Having done an Austin Healey to concours standard (got 100 points in the
1989 Conclave) and been a concours judge for AHs as well as Maseratis in
California and Canada, I would like to comment. I am appalled at the
dressing up of cars above their station. A "restored" car should look
exactly like it came out of the factory with or without period
accessories. In no way should finishes be better but I feel that polished
copper pipes etc is not a mortal sin as owners of new cars very often
"polish them up" But absolutely no to chroming or super gloss
finishes!!! Having finished restoring to perfection it is up to the
individual to do what he may. I drove my concours AH everywhere, in fact
I did 3,000 miles testing unleaded gas for (and paid by) Shell. However, I
did treat it with care and devotion. But if someone wants to baby it,
cherish it, wrap it in silk, and generally treat it like an antique (which
it is) - then why not? I do not see many Barbie collectors giving those
doll things to their children to play with. Neither do I see museums
offering rental on their charges. I see many antiques in peoples houses
that are no longer used for the original purpose. So why not an antique in
the garage?
Keeping cars running is fine but it does destroy the original. If "Old
Number One's" bits had been saved and then assembled it would have been the
real original car - as it is, it had absolutely no connection to the
original - despite the court's ruling that it was because the "spirit" had
been carried through. Like the axe that has been in my family for over 300
years. It has had six new blades and ten new handles!!!!
At 03:50 PM 5/12/2003 -0500, Barney Gaylord wrote:
>At 01:35 PM 5/12/03 -0500, Chuck Renner wrote:
> >....
> >.... but when I'm doing things like repainting the radiator or heater box,
> >I want to use the correct paint gloss. The pictures in Clausager show all
> >of these items to be a very glossy finish, which doesn't seem to agree
> >with what I see in some of the factory literature.
> >....
>
>This has been one of my pet peeves for many years. Most of the paint on MG
>chassis and some accessory parts (like heater and radiator) has
>traditionally been sattin black (otherwise known as semi-gloss black) but
>definitely not gloss black. Concours show winners often have all black
>parts painted in high gloss black, which sort of rubs me the wrong way, but
>seems to have great appeal to the judges (especially in popular vote car
>shows).
>
>Appearantly rules for concours preparation allow or even encourage certain
>such "improvements" from the factory specification, and it seems that this
>tradition has been around about as long as there have been car shows. This
>sometimes even extends to high luster polish finish on pot metal or
>aluminum or copper parts that were originally left in natural state, or
>even to adding chrome to parts never made that way by the factory. If I
>was a concours judge, any gloss paint on a radiator or heater box or any
>chassis parts would definitely lose points, but then I suppose I would
>never be allowed to judge again. Such is life I guess, but it does
>certainly place a severe tilt on the public view of originality of the cars.
>
>$.02,
>
>Barney Gaylord
>1958 MGA with an attitude
>http://MGAguru.com
Regards
Barrie
Barrie Robinson
barrier@bconnex.net
/// or try http://www.team.net/cgi-bin/majorcool
/// Archives at http://www.team.net/archive
|