Well...it took me several months but I think I'm about ready to pull the trigger on paint for my '72 vert.
I love the deep rich black sapphire pearl (8U0) color and have just found a nice bright white to complement it. The white I found is a Starfire White Pearl (077). Not by plan, but both are Lexus paint colors.
I have a great painter with lot's of experience painting pearls. That said, I wanted to get any thoughts or comments here from all my enthusiast experts in case I'm overlooking something. One of my biggest decisions was whether to go with pearl or not on the stripes. Are there issues with this?
Thanks,
John
Hi John,
Sounds like your painter is just about ready to pull his trigger too according to your plans.
Here's a little bedtime reading for you. It's an essay, so grab a coffee and some cookies, and lets go!
John, i don't know what or how much you know about the spraypainting trade yourself, but let me cover a few things that are worth considering with the pearls and refinishing in general.
I'm not directly familiar with those colors, but they sound a nice combo. You say your painter is pretty good which is great, but i also hope the company is a decent one and treats it's customers well and with respect and a high degree of honesty. That's a big thing in terms of quality of workmanship, final costing of your job, and the time it takes to complete the work to be done. If you don't mind me asking, what sort of money have you been quoted to do what you are asking to be done, and what exactly are you asking to be done? Watch out for being goughed on the cost of the job. By that i mean, don't be given a verbal quote, only to be told that when your car is finished, it will cost you say, a thousand dollers more, because this or that had to be done as an extra. Get a written quote, detailing everything that has to be done per your instructions.Take into account hidden extra costs, such as new found rust for example. I was recently goughed with some electric/ mechanical work done on my '73. I carefully ran throught the scope of works to be done with the shop owner, and a quote of $2,000 to $3,000 was verbally agreed on. When i came to pick up my car, the finished price had jumped to $6,400 total, and there was nothing i could do but to pay the bugger's ransome. Not good at all, and lesson learned the hard way for me.The main essence of a good quality job done is how that respray will look in say, 12 months time as to how good it looks when your Mustang emerges from the paint shop and you've just taken delivery. Also,what color's your ragtop roof - i think black is the best look myself with what you're doing here, but white can look OK as well i guess.
Getting back to the paint itself, choosing pearls means a greater cost to you for materials. I'm assuming for the black and the white colors, they will be a single layer pearl finish - that is pearl basecoat and then your clearcoat on top. I say that because some pearl colors come in two and three layer pearls, which are more expensive again and are harder to apply and refinish later on if needed. I'm pretty sure your white pearl will be a two layed pearl finsh - that's white solid base color, then white pearl color on top, then clearcoat.
Also, remember black colors have a certain softness to them even after proper curing of the topcoat clear, and so, can be easily marked and scratched through normal everyday useage.Remember, black colors look fantastic, but are one of, if not the worst colors for being practical and keeping clean. Metallic and pearl blacks have become very popular because they help disguise dust and dirt on the finish. Solid blacks show every bit of dust and dirt.There are more reasons why black colors are not practical, but i won't ramble on with that here.Also, white pearls can and do have a remaining softness to the finish as well after clearcoat curing.Remember, black finishes are hard to cut and polish, because they easily show any swirl, mirco scratching and haze efect produced from the buffing process. Those problems can be eliminated, but it takes extra time and effort to achieve. Your pannel beating in regards to straight, flat finished panels will play an important part in the final look, as will the painters rubbing down and block work, because black finishes will always easily show up any imperfections with poorly prepared substrates in that regard.
Regards the white pearl, am i right in assuming that you're planning to have that happening on your Nasa or stock hood, your sills down each side, and then painting the hokey stripes and trunk stripe instead of using stickers, or will you use stickers for the stripes themselves? I think there is an American company that sells and does the hokey and trunk stripes to custom colors.You may be able to get a color very close to your white pearl color, and thus save having to paint on the stripes, which does represent more trouble and expense for you. In any case, the only thing i would say here is that if you ever have a need to touch up or refinish your white pearl sections,it will be fiddely and costly as the color will need to be blended over wide areas to look decent.Also, will you choose a full gloss white pearl finish, or a semi gloss finish. Remember, semis are harder to apply, and can't be tampered with after application and curing.If you're painting your stripes, remember that using quality fineline tapes are a must. Sometimes pulling fineline off fresh paint, can be a real bitch when you're trying to achieve a razor sharpe edge without burred, uneven edges occuring.As well, make sure your painter puts plenty of clear on, so any nibs and imperfections can be sanded, cut and polished out later without going through the clearcoat layer. I like 2 to 3 medium wet coats myself, using a medium solids clearcoat.I prefer medium solids clears over hi solids clears in relation to good film build and finished looks. Tell your painter to let the clearcoat dry for a minimum of three days(preferably in the sun) after it comes out of the bake oven before denibbing and any cut and polish work carried out. This should ensure a decent complete cureout for the clear and minimise any sinkback problems occuring.
If you choose gloss black and white pearl finish, the advantage there will be that you will minimise paint layer edges where white meets black. If done to perfection, edges can be eliminated completely.Don't forget to choose what peel pattern you want on your finished panels.(as in orange peel) Some people like a heavy peel off the gun, some like a moderate amount of peel, and some prefer no peel at all, which will require sanding down your finished clearcoat with around 1000grade wet&dry paper by hand or machine to eliminate any peel at all.Remember, with black colors, no peel with full gloss, really shows every little imperfection that's going to be there.They call that, a piano finish, and is very labor intensive to achieve. Heavy peels are good at diguising minor imperfections in your finish, and tend to look very 'Factory" as well, while no peel gloss finishes look very 'Custom'. Paint peels can be manipulated from heavy to mild, by the painter as he can use differant application techniques when spraying the clearcoat on. Ask your painter about doing a reflow job on the clearcoat. It will cost you more money to do this, but it does produce excellent results. Reflow involves letting the main body of clear done on the first shoot cure, and then sanding back to a flat, no peel finish, then spraying another two light to medium wet coats of clear on where the clear flows out to a peel free full gloss finish off the gun. Done properly, it can look a real knockout for a finish. Extra cost is always the thing though, i guess.
Also, in regard paint edges and touch ups, it must be considered that if you accidently damage say the hokey stripe on your front door for example, and you want to refinish that white hokey stripe, you could carefully mask off the hokey stripe only and paint it with the white pearl, and then clearcoat as well to finish off. But that would then leave a raised paint edge where it meets the existing black pearl. The only way around that problem, would be to scour pad the whole front door down, mask up the white pearl stripe, spray with basecoat white pearl,unmask stripe, and then proceed to spraypaint the whole front door with two to three coats of clean clearcoat.That process gets you back to a edgeless color change.This senario holds true for any place on your car where white meets black or black meets white, and you're chasing an edgeless color transition.
Lastly, make sure your painter uses a good quality brand of paint, and sticks to that brand from the primer to the topcoat.Mixing brands can leed to paint breakdown issues and trouble down the track.I like PPG myself at the moment as a good brand, but i'm sure there are others.Keep as much basecoat paint as you can from the job as it becomes invaluable for future touch ups if needed.Don't forget to keep your car out of the sun as much as possible, as the UV radiation will destroy the life of the finish much faster than if kept garaged.I would also avoid using water based basecoats, as they are harder to work with in general, and don't offer the same durability as the solvent basecoats do. But that's anonther bedtime story in itself!
Best of luck with the whole thing,and you get a great job with a top look you're happy with!
Hope that helps John,
Greg.
- (Pro Spraypainter)
BTW - Quote; - I wanted to get any thoughts or comments here from all my enthusiast experts - - - Thanks John, i like that - it makes me feel important!
Maybe something like this??
