Choosing the colour

[Fireball]

You guys who have painted, or are about to, do you find it easy to select the colour? I'm always struggling big time with that, there's just too many options to choose from. Henry had it easier with model T.

My bodywork is done or at least I think so. I have painted couple of cars, but this time after so massive sheetmetal job I decided to let a pro shoot my car. He promised to come by my garage tomorrow and give an estimate. That tomorrow took 5 weeks to come, and yesterday he showed up. He said prep is fine, he could do it, but the car doesn't fit into his booth. There I just lost over a month for nothing. That point I had the color chosen, after changing it like five times though.

Well, since I'm well aware how much the real painters cost especially when they don't really want the job, I decided to once again to do it myself. Obviously it ment again that the colour needed to be changed once more. I doubt three layer pearl would have succeeded in my garage.

I gave myself three hours to decide the new looks. I asked wifes opinion, she wanted mint green. i asked my four year old son and he said green with green flames, ok some kind of green you'll get, but what tone actually. Surfed the net, and then I remembered one build that had a huge influence on my hobby as a kid, Bob Hirohatas Mercury, now that looks good. Zap, it's seafoam green as they call it. This morning I ran into paint supply store before I start doubting my choice, and bought the paint.

I will this time shoot it panel by panel, trying to minimize the time I have to spend in fumes, and it also helps with dust and particles problem when I'm not moving around there so long. I bought single stage acrylic enamel. Cheap, easy to spray, good to wetsand and polish for the final touch. Hopefully tomorrow I can start with doorposts and underhood, -lid etc.

The best part according to my family is that the remaining money is used to get us all to Disneyworld this winter. Daddy gets to see the NHRA Gatornationals that happen to be at the same time, what a coinsidence:D

Does anybody else like the seafoam green, or am I alone with that? I think it'll nicely serve those bubbly lines of my business coupe.

[Young Ed]

Thats the color I plan for my 51 if I ever get enough welded back onto it for paint. Thats the factory color for that car.

[Fireball]

Yeah Ed, if my car was stock in appearance, I would have painted with original color also. But with the customized look an custom colour wouldn't hurt. That (too much for me) widens the applicable stuff...

Gloss or satin?

Metallic, pearl, candy or pure color?

Light or dark?

Some pattern of flames, scallops or without?

Two tone maybe?

And then the bodywork, do it right or paint it white:p I would have loved black also but do not trust my prep skills enough. Doing straight surfaces ain't that bad, but these curvy big a**es on these kinda scare me. Light colours forgive more.

[hkestes41]

Fireball I have to say that I loved the orange you had. However, I think the Seafoam will look good as well but it will obviously be a different feel to the car compared to the orange.

Good luck with your paint and you better get to spraying before the cold weather hits.

[Fireball]

hkestes I liked it too, but since I'm such a continuous change type of guy I wanted something different. I felt it boring to overspray twice with same color. And with all new drivetrain and upholstery, a new color will perhaps make it feel like totally new car. There's nothing left of the old build, byy-hyy.

You nailed it with the weather, nights here are already reaching chilly temps, today I had to turn on the heater in garage.

[normanpitkin]

seafoam is a wonderful colour,perhaps even two toned with a darker green roof ,cadillac had a beautiful version of this combo in the forties ,dark green, almost black, leather tuck and roll........wide firestones and perhaps a sunvisor.

[Fireball]

I've seen those combos norman, and it really looks awesome. But I'm not sure how it would look over the 3-window top. Maybe it's time for some photoshopping, anyone?

Wide whites are there, visor is there, and the tuck'n'roll is coming. All black.

[claybill]

seafoam is MY color...1941 ply coupe, WWW, and it is a knockout..a show stopper!

actual color is from a taurus or 90's windstar...it has a touch of metallic/pearl? in it...it contours the rund lines of the coupe like nothing else!! DO IT!

bill

[anthonyb]

Fireball,

Here's my 41 sedan in the Seafoam and medium green metallic (GM color). I would think this color combo would look pretty good in the layout you showed.

[Joe Flanagan]

Amazing that this thread should come up because I am painting my car seafoam green. I have been going through this very same dilemma over the past few days. I love the color. To me it's very much associated with the 40s and 50s (probably more the 50s). The original color of my car was something called Kitchener green. It's a darkish green, almost olive. It was OK but it lacked something. I wanted to have something fun but which made a nod to the original color. I figured that with the curves and bulges on this car, it would be great to have something that would pop. So I was going through the Home Depot one day and I went past the paint and I found a color called "sugared lime." It was one of those paper card things with a color on it. I also picked up about twenty other shades of light green. My wife and daughters picked out the sugared lime right away, so I thought, "That's it."

The only problem was, my paint guy said he couldn't mix it. He tried scanning it and came up with a mucus green-yellow color. "That's what the computer says," he tells me. He didn't want to try any tinkering with the color because the computer told him and that was that.

So I took it to another place and he did it by the seat of his pants. Very, very close to what I was looking for but a hair darker and richer. Yesterday I shot one fender and said, "Oh, my God, I made a mistake." It was electric green, neon green, dayglo green. Then once it started to flash off, it got a lot more muted and mint-like. Closer to seafoam. I like it but it depends what kind of light it's sitting in. Out in the natural light, it's a lot like the vintage green you see so much from that era. Under halogens, forget it. The paint just glows like there's radium in it. I'm sticking with it, though. I think it's one of those colors people will either be crazy about or they'll hate.

Fireball, I'm doing the same as you, painting in pieces. I think you can't really tell what it's going to look like until you see the color on something big. I was inspired by some of the colors on the new Volkswagen Beetles. They almost look like the old lacquers. I love the primary colors, the pastels, and the fact that they've chosen not to use metallics.

But it's amazing you are considering the same thing. I love the picture of that Mercury. I'll post pics tomorrow once I get some more painting done.

[BobT-47P15]

Here's the color on a 40 Ford coupe.

On a 53 Chevy.

Danelectro guitar.........

[Joe Flanagan]

Mine is much more along the lines of a mint green. I'll post pics soon.

[1955 plymouth]

seafoam, seacrest, sea swirl?it is a green '50 Deluxe and here are a few pics of my car painted green, the original color, re-paint once. check it out. the last one has the '52 Chev along with it, we say it is "cherry":p

[Fireball]

Perfecto, thanks guys. All the examples shown make me feel secure with my decision. Especially that '40 Ford by Bob which is so close as it ever gets. Waiting to see Joes pics, now to garage and start spraying.

[1948mando]

This is my 47 Chevy Fleetmaster not a sea foam green but a green I get allot of compliments on this color

[David Maxwell]

I can totally understand the compliments. That is a classic color combination that is really set off well by both the white wall tires and the chrome. Beautiful car!!!

Perfecto, thanks guys. All the examples shown make me feel secure with my decision. Especially that '40 Ford by Bob which is so close as it ever gets. Waiting to see Joes pics, now to garage and start spraying.

[RobertKB]

seafoam, seacrest, sea swirl?it is a green '50 Deluxe and here are a few pics of my car painted green, the original color, re-paint once. check it out. the last one has the '52 Chev along with it, we say it is "cherry":p

I love the colour of green on your '50 Plymouth. I would love to do an early '50's Mopar that colour.

[rolliejoe]

'55 you color looks real familiar, did you do the repaint?

Edited September 12, 2009 by rolliejoe

[Joe Flanagan]

Rollie,

That's my color. Or the original color of my car, anyway. Very same thing. Man, I'm all excited now. I can't wait to get back out there. Temps have dropped here in northern Virginia to the 70s, so I have to get the correct reducer for my paint. I'd been painting in the upper 80s and using the reducer for hot weather. As luck would have it, my wife is painting the front stoop leading into the kitchen and I have to replace a rotted handrail. I'll be doing both car and stoop today, running from one to the other and back again.

[Fireball]

uuh busy day. I painted the car, setup an show and collected the prizes.

Here she is:D Naah, some helpful fellow over HAMB photoshopped it for me to ease the decision whether I should paint the roof in different tone or not. I'm keeping it in one colour.

I did shoot the doorjambs and under trunk lid and hood, tomorrow it's time for hood and trunk from the showside

[Joe Flanagan]

Update on my color dilemma: I decided this morning I didn't like it enough. I discovered I wasn't looking at it and saying to myself, "I love that color." I was looking at it and saying, "Do I like that color?" So I decided to change it. I took the green down to a jobber and they gave me a little black to mix with it. It scales back the day-glo effect quite a bit. BUT if I mix the black in and don't have enough paint to finish the job, I'll have to have more mixed and I don't know if they'll be able to match this seat-of-your-pants color. Anyone have any experience with this? It's PPG's Deltron basecoat.

[Fireball]

If they add the black by weight, and you have the original formula then yes. Other option is scanning the already done surface and let the computer do the job. I once spot repaired an '63 Impala metallic red, then they mixed the colour by scanning the gas filler lid since I had no clue of the origin, I was my mouth open how close it came out.

You did the right thing Joe starting all over if the tone feels mmmh and maybe

[Joe Flanagan]

OK, Fireball, here's my color. I mixed in some black until it looked right to me and then shot it. It's much more subdued and more along the lines of what I was looking for. I sanded off the other paint because I didn't want too much thickness on the surface. That was a pain in the neck. I resorted to a random orbital sander which I don't like doing because it's a little aggressive in my opinion. I had to guide coat and block again to make sure I hadn't introduced any waves, which I did. Anyway, the trunk lid on the right has the first version of green. I don't think you can see it very well in the pictures, but it was just way too bright, almost like dayglo.

The fender on the left is the new version. It's been scaled back with black paint in the mix and is much closer to the color I was looking for. Again, I don't know if you can see a difference in the pics but it's much better.

[Fireball]

Pics don't tell the difference, but it sounds real good now, the most important thing is that you like it Joe. Keep up the good work sir!

[1955 plymouth]

'55 you color looks real familiar, did you do the repaint?

This is how I purchased the car, I am happy with the color, took the car to a show today and was surprized at how many Mopars were in attendance.

Edited September 14, 2009 by 1955 plymouth
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