Fresh or Faded

[METAVINYL]

Great comments so far. I’m usually a ‘patina’ guy too, but the car is freshly painted with lots of new bits chased through it out of necessity. If it was original paint I wouldn’t even consider changing the badging, but this is not the case. It took me two months to come to grips with the fact that I needed to replace the carpet! I’m trying to find the balance between a much needed refreshing and the ‘only original once’ mantra I am constantly hearing played in my mind. And don’t worry. I have a beautiful 1973 issue blue plate that will be mounted as soon as I hear back from the DMV

[72targa]

Depends on if you’d like it to look “original” or restored. I love my faded grill.

[METAVINYL]

That’s the problem. Original like 1973, or the hard won life at 2020? Original lettering is black. 47 year old lettering is grey. If only the letters purpled like the grill does. Then this would be easy. Porsche likely sourced these parts from different suppliers based on cost and availability and now we are left with these decisions.

[Arne]

Was an easier decision for me. My originals did not age gracefully. The grill looked like it had been sandblasted (probably was, by windstorms in the New Mexico hills), the emblems were faded, but very unevenly and mottled. I thought about new, but refinished the originals instead. The emblems got about 10 thin coats of Duplicolor Smoke Anodizing paint, which gave them a slightly soft, but very dark gray-black finish. I tried the same on the grill, but it was too glossy there, so it got SEM satin trim paint.

[911GP]

I have a recently restored silver 73 911. My grill is original anodised finish with a faded purple hue. I bought Porsche letters on here which match well, again original anodised finish. The 911E badge is NOS so a little darker but I'm happy with it. I prefer the contrast of dark badges on silver rather than ones that are too faded.

[70SATMan]

Yes, I agree with Michael....get a faded grill!....

HAHAHAHA

That's one way to look at it!

[NorthernThrux]

Restored the grill and letters and got a NOS 2.4 badge. Restoration done with multiple coats of the Duplicolor Smoke Anodized paint after pressure washing everything. You can see on the left side where the grill catches the light that it really does look anodized like original.

[DOUGS73E]

I'd only do the faded emblems if the grill had the same gentle faded patina. Given the grill you show on the car, definitely Fresh.

+1. Consistent faded or consistent fresh, but not mixed together.

[LongRanger]

. . . 'll end-up 'faded' later, eventually


Patina?

I hate that word

Gimme aged, used, worn, weathered, beat, old --- every time


'Cause, after a while? --- when there 're only 'restored' + 'personalized' + 'outlawed' + 're-imagined' cars around? . . .



. . . everyone 'll forget what original cars really looked like

https://www.early911sregistry.org/fo...-original-cars
https://www.early911sregistry.org/fo...-Little-Things


If it's dirty? --- clean it
If it's broken? --- fix it
If it's missing --- replace it
Only if you can't do the 1st three . . . then restore it

And, meanwhile, all the time/every chance you get --- DRIVE IT!



...............

[METAVINYL]

The grills rarely ever fade in the same way as the emblems. My grill is original and it looks great. The lettering has seemingly aged less gracefully.