Here’s How Enthusiasts Are Putting Patina To Good Use

When browsing through the catalogues of major auction houses or your local classifieds sections, one thing is immediately clear: history matters more than ever.

“The value of a classic car lies in its history and provenance,” says David Power, an enthusiast and Patina user who is working on the restoration of a 1974 Citroën SM.

Previously profiled on Petrolicious, Patina is a free online service that is accessible anywhere, for nearly any modern device—computer, tablet, and phone. For many, the draw is simple: it’s a place to store the mountain of paperwork that inevitably comes with classic car ownership.

We asked a number of regular Patina users to give us their impressions of the service, and how it’s made their classic car experience easier.

“We all have hard drives full of images and draws full of paperwork which are relevant to our cars,” Power says. “To have a place where not only the paper history but all the image history of the car can be kept in one place is supremely useful.”

Ed Bullough, who is documenting the restoration of a 1965 Ford Mustang Fastback using Patina, says that the service is useful for owners with an eye to the future. He uses the service to, “…document the restoration of my car from the ground up, with an eye on being able to use the content to maximise the appeal of the car in any future sale.”

“It’s kind of replacing the photo album and write up of a rebuild which would have been necessary before to make sure any future owner knew exactly how far you’d gone,” Bullough adds. “If you look at any classic car forum, there are always build blogs from people doing restos in their garages, and I think Patina could become the hub for this kind of thing.”

Though Patina does allow owners to list their cars for sale, the service is still focused mainly on enthusiasts who want to keep track of all aspects of their classic car. Many users set up reminders for milestones, like ownership and insurance renewals, service appointments, and future events. For those who do sell, a vehicle’s Patina record is easily transferred to its new owner.

Nowadays, classic car owners are generally much more savvy in regards to gathering information about a potential purchase. For an owner who is hoping to offer the large amount of information a buyer now expects, Power says that Patina also saves headaches when it comes time to sell a beloved classic car.

“When you go to view a car at someone’s house, it is very difficult to go through all of the bills and data and get a picture of its past,” Power says. “But with Patina, you can build up a real flavour of what the car, and, importantly what the owner is like.”

“If I were to sell the SM, I can walk the owner through the history of the car with bills for extremely important work that absolutely has to have been done. I can also show some of the detailed work that I have done on parts that are inaccessible during a pre-purchase inspection. It would give a potential purchaser confidence that the car is as good as the external images would suggest.”

Both Power and Bullough offer some tips for those who are considering signing up for the service, with Bullough saying, “The ability to follow other peoples cars is good, and it makes it easy to follow other people’s rebuilds, for instance.”

Power adds: “[You can] keep all of your records in one place, but you have the option to share that record or keep it private, and change that at any time. Store videos, catalogues, parts lists…anything that makes owning a classic car easier and selling one more valuable.”

If you’re interested, sign up online, or download for Android or iOS—both an iPhone and native iPad app are available. Your records will be accessible on all platforms, and are easily exportable. Here are the links:

Web app
Apple Appstore 
Google Play Store