I bought this '40 over a year ago. I haven't been very happy with the flat black paint, it's been difficult for me to make it look good. I was so used to a finished paint job and my wash and wear style of washing at the local spray and wash that the paint seems to be stained. Needless to say I don't wash it at any spray and wash place. I have tried everything I have found that is supposed to work, to no avail. It looks a little better but still stained. I was told the paint was enamel with a flattener to give it the primered look.
I built and did hotrod n custom stuff in the 50s and 60s{yes I'm old an spell 4 crap. The photos are showing mostly racecars that were often not finished or even thought of as finished=still primer,cuz only thing that mattered most was just going fast. Very few car shows let unfinished primer cars even into them at all=why,becuz they were not finished and the goul for most was to add the shiny,not think it was anywere near done tell it was shiny,primer was only though of as primer an not cool yet. Somewere after the dark times between about 65 and around the end 70s some understanding was lost. A few and then later many more as time passed,not knowing what these younger guys were looking at ,started thinking primer was a finish { I think mostly young guys seeing it as a EZ way out of doing more work. But some one needs to tell ya,thats not "Hotrod Black"{thats a new wording}, a fairly new idea that 1/2 done is a finelfinish,it is not or at lest it was not . "hotrod black" is a bit of a fake bubble most now beleve as how it was,but was not a finelfinish,its OK if you like the look of a unfinished cars,but you should also know what it is and not think we though it was done. Enjoy it,know not all of us back in the 50s n 60s got the shiny on before moving on to other things,but most did it. Only thing I'm trying to point out is real history,I was there an working. Have fun with your primer,hope it adds a little to your understanding is all. Also think of any old photo that looks like primer,may be the car before it got shiny=all the shiny cars had primer under the shiny.
I had that trouble with the primer on my 48 no matter if it was black, red oxide or the purple that it was for a few years. Working on a dairy farm for a few years I was around International Harvester tractors that had a lot of satin black panels and those seemed to hold up pretty well and didn't seem to get ugly no matter what abuse the farm workers threw at it and that included getting cow crap on it every day and pressure washing it almost every day. Their in house spray can red stood up to the same abuse after I repaired the nose of a tractor that had hit a post. I was amazed that it held up against what they threw at it.
Hey Austinrod.... building a new home in Liberty Hill right now. Hope to be part of the Austin rod scene soon.
A couple of weeks ago I came out of the AAA office to find an older guy hanging around my pickup admiring it and we got to talking. Like so many, he was a hot rodder back in the day. He told me "we was always going to paint it next week. You know, next week when we got paid, we was gonna paint it. But next week came and we spent our money on other things, like girls, and the car didn't get painted. So they were always primered." I think that is probably a pretty accurate account. It doesn't disagree with your post Dana, they didn't consider it "finished", but they drove them like that any way, and they stayed like that for a long time. Many hot rods never did get "finished". I'm OK with that. I think a lot of us are.
Well said Some are race cars some are street cars but most of the pictures I posted minus the a few new builds are from the 50's and 60's.
What you said Dana was put quite diplomatically. It makes a ton of sense. I guess thats why when I see a cars like these, they have a badass unfinished feel to me. Not so much that the owner was "lazy", just that he had other priorities. I think that people that do it today want to simply re-create the look of that era or have similar priorities. I, on the other hand, am just plain lazy
Excellent thread. I love satin black, even more than shiny. Kinda reliving my (misspent) youth. When I was about 16 I bought a 50 Ford from a guy and it was satin black, he had painted it with a Sears vacuum cleaner. Don
How about a little satin black fog................. "...........old school hot rods with soul, to be driven hard and put away dusty!" Todd A. Kindler 32 Spitfire High Noon Speed Shop http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/a-bootleggers-morning.993897/#post-11199293
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