good with pick-up trucks, especially. Given the human proclivity for argumentation, there’s a tastes great, less filling debate on this weighty subject:

It’s a badge of sorts — a battle-weathered scar bearing testimony to all the lives an object has lived. And as simple-minded humans obsessed with our own mortality, we are downright fascinated by old things.

So much so, that we put them on dainty white pedestals under mood lighting in multi-million-dollar museums and charge people money to look at them, while simultaneously forbidding them from speaking above a whisper. We snatch them up at yard sales and flea markets, treat them to some upcycling or restoration and then coin terms like “shabby chic” and “antique primitives” to justify their new, inflated pricing.

— “The patina fad has been a polarizing trend“

“How to create believable patina”

But we do appreciate all-natural rust. Arrested at a certain point, it provides character. British classic car aficionados demand patina. Tells a story. It’s called “provenance.” Here’s a sampling from this weekend’s car show in Mount Vernon WI (south of Madison). It’s a great drive there.

Upcoming car shows and more car shows. For tractors, mark the Rock River Thresheree Sept. 3-6 outside Edgerton WI.

How did you get YOUR patina?