I've attached a couple photos of my '29 Scout.  My desire is to do a mechanical restoration so it runs well.  I am going to clean the grime off the parts as I disassemble so I can see if anything is cracked or broken or worn out.  I do not plan to polish, de-rust, or shine anything up.  A couple of the parts that came with the bike and some of those I have bought are newly-painted (headlight, horn) or plated (air cleaner, oil lines).  I'd like to age those parts so they don't stick out so much.   Any suggestions as to how best to proceed?

Secondly, you can see that the bike has been painted at some point, the red is all wrong and the paint is flaking off the tank.  I'd like to have it painted and decals applied, but I don't want it looking new and shiny.  Are you aware of any painters that can paint to obtain an aged look?

Thanks,

John in Alabama USA

John, Carl Eriks advice is good. make the bike functional to suit your needs, and it will naturally self patinate. 

The process can be hurried along a little by wiping the bike down regulalrly with an oily rag, as any road dirt will soon accumulate. A protective coating like penetrol will also help this, a lot of guys with rat rod vehicles use it over worn/faded paint and rust.

The tank is important, well worth spending 80 bucks at Harbor frieght for one of their little cameras to check internally. Also keep checking the oil tank, make sure there is no leakage of gas into it thru the seems. A sure sign this is happening is that the oil will get very thin, and come out of every joint on the bike. Shut down immediately, and you may just save your motor.

Paying someone to patinate seems to me to be a bit of a waste of money, you could have a proper paint job done and then cleared, and go over the top of it yourself. I have done that on a couple of my bikes, once cleared, you can do what you want on top of it, and cut it back when the time is right.