Painting your car by matching it to your 50 year old hood springs???

[70ChargerRT]

But even before the factories started with clear coats in the 1980s, it was common for custom paint jobs in lacquer to have clear sprayed on as a top coat. I have paint books from the early '70s talking about it. Back in 1975 a guy at work took his Monte Carlo to a paint shop and for $50 they coated his car in clear lacquer over the factory paint. It did look pretty reflective.

For lacquer my boys original paint 83 Monte still looks good pretty good.

 

[YY1]

OK @JC Boatguy

What do you disagree with?

 

[JC Boatguy]

OK @JC Boatguy

What do you disagree with?

Do'h!!! FAT FINGER!!! I Don't know ANYTHING about paint...so sorry.

 

[33 IMP]

Do'h!!! FAT FINGER!!! I Don't know ANYTHING about paint...so sorry.

No worries, happens to the best of us. Me too! (LOL).

 

[1danc]

Apples & Oranges - old days the flake was buried in the color ! BC/CC your laying that flake @ multiple directions on top of and in the color depending on the reducer/temp/humidity, that flake can end up drying laying up on top or float down into the color ? ( flop is 1 way we describe it ) then the clear shows it reflecting all the different angles, much enhanced - it can really mess with you, it changes the color very easily, took me years of experience blending into an adjacent panel - and sometimes they will have 6 or 7 alternatives in the mixing formulas to help you get close, the optical scanner is not always the answer because the light bounces off the flake @ different directions or the mix has multiple color flake ! Certain colors are more variable, Silvers & Lt.Blues can test your patience, if the flop is off even a little, you're not dealing with much heavy pigment and it's critical to lay the flake in the same pattern ! Air pressure and how you thin the paint, the gun ? It isn't as easy as 1 might think - Back in the day, they didn't have computers painting the cars , 4 cars w/same code could look different, maybe even a batch ran out and started a new drum ? A friend painted cars @ a factory and there were guys full time just on redoing damaged or unacceptable areas that needed re-paint before they got off the property ! Been there late for redo work in my shop , I learned so much from mixing my own paint after awhile and people who helped me years ago / i fell in love with cars as a kid and there's real satisfaction in doing a good paint job, from the ground up it has to be correct - with the price of materials and the time involved, if you have a good body tech - appreciate it - and that's only the topcoat ! 90% of a quality job is preparation ( I use PPG , did my '65 Coronet in DAU 2K single stage / 2K clear after 1200 wet sand ) NO FLAKE !!!

 

[70ChargerRT]

Apples & Oranges - old days the flake was buried in the color ! BC/CC your laying that flake @ multiple directions on top of and in the color depending on the reducer/temp/humidity, that flake can end up drying laying up on top or float down into the color ? ( flop is 1 way we describe it ) then the clear shows it reflecting all the different angles, much enhanced - it can really mess with you, it changes the color very easily, took me years of experience blending into an adjacent panel - and sometimes they will have 6 or 7 alternatives in the mixing formulas to help you get close, the optical scanner is not always the answer because the light bounces off the flake @ different directions or the mix has multiple color flake ! Certain colors are more variable, Silvers & Lt.Blues can test your patience, if the flop is off even a little, you're not dealing with much heavy pigment and it's critical to lay the flake in the same pattern ! Air pressure and how you thin the paint, the gun ? It isn't as easy as 1 might think - Back in the day, they didn't have computers painting the cars , 4 cars w/same code could look different, maybe even a batch ran out and started a new drum ? A friend painted cars @ a factory and there were guys full time just on redoing damaged or unacceptable areas that needed re-paint before they got off the property ! Been there late for redo work in my shop , I learned so much from mixing my own paint after awhile and people who helped me years ago / i fell in love with cars as a kid and there's real satisfaction in doing a good paint job, from the ground up it has to be correct - with the price of materials and the time involved, if you have a good body tech - appreciate it - and that's only the topcoat ! 90% of a quality job is preparation ( I use PPG , did my '65 Coronet in DAU 2K single stage / 2K clear after 1200 wet sand ) NO FLAKE !!!

That’s good good info. Do you have a controlled temp/humidity paint booth?

 

[1danc]

That’s good good info. Do you have a controlled temp/humidity paint booth?

You can control the environment - but the point I was getting at is you can change how the paint or flakes lay down on the panels by speeding up or slowing down your mix using the correct reducer for the temperature you're spraying in , if it dries too slow you can have flakes sagging just like a run in any paint - too fast , they're laying on top like sandpaper , you want to find the happy medium and be prepared to make adjustments on the fly if it's not right when you start spraying - that's not the time you want to be running around looking for accelerate or retarder , or you are like me , painting in the middle of the night so I don't get interrupted - paint store isn't open ! Ha !