Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Porcelain touch up

Van Kannels signs come back completely redone, I know of one guy who will repair the damaged sections only and will blend the work in so it is extremely hard to see the repair. the rest of the sign is left as is so it does not look like a new and shiny sign. at a minimum you are looking at $400. for the "spot" repairs.

The cost of a touch-up is minorly relevant to value unless it's excessive, or if the intent is to immediately sell the sign.

Like most collectors who have touch-ups or restorations done I would assume the collector is going to enjoy the sign in their collection for some time and when opportunity avails itself, improve their collection some time later.

Since I handle vintage toys regularly I run into restored/repaired pieces all the time. Typically a collector who is selling one realizes a toy has to stand on the merits in it's current condition. Poor restorations or touch-ups do nothing, good one's restore value. Most of those collectors know they may never recover what they spent on a restoration/repair, but they also realize they've had the opportunity to enjoy the toy in their collection and that was worth the difference.

I'm missing something here.

I fail to see why anyone would want to have a entire sign surface restored. All you are saving is a dented, rusty, pitted sign slug (steel). In my books, it is no better than a reproduction sign. It will never be anything more then an over glorified and over priced reproduction sign that someone spent more on then what it was ever worth or will be.

Save the effort and buy a reproduction sign, use the monies saved to buy a real sign. That way, at least you would be supporting this hobby in a positive manner.

Repairing a Porcelain sign w/ Bondo & Re-painting is the same as repairing Severe Hail Damage to your prized Camaro/Mustang w/ Bondo & Re-painting.

Except the Camaro/Mustang wasn't originally refinished in Porcelain. LoL

here's one to test the "restore or not restore prices"!!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-25-Sunray-D...=item20dc71df21

141137403681

What I was referring to is Fill in all the dents & Re-paint.
It's still a Damaged car/sign.

The discussion of this topic reminds me of a political debate between conservatives and liberals.....entertaining, but mostly pointless without a useful conclusion...GB

I think you pretty well summed it up here Dave! I'm in total agreement!

I am in that position right now, today. Do I take this sign and fix it with just touch up, or do I do the whole sign and make it beautiful looking like a restored car. I am thinking of selling one side and restoring the other because I do not think it looks that great the way it is. The side shown it the good side. Tell me what you would do from a collectors stand point then.
Thanks