Worn, Weathered, Wonderful: The Timeless Appeal of Patina Trucks

Making Old, New Again

While full painted and flawlessly detailed trucks draw a ton of attention, there is just something about an old, weathered C10 that will still catch your eye. Yeah, having the slickest, deepest looking paint or a candy finish has that wow factor is nice, what about something that is totally original and has seen decades of wear and tear? For one, not having to worry about every little rock chip, scratch or even people leaning on your truck being afraid to scratch it, has its benefits. A lot of the C10s we’ve seen at shows over the past several years have just the right original patina look. Some can be a fully untouched, all original truck, but more are full-out hot rods underneath and inside, but the body has been massaged by Mother Nature giving it that well-enjoyed look. Throw in a full chassis, air ride suspension, a hefty engine and some cool interior, and that old, tired looking truck is now a modern vehicle with a beautifully weathered body.

What is “patina” you may ask? Well, when you have an old truck that still has the original paint, been sitting in a field for a couple decades or maybe even driven as a work truck the whole time, it has tons of wear and tear and maybe some rust. Surface rust is common when once-painted edges get worn down and super thin, the bare metal pokes through and rusts. Some trucks have rusted rockers, or a random rusted hole in the bedside to show the life it has. It’s kind of like wrinkles on your grandmother. You see an old photo of her when she was young and you know she was pretty back in the day, but years of wear and tear and plain old life eventually shows her age. Do you love her even less with her rough look? Of course not! She is still pretty in her own way. That thinking applies to old trucks as well. You know it was once flawless and pretty but now it shows its life history when you look at it.

Patina isn’t something new by any means. The term actually has a wide range of what it can pertain to and not just cool vehicles. The patina trend has taken over the furniture world as well. You can go buy a brand-new dresser, and it looks like it’s a hundred years old. You can also call that a farm look, because if things are old and handed down from generation to generation, they usually come from an elder’s farm they had a long time ago. Stuff just held up better when it was built a long time ago and showing its age makes it something to admire. Same thing when an old truck is passed down. It’s seen a ton of use but hasn’t lost its cool factor. For a long time back in the day, if you had worn out, patina-covered items, it meant you had old money. So having something weathered was a good thing. Patina actually goes way further back than just furniture and vehicles, it was also a trend in the Renaissance era, where artists would blow tobacco smoke onto paintings and sculptures to make them look older than what they were.

One of the benefits of a patina truck is you don’t really have to wash it, never have to polish out scratches or wax it. Most importantly, you don’t have to be scared to drive it. After all, isn’t driving our cool trucks the main reason we build them? I personally have had several flawless painted vehicles that I was scared to drive or had to wash them super carefully to ensure I wouldn’t scratch them. That is stressful enough. So, to hop in an old truck with all original paint, crank it up and drive it to the store and not worry if a rock may hit it, or if a bird dropping might etch the paint, is freeing. Having all patina paint can also happen when you’re building a full out project as well. Get the chassis and drivetrain in and beat on it for a while to make sure everything works like it should, then take it to the paint shop. But that’s where some people just sit back and think, “this old truck actually drives good, stops good and is fun to drive, why do I want to spend all that time and money to paint it and be scared to drive it?” It’s ok to leave it like that and enjoy it.

For this article, let’s go back and look at some of the cool patina GM trucks we have come across and have run in this magazine, as well as our and our sister puplication , Street Trucks. From a distance, many may look like a ragged old truck, but upon further inspection, you realize it’s actually a modernized truck with an aged body and paint.

Stuff just held up better when it was built a long time ago and showing its age makes it something to admire. Same thing when an ol d truck is passed down. It’s seen a ton of use but hasn’t lost its cool factor.

1. This 1966 C10 that Morgan Youngberg owns not only has plenty of modern upgrades, but the worn factory paint makes the main statement. From the Porterbuilt suspension, to the shortened bed and frame, to the big back window, this truck looks the part. Speaking of looking, if you peek under the hood, you notice the 2.8 Cummins diesel crate engine. This proves what you see from a distance isn’t what it really is.

2. If you don’t know this truck, then you’ve not been to any of the top shows in the country. This 1965 C10 owned by Dave Schneider is a crowd-stopper for sure. Not only does the red patina laying on the ground catch your attention, but the clean interior and inner bed work shows you how much work is in the truck. But once Dave fires up the small block 350 Chevy engine, you know he means business. This isn’t your average run-of-the-mill 350 though—it’s topped with a Hampton supercharger and multiple Stromberg 97 carbs. There is also a little bit of nitrous lurking for some added bang. This truck literally beats the ground when running, and you can hear it across the show field.

3. Sometimes, the patina on a truck isn’t from years of sitting and rotting under the elements , but from something more devastating. You may have heard of the massive northern California Camp Fire in 2018, which is also known as the Paradise Fire depending where it was located. This fire destroyed everything in its path, including this 1959 Apache. Jason Fonte picked up this truck after the fire and brought it back to life. Even though this isn’t your normal patina painted truck, the weathered finish on it is one-of-a-kind for sure. Jason updated the truck but left the crispy body intact.

4. When Jason Bowman picked up this 1969 C10, it didn’t look like this. It had a few layers of primer on it, but he wanted to see what was underneath. Jason doused the truck with lacquer thinner, which removed the primer. Seeing this multi-color patina, he immediately knew it was a keeper. Now that he knew what the truck would look like, it was time to lay it on the ground and stuff a 6.0L engine out of a 2008 GM truck, and a Precision 7675 turbo in it. There’s nothing more fun than driving a turbo C10 and not worrying about rocks hitting it at high speeds.

5. Sometimes rare trucks need to be left alone and not repainted. That’s exactly what Ronnie Welch of C10 Talk did with his 1976 GMC Sierra. This truck is one of the limited-edition Impact Edition trucks that were released in 1976. We say he left it alone, but what truck enthusiast can do that? I guess we should say he only left the exterior alone. The bed was shortened, the interior and engine were freshened up, and it got a new stance and wheels. The signature paint and stripes were left for all to enjoy .

6. When you pass a 1978 C10 Suburban, you can’t help but wonder what kind of family trips and weekend  adventures it has experienced.  These  vehicles replaced the family station wagon back in the day, t so the got plenty of use. For Humberto Ortiz, that was his full intention when he picked up this two-tone hauler. Of course, he couldn’t leave it completely stock even though the original paint was in decent condition. He had it sanded and buffed to give it a “show patina” look to it. He also added a GSI  front  crossmember kit and Ridetech rear parts with coilovers to give it a nice, raked drop. To haul the family easily, the stock engine was swapped for a 5.3L LS with a Precision Turbo.

Photo Credit: C10BG Staff