So you want to restore cars to make a little money....

We are (were) just about finished with a complete frame off on a numbers matching, 70 GS 455. Diplomat Blue, black vinyl top, blue interior, at, ac, pretty good car to begin with. Have done all the work inside under the fluorescents. Rolled it outside in the sun yesterday and the panels don't match. We painted it separately like we did my car. No problem on mine, big problem on this one. @!##&*^

 

Emphasis on the word "little'?

 

Whenever i restore a car, I order 2 gallons of color, and 2 empty gallon cans. I pour them together and eliminate any problems that can occur to eliminate this situation. The cost of a few empty cans, and buying all the color at once is cheap insurance. You can't assume the color will be mixed exactly the same everytime. Ask me how i know ..........

 

Actually it takes 1 hour with commercials. All parts are donated and magically appear .

 

When you paint parts off the car they MUST be positioned as the would on the car. That is you can not lay a door on a table face up and paint it. It will never match even if you spray from the same mixed cup of paint. This is 10 times more important when painting metallics.

 

very interesting .. I've never painted a thing but have read tons of resto articles in the 25+ years as a car guy. I've never heard of this before but it makes perfect sense

... thanks for posting. The mixing 2 gallons of paint together is also a good tip and something I learned when I bought the house and first painted it

 

Painting panels in the assembled position does seem logical, or at least painting all panels in the same orientation if they will be side by side such as a door and fender. I guess my poor dad has just gotten lucky for the last 35 years since he paints the fenders and doors lying flat and then paints the body in it's normal position or slightly rotated since it is on a rotisserie. Thankfully the paint seems to match on his car even though every panel was painted on a different day and in various orientations.

 

I've had this happen to me... Though on a much smaller scale. I painted a 1/18 ertl to match my car. Body painted in normal position. Doors painted hung by the hinge. Hood painted hung by the hinge. When dried and assembled it looked like three different silvers.

Metallics settle as they dry. If they settle in different orientations the light is reflected differently and hence the different hues/shades.

Watching the guys on tv the car is always painted with panels lightly assembled for this reason.

 

100% Correct. Including air pressure Humidity ect ect..

Ken Maisano
Mascar Autobody

 

GM painted the body separately from the front end, so they're not supposed to exactly match!
But yeah, paint mix, panel orientation, air pressure, technique, and even temperature and humidity can effect the outcome of the paint....especially with metallics.

 

Silver is the hardest color (or lack of color) to paint.

 

And Diplomat is about as course metallic as there is . Humidity ect like Ken says .

DL

 

You forgot "motorhome"...

 

1A- Women

 

Now that's funny

 

i would say to some degree he has been a little lucky , but also i would say that the panels probably do not match perfectly . someone with a trained eye would be able to see a variation in the panels , when you lay a panel down the metallic flake will lay flatter causing the color to be a little flatter in the face and darker on the flop as opposed to a vertical panel wich would be coarser in the face and brighter on the angle or flop ...If you were to stand on the side of the car and look down the side from an angle you would see the difference in the flake . But thats just something i would notice having been a painter and master color tinter for 20yrs , the average joe would never see that

 

20 years impressive . George has 40 years .. #eggonyourface.


DL

 

40 yrs of doing it wrong or 20 yrs of doing it right. ? No need for egg on anyones faces, just keep an open mind and be willing to learn something.