UNDER THE WEATHER

RUST NEVER SLEEPS, SO AT LONG LAST GLENN TORRENS PROTECTS HIS BOMBODORE'S PATINA

- GLENN TORRENS

MY HOLDEN COMMODORE’S appearance is the result of 45 hot Aussie summers baking the original paint. Back in 1979 when this base-model but V8 optioned VB Commodore sedan was built in Holden’s Pagewood, Sydney assembly plant, car-paint technology was quite simple: primer and a ‘one stage’ air-dry acrylic finish, sprayed on by blokes in overalls. Back then, shiny paint didn’t have much hope of surviving more than a decade, so it’s little surprise this car’s paint looks as it does 45 years later.

Anyway, this amazing patina – the swirls and the cracks and crazes from this car’s decades of natural aging – is something that I find very appealing these days. Judging by all the amazing comments I’ve received about this car over the past four years, other people seem to like this patina too. At shows and cars ’n coffee events, I can park next to a Ferrari or a Brock or something and people will pretty-much form a queue to speak to me about this Commodore and its story.