Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion PORCELAIN SIGN RESTORATION......

if you get a porcelain sign "restored" isnt it the same as a repop when you get it back? or is it ok to do?

Had a Conoco minuteman one side professionally restored and one not. Had people say they that not much better then a repro, foolishly I had traded a large Gilmore sign for it.

I would never buy a restored sign- I feel it takes away from the value and character of the sign. Finding original great condition items is part of the "hunt" in this hobby.

Matter of opinion. I would NEVER have a sign restored or buy one that had been. Almost every restored sign I've seen or seen pictures of looks terrible to me. To me, yes, it is like a reproduction, especially since a lot of what I've seen are total repaints anyway. But some people prefer them restored. To each his own.

I would pay more for an unrestored sign. At least I know what I'm getting.

I ASSUME STRONGLY THAT RESTORED AND TOUCHED-UP ARE 2 DIFFERENT STATES OF MIND?

I think like anything it depends on quality, I've seen some restored signs that look ridiculous and some that are works of art. I had Lane Christianson and Jim Oswald do a couple for me many years ago and they're fantastic. Not worth anywhere near a mint original but that's OK, I don't have that much into them.

Gas stations, Filling stations, Service Stations... no matter what you call them, did maintenance on their facilities. This included the buildings, pumps, oil dispensers, ..... AND SIGNAGE.

Signs were taken down and refurbished continuously... Signs were expensive from the time they went up, even in the early 60s when I worked in a couple gas stations.... There were no "throw-away" plastic signs. You cleaned up and repaired the facility and items you had.

We all live in regions where the weather does a lot of damage to both metal and porcelain. When a Tornado, Hurricane, West Coast wind storm, snow, sleet, volcano hit an area, you think the station owner/operator went out and bought a new sign? Of course not, he had the sign refurbished. Sometimes it was "re-glazed", sometimes it was just "touched up". Throw some paint in an area where the porcelain had chipped out. At 10-15' in the air, it was hard to tell if the sign was in it's original condition or had been "helped".

Most of you are very new to the hobby (if you have less than 3 decades collecting, then you are a newby), yet you talk in "absolutes".

There are very few absolutes in any hobby that deals with "history".

A number of collectors have blinders on, honestly they have NO idea what it was like to work and/or operate a station.... That is one of the reasons I took my sabbatical.

Stop and think for a moment... You have a business and employees... You are trying to compete with every other gas station in the area.... Do you try to keep your business looking pristine? Or do you allow your building to become shabby, peeling paint, rust stains? ....

Do you allow your signage to become pitted, sand blasted, weather worn? Or do you "spruce it up"?

Do you allow your pumps to have "character and patina"? Or do you repair and "touch up" the paint....

I will throw out one absolute.....

If you answered, I would let the station gain character. Then most likely you wouldn't have been in business for very long.....

Some good interesting points of view.

That is a very good point Bob.

I am not saying that I like a restored sign as well as an original but as long as it is represented as being restored I see no problem with it and it is surely not a repop.

I have a 1967 Shelby GT-350 being fully restored right now and no one considers it a Repop or Clone.

I have quite a few restored gas pumps and some under restoration now and no one considers them repops either.
I o not see how a sign restoration is any different, you are taking imperfections that time has made and returning them to new condition.

Just my own humble opinion,

Jeff

Sounds like the verdict is ....Restored signs are good if you like them.

good arguments on both sides. i hate seeing signs totally ruined but still dont know why its better to take a sign thats been folded over and have em "restore" it rather than cut a new piece of metal and send it to em and have em remake it. how are they restoring a sign that is about to fall apart anyways? to me it seems like they are having to start fresh. there isnt a process to thicken metal.... that i know of anyways..

The trouble with restored signs are 90% of the people that have them done are doing it to fool the next guy.

A shoddy job is much better that an absolute perfect resto where nobody can ever tell it was restored.

Restoring a valuable sign is nothing like an old time garage repairing what they need to do to stay in business, There is a lot of greed in this hobby and uninformed buyers of restored signs is a problem just like undated repros.

yeah, I don't know that 90% of people having signs restored are dishonest and a having a shoddy job done? Why bother at all?

Your right about the 90%, just a # I thru out

My question would be, Why have a perfect restoration done where you can't tell it was restored, that alone is being dishonest to future buyers.