The Most Expensive Paint I've Ever Seen ...

[randroid]

... and I own some.

 

Gents,

 

Due to abnormally large amounts of rain, undependable helpers, and personal sloth I haven't been able to get Pigiron out from under her tarp all month but that has gotten me onto inside stuff that needs to be done anyway, and today's project was to get the instrument cluster cleaned, painted, and reassembled.  The inside of the cluster housing was originally painted flat black to avoid the over-powering glare generated by the several two-candle-power bulbs and some of the paint had come of while I was cleaning it.  (You can cook a turkey in a dishwasher too; I saw it on Red Green.)  So off I went to a local NASCAR fan store because they sold model cars and surely they would have a bottle of Testor's around, but they said that all of the permits and safety laws surrounding paint made it almost impossible for them to sell it so they didn't bother because the models they sold were pre-painted anyway.  I eventually found some at Hobby Lobby which they were happy to sell to me because they're Hobby Lobby.

 

A 1/4 oz. bottle for $1.59 got me to thinking that maybe I could get some cheaper if I were to drive five miles one way to Wally World but we're talking saving maybe a nickle at best so I sucked it up and bought the jar, but I still was thinking about the price and here's what I came up with:

 

1/4 oz. times four = one oz. @ $6.36.

128 oz. = one gallon @ $814.08

 

This is flat black enamel, boys and girls, and it doesn't ever do anything clever like change colors when you go around a corner nor does it glow in the dark; it was flat black when it left the factory and it remains flat black to this day, and it does so at $814.08 per gallon US money plus tax.

 

Lord, it's no wonder I never get squat done on that car! Maybe I'll put the remaining few grams on ebay and sell it for enough to pay for new upholstery.

 

-Randy

[Young Ed]

Are you painting the background of the numbers for the speedometer? If so you can take it apart and respray the entire piece. Same for the gauges themselves. I thought I had a picture of it but I can't find it. I could take another if you'd like.

[Plymouthy Adams]

Testor's...sound like what a cartel may do with their product..

[Merle Coggins]

Back in the late 90's I repainted my '84 Gold Wing with DuPont's Chroma-Lusion 'Pure Fire Prism' paint. The paint alone cost $270 per pint, and I needed 2 pints to paint the bike. Of course you need activators and reducers to go with that. My total, including primers and related coatings, came to around $900 for a quart's worth of color.

Edited July 31, 2013 by Merle Coggins

[randroid]

Ed:  I can't find an exploded view in the manual so I can't give you the exact name but it's the outer-most bezel, the one with chrome on one face and flat black paint on the other. It is held by tabs to its inner counterpart and the glass is sandwiched between the two. Too many openings I'd need to tape to make spraying a practical option.

 

Tim:  No, but it smells just the same.

 

Merle: I hand the crown of over-spending on paint to you, and do so humbly. Then I snatch that crown right back because your results can at least be seen and not be hidden forever.  Now I pass the crown back once again because I probably could have done the same job with a magic marker and nobody should be rewarded for stupidity.

 

-Randy

[Don Coatney]

This might or might not help.

 

 

 

 

[Dave72dt]

I did my brother's '88 Gold Wing in House of Color Kameleon in the early 2000's for about the same price as Merle's.  At that time, ChromIllusion was about a hundred bucks a quart higher than House of Color.  Local store wanted about 670 a qt at the time for the Dupont.  I've seen a semi tractor painted with it and just recently, a Gen 3 Camaro although I have no idea how recently the Camaro was done.