making a paint decision

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ssba

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I was curious about how easy or difficult it was for any of you to choose the color on your a-body when it came time to spray
on some paint.
Did you know all along or did you change your mind a few times as it got closer to paint day.
I have had my project for 15 yrs and I find I haven't been
able to say this is the color I really want.
Other choices on the car such as engine, transmission, axle, wheels & tires I knew right from the moment I first saw the car
what they had to be to make me happy.
Paint color hasn't been so clear to me.
Like to hear how some of you picked your colors.
 
What kind of car and is I and it is going be stock or old skool kewl? :glasses7:
 
one of the toughest decisions to make IMO.

do you have to have a mopar color and does it have to be year correct to your car?

Also cost is a factor because not all colors cost the same. Are you dedicated to one brand of paint system? Some paint systems have limited or no formulas for certain colors and some paint systems are not as brilliant in color as others.

A gallon of FM3 panter pink can run $400. + a gallon where as a gallon of 9300 Gloss black can run as low as $80. a gallon so that may be a factor, depending how much you want to spend on paint.

What kind of look are you going with? Base coat/ clear for a show shine or a more subdued factory shine of an enamel or single stage coat.

I used to do solids in single stage and metallic in BC/CC but I think I am going to standardize them all in BC/CC only because the single stage will never shine like the clear coat.

I started painting model cars with actual car paint and I learned a few things. Some colors are harder to match and get a correct color brilliance with some paint systems. For instance I painted a model with onmi EF8 green and I painted another model with DBC EF8 green and you can really see the difference in brilliance. So it will matter what paint system you go with on what brilliance and color hold out you are looking for and this all goes with what look your after. here is the DBC and it has a great correct brilliance and I would have to find the pic for the other model but it came out more drab and more army green looking......so it makes a huge difference on the look your looking for.
 

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very difficult depends on the car IMO certain models scream for a certain color probably one of the hardest decisions to make in redoing a car
 
Well in my case the car is a 68 fastback. It is a vintage drag car build.
I definitely want the car to have a paint job that looks like something that would have been done back in the late 60s or early 70s.
At the same time I really don't want to copy someone else's car or especially not a famous race car.
I have a good understanding of the paint tricks used back then and remember seeing a lot of it as a kid.
My dad owned a Sinclair station back then and it was next door to a body shop that regularly did some neat work on the hotrods in town here.
So by the time I was in high school I had done some custom painting on some of mine and some friends cars.
I feel this car I am building now will be a good candidate
to use some of the old paint tricks again.
I have a pretty good idea how I will do the job but having a
tough time choosing the colors.
I will likely have my dads Sinclair station lettered
on the car and perhaps a name as most race cars were named back then.
I have collected some vintage contingency decals also.
 
I have the same problem as you do. I have owned my Dart for 10 years now and I can't decide what color. I am not a huge fan of the original color but if I had it painted and it was all shiny and new it would be ok. I want a color that really pops. My first choice was burnt orange but with a black vinyl top I'm afraid it will look like a pumpkin. lol I am also concerned about paint match if I would get it damaged although a good body man can match and blend almost any color nowdays.
Click on this link and look at all the possibilities. Good luck. tmm
https://www.google.com/search?q=68+...7txVPu3NY7msATr-IHwBA&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&dpr=0.9
 
To answer some of your questions. I do not have to use a Mopar color but most likely will. I do want the colors to be 1973 or older.
I may get a lot of grief from professional paint guys on this one but I plan to use lacquer paint. My reasoning is that is
how it was done back then. I know the new paints are better.
But I don't want it to look better, I want it to look authentic
to the early 70s. If the clear yellows faster or cracks so be it.
I have went to a lot of effort to not bolt anything on this car
that is to new. I believe the newer paints will stand out as incorrect for this car.
 
By the way Rani that model looks incredible. I Dont believe I have ever known of another female that has built a model car.
I haven't built one since I was around 20 myself. From the looks of it you got any I ever built topped in the quality of the paint job. Very nice work.
 
My car has a cheapo black paint job on it that will one day need to be replaced. I like the black but drove a charcoal gray Grand Cherokee for a while that most people thought was black until they saw it in the day light. I work for a Lexus dealer and we have a similar color that looks black but has red and blue metallics in it that really POP in the sunlight. It'll pay homage to the fact that most of my income comes from this dealer. Of course, it'll be modern base coat with about ten layers of clear on it. Lol
 
I let Amy take her pick on the Scamp, but I've been up against the wall with my Charger at times.

I think color is an acquired taste. I had this issue with my '68 Charger, when I first got it.

Initially, I saw a picture of a DD-1 pale metallic blue with the black top and interior, which is a little lighter than B3. the UU-1 blue is about like B3 blue from '69 up, but the DD-1 almost looks silver, only with a touch of sky blue in it.

I was stuck on this idea for a long time, because I loved what the silver did to the body lines on the car, only I liked that the blue made the stainless, chrome and other silver parts on the car, like the grille surround and face of the spokes, stand out from it.

After seeing how menacing black looked on the car, I considered that as well for about a year or so, but decided that it made the lines of that particular car sort of go away in a sense and it didn't have the simplicity of an A body to silhouette, so I threw that idea out the window for that car as well.

The car is LL-1 Bright Turquoise metallic, with a really terrible oxidized red Earl Scheib job on it, where I can see spots from the red coming off, so I could see the color. When I got the car, I wasn't that big into the color, because I didn't really have a good example of the color to see and I thought it looked tacky. It did look tacky and does, with the ugly red covering most of it, right now, so I realize why it took me a while to come around to it.

Later on, as I've had the car and more examples online and in person of the LL-1 color became available for me to actually look at, I realized how vibrant/ how much chroma it had and I fell in love with bright colors.

Lately, whenever I do a painting of something, I've been using brighter alternative color pallettes, rather than natural ones and I'm absolutely loving the results.

The way I think about color, now, is that it is there to set a mood. I did a picture of the villans from Bullitt in neons to mix the skin tones, background colors, etc. and it gave the painting a lot more appeal than just looking at a photograph.

Sometimes, changing the color of the car can enhance aspects of its impression that it gives off.

When you think about how these cars are designed, you quickly gather how there are groups of ideas that were combined to get the final result. The grille design, the sides, the interior, trim, etc... The same goes for color. A lot of the cars from the 1950s had tri-tones that combined colors like light blue, teal and greens, or even yellows.

So, sometimes, the dominating interest factor of a car doesn't need to be enhanced. Sometimes, its a good idea to think about some of the forgotten advertising goals of your car, why people loved them when they were new, compared to now and what kind of impression you get from your car and what you'd like to give others.

In the case of my '68 Charger, today, the dominant interest in the public would be its bad-guy legacy. A lot of people want intimidation from american cars from that era, but have forgotten about their practical and other social applications. The Charger was a high optioned, high trim specialty car, for someone looking for a luxury sports car. A pretty far cry from something that is constantly seen airborne on screen.

So I wanted to bring the car back to its social class with my paint choice and highlight its high trim level and higher tier, so I decided to chose from the '68 paint line and after seeing a few cars with the LL-1, it gave me the impression I was going for, with that car.

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The Scamp is FJ6 green and we've decided to change the top from black to white, for many of the same reasons I decided to go with the turquoise on the Charger.

ChristmasTreeScamp_zpsd53aa270.jpg


71_scamp_sassy_grass_2.jpg


The white gives it a bright/ fun look, rather than bright and black, like the stripes on a wasp or caution tape, for intimidation.

Anyway, its up to you, but I would recommend thinking about what kind of impression you want the car to give off, to help with your decision.

Dave
 
Dave I really enjoyed reading your take on choosing color.
Thanks for taking the time to share it here. Full of incite and
gave me a new way of looking at color choice that I hadn't considered. I will see if I can apply some of these ideas and
hope it leads me to something tasteful.
Your charger looks great and I like how you came to your
color decision for the car. The white vinyl top was a big change that works very well on your car. Not sure I could have seen that one without actually seeing it done. Perhaps I lack a certain vision?
You have a keen sense at choosing from a out dated palate what will be accepted today as tasteful yet still have the ability to take a person back to 68. Well done.
I hope I can do as well with my color choices and bring out something that is liked from the era.
 
It was easy for me because I want her to look like she did when it was new, and hide my great 360 build under the hood, changing colors would men loosing the 1966 paint inside I want to keep so back to the color Victoria was born with, only hope I can get the hood closed
after the the swap :glasses7:
 

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going through this problem right now.....currently doing body work on my wagon and I am going to paint it.

the problem I have is the brown is too boring plus the car is starting a new life now, plus the original woodgrain is out the door. I don't want anything high impact because its a wagon and I have seen too many of them painted loud flashy colors and to me that seems like its trying too hard to be the 2 door its not.

I would like somewhat sleeper but not so quiet that its never noticed. Tall order I know, but that is the problem of choosing the right color for a particular car's personality.
 

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I'm in the same boat with my Duster.

Like Rani said about- choosing a color for a cars personality...
Dusters in my head are kind of cartoonish (with the logo etc) and look cool with the bright colors and stripe kits. I'm thinking a super bright orange or green or... with black hood and white stripe kit. With a black interior I think that will all be good.

A barracuda (to me) is more of a classic ride. When I think of them I think more classic colors. But you know you can take two cars the same color and one looks better because of how the rest of it is done. Like the Scamp above- that white top with white interior the stripe all works perfectly together.


And hey why not copy?...or even sort of copy. Look how cool this is. :)
160977_Front_3-4_Web.jpg
 
For a race car you can't hardly beat the Sox and Martin style above. How about that pattern in white, Sinclair green and a medium to dark gray? Just my 2cents.........or 1/4 of a cent these days......
 
For a race car you can't hardly beat the Sox and Martin style above. How about that pattern in white, Sinclair green and a medium to dark gray? Just my 2cents.........or 1/4 of a cent these days......


That would pretty dang cool looking !
You could use the colors from one of the Sinclair logos.

sincla37.jpg
 
I'm in the same boat right now. Just sprayed my final coat of primer and still don't have a clue of what color to go with. Started with the blue, which I hated when I first got the car but now it has really grown on me. Was dead set to go with this orange but just came across this gold that has me thinking.....
 

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I had the same issue with my 68 fb. one thing I did was look at other cars while driving to/from work. I wanted a 70's ish style custom color . color chips do no justice to contours and the way light hits panels. if you have any idea of what basic color look for cars and see how light hits it . I was going to go with a dark metallic green but saw 2012 ram (1 year only)tequila sunrise and started looking at copper/gold colored cars to pinpoint a specific model to pull a paint code from.I'm sticking with tequila sunrise but also found that chromabase is $500 a gallon with lesser quality less than half the cost. I can tell you that you get what you pay for and was thrilled with my engine bay.
 

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I've owned my Dart for 7 years now. It was originally a B5 Blue, but it has had a repaint at some point in time to a lighter, non Mopar blue. My intention was to go back with factory paint, but for some reason I couldn't make myself do it.

One of my favorite cars is a 1967 Chevelle, in Marina blue. I pulled the trigger on a new paint job in this color. It is a 'period correct' muscle car color, and I love it. So far we have only refinished the engine bay, but I can tell I'm going to be very happy with the final paint color.

I would also agree with what someone else suggested; keep your eyes peeled for a car that has the color that really pops for you. This is much better than looking at paint chips. Seeing an entire car painted will give you a much better idea of how it will look on your car. Go to car shows and take pics. Lots of ideas there!

Here is a picture of my engine bay done in DuPont Marina Blue:
 

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Well in my case the car is a 68 fastback. It is a vintage drag car build.
I definitely want the car to have a paint job that looks like something that would have been done back in the late 60s or early 70s.
At the same time I really don't want to copy someone else's car or especially not a famous race car.
I have a good understanding of the paint tricks used back then and remember seeing a lot of it as a kid.
My dad owned a Sinclair station back then and it was next door to a body shop that regularly did some neat work on the hotrods in town here.
So by the time I was in high school I had done some custom painting on some of mine and some friends cars.
I feel this car I am building now will be a good candidate
to use some of the old paint tricks again.
I have a pretty good idea how I will do the job but having a
tough time choosing the colors.
I will likely have my dads Sinclair station lettered
on the car and perhaps a name as most race cars were named back then.
I have collected some vintage contingency decals also.
Kind of where I am,anymore. Mid 40's,most flat black rat rods,l hate. Seen enough Base coat/Clear coat at car shows. The era thing makes sense to me,usually how I go. (street machine,late 60's-mid 70's style). Like simple paint, anymore . All a matter, of personal taste.
 
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