[njsteve]

Bill, I respect your opinion but we tend to disagree on what constitutes patina: “a surface appearance of something grown beautiful especially with age or use”. I consider it to be the original finish of the car that has been weathered with the advance of time but not the sum total of the contaminants that accumulated upon it, over that period of time.

When a hoard of gold treasure is brought up from a sunken ship, the salvagers spend years removing the concretions to get to the actual coin and then stop at that point to preserve its patina. They don’t keep the coral on the coins. More importantly, they also don’t go buffing out the coin once the coral is removed. They reach the point of the original finish and stop. That is what I have done – no repainting, no touching up of flaws or chips.

The process of what I have been doing is following the Hippocratic Oath of “Above All, Do No Harm”.

The master cylinder rebuild was done because the internal contamination was so bad it actually destroyed the insides of the unit and dissolved the piston. It was leaking fluid down the inner fender and onto the frame rail. That had to be addressed. The black fluid inside was progressively destroying the remainder of the system. I kept the original remnants of the factory paint on the master cylinder body. As for the rear drums, I spent an hour carefully unscrewing those little copper clips that hold the drums on to the studs. I replaced them at the exact spots they were, originally. I adjusted the adjusters so the brakes functioned. Yes it was interesting that the assembly line never adjusted the brakes to contact the drums, but their inattention, while noted, had to be addressed to prevent the car from being destroyed in an accident.

The original carburetor was reinstalled after replacing two main gaskets and a modern accelerator pump. No alteration to the finish – not a drop of carb cleaner touched that carb. The replacement carb that was on there was put on in the 1990s and I wanted to return the original patina’d unit to its throne.

The coolant overflow and the washer bottle were both filled with this rusty, goopy, silt at the bottom that was not good for the continued operation of the car. Their overall color/finish did not change – just the garbage inside was removed. The radiator had 40-year-old antifreeze that had turned bad and had to be replaced before anything more was damaged internally. The heater core was replaced and the original clamps were reinstalled in their exact positions. The later, rerouted bypass hose was removed (it had a 1987 date code on the auto parts store, heater hose). The original thermostat was sticking and corroding from the old coolant, and had to be replaced. Any removed parts have been retained, of course.

The engine and transmission still have all their oil and grease covering underneath. I have tightened the valve covers to stop the leaks but didn’t replace any gaskets. The distributor cap that was on there was a dime store, generic replacement and an NOS original was found to replace it. And the NOS cap was from 1973-4. The compressor oil leak pattern on the underside of the hood was gently cleaned away because it was an overall accumulation, most of it in recent years. (Remember, you said these A-6 compressors didn’t leak oil when they were new!). The original oil filter was saved and will be reinstalled for shows. I have been letting it drain for the past month or two. That was 30-35 year old oil in there and it was black and contaminated with fuel.

The kickdown switch had to be connected for the transmission to work properly. And once again, like the unadjusted rear brakes, the assembly line inattention, while anecdotally significant, had to be addressed to prevent transmission damage.

The hood release cable grommet had to replaced since the cable was sawing its way through the brace with every activation of the hood release, and could have snapped the cable at any moment. The saw mark groove is still there but the cable now rides in its correct grommet.

The original steering wheel was returned to its original position. You have to admit it was some kind of Divine intervention that lead to its return after 40 years...in the desert (Arizona, not Egypt).

The poly valance replacement was the only "alteration" I have done to the car, finish-wise, but that was to return the look of the car to the way the original owner, Rick bought it. He had the dealer replace the broken valance at his cost, when the car was new. He was informed that the warranty didn't cover "body work".

BTW, Rick fully approves of everything I have done to his car. That’s why he keeps rewarding me with more parts and artifacts as the process moves along. :-)

I did keep a sample of every foul-smelling, corroded fluid I removed from the car, and I will gladly trade them to you for those mudflaps! ;-)