Awesome story thanks for posting, looks like they did high 6 figures, good for them old timers, I hope they have a bunch of grand kids to share it with, if not I hope they live long enough to enjoy it...
Anyway as far as patina, I have a friend with 100 acres (may not sound like a lot but around here it is), its almost all celared land, fields and ponds he dug himself, there are old tractors scattered here and there (he bought them to place them on the property), broken fences (built brand new but made to look old), and he has a barn with a 1947 series 62 convertible in there, he bought the car for $40K (I would imagine restored its worth 125K) years ago, the car runs and drives, it has no air in the tires but is on stands, and he never dusts it off, it is just sitting there, not rotting or anything like that, kind of preserved, they actually por'd and rust back when he parked it, they filled the engine with oil, and its a nice dry barn...
Driving on his property and going in that old barn with all the old tools and light switches recreated like a museum is a cool experience, he only shows it to certain people, and me and my wife were lucky enough to be part of it, I told him "its like a life size $300K diorama" he said I hit the nail on the head, lol... He built that barn using lumber milled the old way, using old spike nails, etc.. its a special place for sure...
So something like that, I say patina is awesome, now for the guys that take their rusty junk boxes to shows and leave oil spots on the ground and smoke up the park when they are leaving with exhaust fumes, I think they are just lazy, lol. We all have different ways of thinking about this, I figure it this way, if you had a 1971 cuda back in 72-say 77 chances are it wasnt a show car, but you would have washed it and waxed it before you went any where, you wouldnt have left an inch of dust on it.... So thats where I see the line, a show car should be clean and as close to perfect as you can get her, a driver/show car should be clean, wipe her down when you get to the show, maybe wash it once a week or maybe everytime you leave the house... A driver you would wash once a week, not get too crazy about ever scratch but fix bubbles when they appear.
Now if you have a good car with shiny original paint, I say fix any bubbles, the new clears are amazing you can match 45 year old sun fade pretty well with a few test panels, and keep that factory paint, but to think your car with OK factory paint is going to be worth a lot more than one with a nicely done new paint job, I wouldn't pay more of my money for it...
BUT in the end it all boils down to one saying "To each their own"...
