1959 Porsche 356A: original patina or concourse restoration? You choose

A classic car restoration company is offering for sale a 1959 Porsche 356A with very original patina. Should the patina be retained, or should it be a concours restoration?

Classic car specialists Thornley Kelham in Gloucestershire have got their hands on a very interesting 1959 Porsche 356A, and can’t decide what to do with it.

There’s nothing that unusual about a Porsche 356A, but this is a decent one, first owned by British Lions player Frank Sykes, it seems to have followed him to the US when he emigrated and is a matching numbers car with original 1600cc engine and gearbox. But it’s now back in the UK.

Originally a silver car, the Porsche was stored for 30 years and, in part thanks to that and an attempt at some point to remove the paint, boasts a very ‘interesting’ patina (as you can see in the photo above).

As a result, Thornley Kelham can’t decide what to do with the car; whether to give it a sympathetic fix retaining as much of the patina as possible, or to give it a ground-up concours restoration.

So rather than make a decision, they want to flog the car and let the new owner decide which way to go, and then do the work for them.

For us it’s a no-brainer – make the Porsche as perfect as possible. After all, just because you live in a Georgian house it doesn’t mean it can’t beautifully decorated and fit for today. 

But there’s a real desire for original patina amongst classic car collectors now, so it’s perfectly possible someone will want to pay through the nose for this Porsche and have it look like a heap of junk, albeit a solid, sorted heap of 1959 Porsche 356A junk.

So what would you do? Original patina or concours restoration?