Projects Painting your rod or custom

This will go the way of the pastels and tweed era. Sure, it may last longer in our cost-conscious world and it eliminates some expensive material and labor. Not to be a dick about it but it's getting a little bit boring. Your results may vary, tax n title extra, void where prohibited...

 

I would have painted it pink and told everyone I work for Jerry Kay.

I decided to paint my '46 yellow when I was a kid. Locked myself in the warehouse and wouldn't let anyone in unless they were really close for an entire weekend. Yellow with red pin stripes, after about a week it was making me queasy. But I blew it off as being my lifestyle that was making me queasy. Long story short I left the car with Paul's wife when I hit the road for a month or so, as was my habit, she drove it more than I ever did anyway. I came home and there my old Ford sat, metallic blue just like it was before I painted it yellow. Guess Mary didn't like it either.

Come to think of it. I painted my bike with a crushed mirror paint job once. Black lacquer, crushed mirror, dozen or so coats of clear. looked good for about a week then it got rattle canned flat black (30 years before that was popular), I just could not stand it sparkly.

I painted my blazer with yellow sign paint before I left for mexico. It was yellow from the factory but the sign paint was durable. I was stopped in a rest area in texas and people began to skatter. Someone told me they thought I worked for the highway dept. I guess its was against the law to peddle stuff in the rest area in texas.

OK someone help me not make another mistake. I want to paint something Periwinkle, I have no idea what that looks like I just like the name.

 

Do you still want that color Beeno? ,it's sometimes refereed to light in your loafers blue! HRP

 

Danny,
You love me right? I will take your advise but I still have no idea what it looks like. Ask Brenda she'll explain it to you.

 

I took years with my last car, finally picking the original 1929 Ford color it was when new, and tweaking it a bit. Below is the four panel colors I had sprayed out, top and bottom of each is different. I was pulling out black and violet in the options.

The final color is in between. Andalucite Blue number 5.

 

You guys are saying black is the absence of color. I always heard black was the absolute color and white was the absence of color which actually makes more sense to me.
Someone mentioned Omaha orange made me think about a Kenworth I painted years ago. The owner picked a blue off of a fleet chart. When I went to the paint store to have them mix a couple gallons they surprised me by pulling a couple off the shelf. When I asked why they had the paint in factory pack they told me the city buys a bunch of it, it's the color of the garbage trucks! I mentioned that to the trucks owner when he came to pick it up, he made me repaint it a different shade of blue at his expense. He said there would be no way he could live with a garbage truck!

 

Just pinstripe the original paint and drive the snot out of it. I paint cars all the time and would be afraid to park them anywhere near anybody else.

 

It depends on how you interpret color.

Color is the reflection of light and all the colors in the spectrum when reflected perfectly come out as white or white light. Black on the other hand is no reflection of light at all, it is all the colors of the spectrum being absorbed. it reflects nothing so therefore it is the absence of color.

 

Black is an absence of light. Something that is black reflects back no visible light to the eye. The eye distinguishes colour by how the various wavelengths of light reflect off an object. White is the same amounts of all those visible wavelengths reflecting back. No light, no colour so I would say black is an absence of colour.

 

Its funny I got a preacher friend that says that light drives out darkness and uses an open window at night for his example. If you go outside the house (it is especially dramatic in the country where there isn't as much light pollution) you can see the light coming out of the house. But if you go inside you cant see the dark coming in. A few feet back and the darkness has absorbed all the light. You see little or nothing at all except blackness.

 

Well, I didn't mean to start a debate.
I heard it the way I did from a old guy when he was teaching me to mix and match paint. Take pure white base, you add toners to make a "color" No toner = absence of color. Ad toner to black doesn't make a color, it stays black, it's already the absolute color. So yeah, your right, guess it depends on how you interpret color. Guess I'm thinking paint in a can, you guys are thinking the spectrum of light which is way above my pay grade.

 

Just wondering how long the suede craze will hang around?

Gary

 

I'll stand by my view. I'm an old crusty bastid too, my crust just hasn't attained the thickness some of you have. Full props and respect for that BTW. I personally like a low gloss finish, like lacquer without polish, maybe a basecoat that's activated but not clear coated. Did that to my racer's hood graphic/stripe. Bright green metallic with a gold pearl, the white on the hood was just base with hardener. Made it look like it was "hovering" over the shiny green. Not sure I'd want a whole car that way though. That brings up another style that went the way of the dodo or fell from fashion like platform shoes. How about those fuckin awful graphics everyone had to have? Started out with that 3-stripe gig akin to RVs, then went to colors, then everybody have to have "ZZ Top" graphics in their own colors, then the dry brush and splatter at the end. Of course in many cases it was over some baby blanket color with a tweed interior and bumpers colored to match. Magazines called that look "Hi-Tech". Hi-Dickhead was more more common though, no? Hit Oriely's and get 3-4 colors of 2" tape and you were ready for the center spread magazine shoot (!) or not...
Still, this is what I alluded to when I said it's the biggest decision you'll make on a build. It's one I love and hate helping someone make.

 

you went with the right color, I love orange

 

I was told by a few guys that told me they couldn't get the panels straight enough so the did flat or suede. Is that true all of you suede guys?

 

Love SHINY black.
Primer isn't a finish it's a start.
Flat paint, flat chests generate about the same amount of interest. Ron

 

I like the car both with and without flames but would have preferred pulling out my teeth before repainting that beautiful car! LOL

 

Yeah, how many people painted their car to match the current "trend" then hated it a few years later. I can name quite a few around here.
A couple years ago I went over to a paint shop to lay out graphics for one of their customer on a 38 Chevy. Customer provided a photo for me to work off of, yep, from the 80's, that 3 stripe RV style. Guess he liked it then, just took him 30 years to have a car to put them on. Talk about dated from the get go, now he's trying to sell it without much luck.
Back in 92 I built a Model A with a flathead, traditional car back before they came back into favor. Took it to a fairly well known pinstriper for some traditional pinstriping. He refused to do it, said he would only do the heartbeat, dry brush spatter crap since "that's the hot style these days". Took the car home, no stripes. He finally striped it the way I wanted, 25 years later since now THAT was in style again!

 

All shades of black are not equal.
Most have a hint of green, brown, blue, or something else messing them up. Pull a pure black car next to one of those and you can immediately tell the difference.

 

8th grade I was required to take an art class. teacher said if I could not distinguish all the colors I should at least understand them.

DuPont Diamond Black Lucite (acrylic lacquer) closest thing to true black you would have ever pulled off the shelf.

All automotive black paint ( generally speaking) throws a tint of one color or another. I personally find the ones with a blue hue to be more pleasant looking. But everyone has their preference I think.

I am not absolutely sure but as the physics of color go I think that the only place that true black exists would be in a black hole. If the gravitational pull is so great that no light can escape then no color can exist. But that is purely theoretical, our eyesight does not cover that wide a range.

 

Ha! Gravity

Mix this with DBC 500 and it's the purest black I've ever seen.

 

I figured I would shoot mine over black tinted primer and it should be about black enough. All lacquer is at the very least mildly translucent. The color of the base will effect it. (an old painter told me that once)

 

[QUOTEI thought hugger orange would look great on my Deuce roadster and to be honest it did,but what I failed to think about is every Tom,Dick & Harry that didn't know a hot rod from a hole in the ground was constantly making the remark,"I see you are a Clemson Tiger fan"..I live about 15 Miles from Clemson University or when we traveled to Pigeon Forge and Knoxville,Tenn. "I see your a Tennessee Football fan"

I should have painted the car BLACK. HRP

View attachment 3519881 [/QUOTE]
If you like the color, I'd keep it like it is. I'm not a sports fan, so my reply would have been" Never heard of them".

To tell you the truth, I consider most spectator sports a huge waste of time, and many sports programs in schools interfere with the true purpose of higher education.

 

Still driving my truck in primer. Can't make up my mind on colors.

 

I used to buy mismatches of quality paint cheap. Only 2 of my hotrods I actually chose a distinct colour. I do all my own work and I can live with my painting skills

 

One of the hardest choices in building these hot rods is choosing the right color. Just started my Deuce Rdstr build 6 months ago and already thinking about color choice. Someone mentioned purple. Joe Nitti's sure looked nice that color.

 

I'm a bit bashful to admit it, but I'm liking purple, too. More to the blue side instead of the red, though.
The "suede trend" has got to stick around, at least for some. I wasn't born in 1935 or so but I have some difficulty believing any suggestion that all the hot rods of the 1950's had slick shiny paint. Some didn't shine. Even "2 Lane Blacktop" from 1971 had a 55 Chevy in primer (gray suede now). Yes, primer is a color. Gray, black, white, or red (my favorite). I can't see that flat paint will go the way of pastels, monochrome, and splash/rv striping; to the point of being too embarrassed to drive it.
Indecision or fear? For me, it's fear. I'm more than capable of getting the body arrow straight albeit in a longer time span than a body shop. I read and hear of ten grand paint jobs from a body shop, of course I'm scared. I can shoot paint, but the requirements to shoot an acceptable gloss finish in my home shop are mind bending. The quality modern paints have SO many components which adds up in cost and risk of failure. All that investment is wasted if I mess up with orange peel, crazing, peeling, dirt in the paint, water in the paint (fisheyes), etc. Control of myself and control of the painting environment is key, but my shop is absolutely filthy. Flats are more forgiving, and colored primers are a cinch.

 

Gman,...just joshin ya, said the first thing to come to mind,..that is one (too) nice Impala.

...I've only had 2 cars painted in over 50 years,...primed a couple to get em all one color, ..now I paint em with a brush and scuff em smooth, so I guess I'm gettin cheaper (and lazier) thru the years, but I'm havin more fun.

...if you spin a color wheel, it'll turn white, so white is the combination of all colors.

 

Painted my first few cars in a single garage beside the house. First was a deuce roadster which turned out great, second was a joke, shot the 32 sedan with a red Ditzler product back in 74, went in for lunch came back and the dam paint had slid off the car? Had to redo the whole job. My best do it your self jobs have been flat paint jobs, 2 chopped 32 sedans, one pickup shot with a gun and they turned out great. Most fun job was another 32 full fendered pu that I painted with satin Krylon. It turned out excellent, got a 3 page feature in Rod and Custom (Oct 05) and ended up in England and is still Krylon satin after all these years. My lungs no longer let me do any painting but it was fun while it lasted.

 

Gary, my avatar is painted in a satin Krylon color that was used to cover over some new welds when it was coming together. I liked it so much I painted the rest of the car the same color - made my color choice kind of easy - then. Before that time I was going nutso on what color to paint it ..... Lol!