Bring a Trailer: 1953 Ford F-350 barn find: Battle trying-too-hard rat rods ... - AutoWeek
A worn but well-maintained vehicle is often described as having a great patina. But the look has become so popular that custom-car builders and their impatient customers now go to great lengths to capture that look on otherwise clean vehicles. Some, like Jonathan Ward's so-called Derelicts , are fairly successful because they preserve decay rather than faking it. Others' attempts fail because they intentionally destroy surface finishes in pursuit of a particular look or simply simulate... Our friends at Bring a Trailer have the alternative to these faux-barn-find disasters: a 1953 Ford F-350 pickup formerly used by an aerial cropdusting service. It's located in British Columbia and offered for $11,500 or best offer (we're not sure if that's Canadian or U. S. dollars). The truck's flathead V8 reportedly “runs like a clock,” and while all of its mechanicals have been sorted, we're glad to see that the exterior has been left largely untouched. To say that the old Ford has aged gracefully is a bit of an understatement. The faded paint, the honest engine compartment: This is what “patina” is supposed to be. In fact, the faded lettering on the truck's doors is aged to such perfection that it almost looks faked. Source: autoweek.com
