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"Basics of Basics" Picking a color and buying your paint.

5K views 23 replies 14 participants last post by  john gnapp 
#1 ·
Color choice basics

Color choice is so much more than simply picking a color because you ‘like” it. Not every color “works” on every car. Some will argue “to each his own” or “It’s your car, paint it what ever you want”. This is true, but you are painting it to look better, right? Why just get color on it for the sake of getting color on it. Why paint your favorite color on it when your favorite color is not going to make the car look it’s best?

We have all heard that black will show waves or poor body work. White on the other hand hides them. This is just the start of color choice. We can agree that even though you may love black cars, painting a wavy old beast a cut and buffed black would be wrong. It goes beyond “taste”, it is just plain wrong, if your desire is a nice looking car.

There are a few different issues when talking about color choice.

Cost:

IF you have a budget for you paint you best check on the cost before you commit to a color. In one brand of basecoat a price can go from approximately $185.00 to $420.00 a gallon. Any color with a lot of red or pearl is going to be more expensive for instance. These are not custom colors, just regular old colors off new cars. Whether you plan on BC/CC (base coat/ clear coat) or SS (single stage, where no clear is applied over it) will effect cost. Pick a color and go to your paint store to see all costs, color, clear, hardeners, reducers, any sealers you may want, etc. You don’t want to be surprised when the car is sitting there ready for paint.

Resale Value:

Yeah, I know, you’ll never sell it. Well, I have to tell you, you most likely will someday. There are lots of cars painted pastel pick from the 1980’s that are darn near un-sellable today. I know of one, a friend of mine passed away unexpectedly and his wife almost had to give away his ’34 Ford. It would have probably gotten up to $10,000 more if it wasn’t a out dated trendy color from the 80’s. Really watch those trendy colors, they can kill you.

Does the color “work” on this particular body style:

Not all cars look good in all colors. Again, I am not talking “taste” here, I mean some colors just DON’T “work” on every car. There is a 4dr ’59 Cad in my area that is painted a fire engine red, I am sorry, it doesn’t work. In fact, it looks like hell. Is that just my opinion, well yes and no. It is also the publics opinion in large too. GM spends a LOT of time and money on marketing and research to come up with the colors it offers. That red would not be a color offered on that car for good reason. This is a very gray area (if you will pardon the pun), it does come down to “opinion”. But it is like speaking your mind about politics, sure you have the right, but you better “know the room”. Or you will suffer the consequences. The resale of the Cad is in the tank. The likelihood of a crowd gathering around it at a show is in the tank. He too the chance when he opened the can. Because of this rule it is not likely you will ever see a white Lamborghini Countach or a candy apple red Rolls Royce.

What do you want the color to do:

This is where we return to the black show waves stuff. Sure black shows waves, but did you know it hides body lines? That’s right, it “softens” body lines. If you have a car with features you want to hide, black is the color. This is one of the reasons it is known for being “mysterious”. It hides a lot, leaving it up to the imagination. It also makes the car look smaller. I am not kidding, park a black ’68 Camaro next to a white one and you darn near have to take a measuring tape out to prove they are the same car.
On something like a ’27 Ford model T the doors lay on top of the cowl and quarters. It kinda looks like a tire patch on the side of the car. In black they “melt” in and don’t pop out as much.

White is just the opposite, it may hide waves in flat panels, but it shows off body lines. This includes how STRAIGHT the lines are. Panel fit is very critical with white. The gaps look like black pin stripes, if they are not perfect it will look like wavy inconsistent width stripes.

We all know what black and white do, any other color just falls in the middle. It is a sliding scale, the darker the color the more it’s effects are like black and the lighter the color the more it’s effects are like white, simple.

Tip 1. There are thousands and thousands of colors out there. To pick one from that huge pallet would be very hard. This is what I feel is the best way to start the color search, find a car the color you want and get the color code off it. It is that simple, the new car deal lots are full of cars in every color imaginable, find the color and there you will find the exact code of that color.

Tip 2. When you go to get your paint at the paint store ask if there are any “alternates” or “Variants” of the color you have chosen. These “alternates” can be VERY, VERY different from the “standard” color. The car you may have seen was one of these “alternate” colors. These alternate colors are different “batches” if you will.

Tip 3. DO NOT PICK THE COLOR OUT OF A CHIP BOOK! These chips are usually not even paint, they are ink. They are a “close” representation of the color, they are NOT the color. (for instance the alternates will not even be represented in the chip books) .

Tip 4. I highly recommend you buy a pint of the color you have chosen, take it home and spray it out. Use an old fender or something and really get a good feeling for the color before you layout your hard earned dough for a gallon or two. This is not only to see if the color is right, but to see if it covers well, and just how easy it will be to paint. The difference between colors and brands can be night and day in how user friendly they are. If you find that the color is nice but it takes 6 coats to cover, you may want to change the color choice or change the brand of paint. Some “value lines” can be very transparent, so you save no money because you may have to put on twice as much. A high pearl or metallic color may “model” easily, that may be a reason to scrap the color or brand.

Tip 5. After you have your color picked for goodness sakes don’t be a cheapie when buying your paint. Figure out how much you’ll need for the whole job. We are talking every thing you plan on painting, outside, inside, dash, jambs, trunk, everything. When you have an idea how much, add at the very least 20% more. If one gallon is enough, buy another quart. Buy all the paint you will need before you start painting anything. Get a few extra gallon cans and use them to intermix ALL the paint. You then have all the paint you need, no mismatched parts, no running out, you are set to go. If you have a that quart left over when you are done, so what? Running out of paint is NOT pretty, it is a disaster in many cases. Now, why intermix? This is a VERY painful lesson you don’t want to learn the hard way. This is it in a nutshell, if you were to go to the paint store and have three gallons of the same formula mixed you would end up with three different colors! I will bet you a dollar, here is why. Some toners are very strong, just a drip will change the color. A couple of different people could mix them, some people mix better than others. There are other variables such as one toner used gets emptied and the next toner used has more solvent in it because it is new and has less strength. Now, these colors may not be “that” different. If you were to paint three different cars with those gallons you may not even see it. But if you were to paint your hood, fenders, and quarters with the three different gallons you sure would! I repeat, this is a VERY painful lesson you don’t want to have to learn the hard way, BUY ALL YOUR PAINT UP FRONT.

Tip 7. If you follow tip #6 you can skip this one. It is something that comes up once and a while. When you have chosen BC/CC, SS, Lacquer, enamel, what ever, paint the WHOLE car the same. Don’t paint the jambs SS and the outside BC/CC or something like that. Yes, it “can” work, but seldom does. The formula for the SS and BC of the same color is NOT (usually) the same. The SS paint is not just the BC that you don’t put clear over. For that matter just clearing a color will change it.

I could bore you with example after example of how I learned this information. Follow these simple tips and you will have fun doing your car, instead of experiencing the pain on your own. These are lessons that are very painful, believe me.

Let me also say that I love color. It has been a big part of my life for over 25 years. I can appreciate just about any color as long as it is done nice. That does not mean that any color belongs on any car. It also doesn’t mean that because I would like a car a particular color that I would paint it that color. It has to “work” or it was a waste of time and money. There are many cars that you have seen grace the front cover of a magazine that would be a big ZERO if it were painted another color. And likewise there are many cars that just don’t get the attention they deserve because they were painted the “wrong” color.

This may be the only car you ever restore, or at the very least one of only a few. The time you take to pick the color is time very well spent, that I guarantee you.

 
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#3 ·
Von, you get into a very wide area there. "Touched up", SS is MUCH better/easier. You can brush touch very bad chips or scratches, sand it down a polish. But blending is much more difficult. Spot painting is MUCH easier with BC/CC.
As for which colors to do in SS or BC/CC, well, that could be debated till the cows come home. Some say solid colors should be SS and only clear the metallics. But, most ALL cars are bc/cc, solid metallic, Mercedes, Honda, it don't matter, they are all bc/cc (largely). I guess I am not that hard core, I go with bc/cc every time. But it really is a person preference. If I were doing a valuable classic, I would do it in SS just to maintain the original look if nothing else. But your "typical" Chevelle (My Gran Sport is BC/CC) and looking at the practical aspects of having to repair it in the real world, I'd go bc/cc.
 
#4 ·
Thanks for the info.

Would you recommend a sunset orange metallic like the color found on the new firebirds a nice color for a 70 chevelle? I really like that color and would think it would look good with white stripes and top.

Rob.
 
#5 ·
Rob, that actually sounds very nice. But I can not emphasize enough, no one can pick the color for you. I may look at things different as far was what is right or wrong with a color for a particular car. However, my taste is still MY taste. You don't want to rely on ME picking a color.
That is the reason I wrote these basics. Just to open the door to more thought. Open the door to make you think about why you would choose or not choose a particular color.
 
#7 ·
I was asking your opinion on that because i thought maybe you would have a better understanding of how it would look. I like having other peoples opinions on how i do things cause it gives me a different perspective. I was set on viper red for my car, but now im gonna go with SOM. I love that burnt orange type color. Thanks.

Rob.
 
#8 ·
Body shop owners girlfriend picked the color out of a book. He tried to tell her look at it in the sun and see the color at the dealer. Well being a man he just doesn't understand she knew the color and he didn't. She hated the color after it was done.
 
#9 ·
Wallace, "enamel" is a widely used term that can mean a number of things. The first non-lacquer was "Synthetic enamel" (man made resins) it was a very soft paint and not very high quality, but much better than lacquer in many ways. "Acrylic enamel" came out next about 1958 (invented by Sherwin Williams) and uses "acrylic" resins, basically "plastic" like. Then came "urethane enamel" with urethane resins, then "polyurethane enamel" with many (poly) different urethane resins.

But basically when you hear "enamel" it is refering to the mose common "enamel" (at least in years past) "Acrylic enamel". Many manufactures like PPG, Ford, and Europeans used acrylic enamels for years. It is still available and is a good old work horse. It is a little cheaper than a urethane, a little more user friendly, just a great workhorse.
 
#10 ·
Great Topic ... MartinSR need your advice on buying the paint to get correct shade once the color picked ...
Re doing my 66 Chevelle in the original color ... Dupont 71525 Aztec Bronze Poly (Metallic) want to redo in BCCC ... I understand from others experiences this color is a real problem to duplicate and get the correct shade ..

I have a copy of the tint formula from a 66 Chevelle Aztec Bronze done by a Resto shop .. the owner took great pains to ensure shade correct ...I went to see the car when it was done , it is exactly what i want ...the owner had the shop fax me the formula sheet , since I am in another city is it possible with this formula sheet that the local paint supply store can mix the same shade ?? My painter prefers Sherwin Williams the formula sheet I have is supposedly from Dupont Lab " Dupont "master tint".. "Cronar Tints Metallic BC/CC 3 angle "

Product JR2-J4170F Alt #0 Colorname Red met

then the list of ten tints and gms / gal

Any concerns mixing it with another brand ??

If I took the info to the local Dupont supplier any reason he could not duplicate ...or should I just contact the paint supplier the resto shop used ( 1400 miles away) and buy the paint from them and hope no shipping issues ???

Thanks Bill
 
#12 ·
LYTEMUP
Sunset Orange Metallic is what I'm going to use on my '72 (black interior/top).
I spotted that color @ the 2000 GM Carlisle show and knew it would look great on the Chevelle.
If fact, I just got an '03 Avalanche in the same color for the wife. If I ever tow, it should look pretty fancy!
 
#13 ·
Bill, that formula is worthless as far as mixing in another brand. The color may or may not be available in S-W. If it is, it would likely be computer matched color and not very close.

If I had a guy that insisted on the S-W, this is what I would do. I would take that formula to the DuPont jobber. Have a pint mixed up buy the reducer and hardener (I think that Cronar base is hardened) if needed and have your painter spray it out on a nice large panel. A body shop usually has some fenders they are throwing away. If this color is to your satisfaction then have the guy come up with the S-W paint that matches it, THAT is his job. If I were that guy I would go through the books to find the closest color and then hand match it. But I have to say, if I were him, I would shoot it in the DuPont that I know you are happy with. Or, you could find a shop that would shoot it with the DuPont.
 
#14 ·
Thanks for the reply ...I appreciate it ... I will asssume the Dupont formula I have will be usefull for the local DuPont supplier .... I will take your advice and stick with Dupont .... Bill
 
#15 ·
I agree that certain cars do not look good with certain colors. Im trying to decide on a color for my 66 its now blue, original was red. I saw this car in black and did not like it, most guys paint this car various shades of blue. what do you think about 66 metallic red? or any other colors for this shape. what does red do for imperfections?

frank
 
#16 ·
MARTINSR,Thank you for the very very good advice! I hope this article ends up in one of the tip sections....


I do want to add my $.02 on your point about color selection, and how that "makes or breaks" a certain car. A few years ago, I did a frame off restification of my "dream" car from when I was a teenager. For 20 years, I had this vision of a blue camaro with white stripes, and the car turned out very very nice..won lots of awards with it, everyone who ever saw it said it was an awesome car. BUT it was just missing that "something" to draw just the right attention.

I realized that it was simply the color when I was at a major show that had two "crowd pleasers" in the camaro class I was in..mine and another one that was red. Looking closely at the other car, it was obvious that mine had much better workmanship, more "trick" items, better paint..yada yada...although it was also a very nice car. I believe he won that show simply based on color and the perception of the judges as a result of that color.

Now, fast forward to today....I'm nearing completion of a 70 Chevelle. This car is torch red. When I work in the garage with the door open, cars literally stop in front of the house to look at the car! I've met many people just because they saw that red car in the garage..and I haven't even been to a show yet!

So, yes, color makes a HUGE difference, and the choice of color (if you aren't going original) should be very carefully done. Just the work to change it should be a big enough reason to think hard, much less the $$$'s.
 
#17 ·
I'll add my experience about color. I've always loved green cars. It seems many other people don't. I painted my '63 Nova SS cybermist green pearl. People seem to love it or hate it. For example, lowrider types in general dig it, while street rod and muscle car types don't. There doesn't seem to be any middle ground. Sometimes at shows I like to stand back a little ways from my car and listen to the comments. They can be, uh... interesting. I don't suppose it's a problem until you try to sell the car, when an odd color will greatly reduce your scope of prospective buyers.
 
#18 ·
Frank, a Chevelle in my opinion looks good in darn near any color. It all depends on what YOU want out of the color. If it is a stock color, I can't imagine you could go wrong.
 
#19 ·
MartinSr Thanks for very informative advice,

Someone mentioned to me that I should try to stick to a red when painting my car because it is a darker red right now. Under the red is the original gold.
The reason they gave was if I were to paint it silver the red would still show through. My plan is not to strip the paint off but to use the original primer.

Thanks,
 
#20 ·
No Monte, the red would not show through the silver. If you plan on saving the original paint and primer under it, it will not make a difference.
 
#21 ·
Thanks Martinsr for the post. I couldn't agree more. My 65 2 door SEDAN is a good example. I feel it is not a racy body style like a hardtop or convertable so therefore I shouldn't paint it a racy color (red, yellow). I was leaning towards a understated gray metallic but "the wife" gave it a thumbs down. She wants to see a bright blue similar to the Subaru WRX blue. I also thought about a two tone with a silver roof and posts around the door to try to hide the fact that it's got the posts, to make them blend in with the stainless trim around the front and rear windows and to "lower" the roof line. Comments?
 
#22 ·
If you want those roof posts to disappear, then paint them black. Remember what I said in the "basics", black hides details. For an example look at most any late model car. To give the illusion of huge windows (remember the bubble tops they said they we would be driving by now?) they paint the posts black or even "extend" the window with black. Neat trick alright.
 
#23 ·
Re: "Basics of Basics" Picking a color and buying your paint.

CDN SS said:
Re doing my 66 Chevelle in the original color ... Dupont 71525 Aztec Bronze Poly (Metallic)
I'm no judge. I recently saw a 68 RT car restored BCCC to the car's original colour. Very close, I "think" to this colour, and it really sucked. (That is why I decided to post a response.) Excuse the language. With a new black vynyl roof, original to the car, ... yuck! Butt ugly; it was! What a shame. Damn nice car!

The man loved his restoration. And it was "nice". Did it himself. But God, he could have picked something else to make that car pop. He sold it and might have gotten more. Said he would never do another restoration. Too heart braking to the pocket, likely.

I'm not a fan of re-sell red either. I would love to change my colour from this http://www.chevelles.com/wagons/4-door/4-dr-jtjohnson1.jpg to this http://www.chevelles.com/wagons/4-door/69Wessel02.jpg
In fact, that is what happened eventually to this: http://www.chevelles.com/wagons/4-door/70fnt-dyer-b.jpg - Sorry Beldar, but I never would have chosen this colour: http://www.chevelles.com/wagons/4-door/4dr-beldar.jpg

If I did change colour, my wife might actually have a chance of getting something for mine, if she out-lives me.

Huff, puff, no one likes a 4-door. I like mine, and have yet to see a 2-door in the great shape mine is in. If I were to do an fancy $10,000 restoration, a new colour choice would be a long process to decide upon.
 
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