Technical Can paint jobs be too beautiful ?

Moriarity's quote may become my new tag line! The best trophies your car can earn are rock chips, road rash and dead bugs. I know my shiny paint custom has all three.

 

The smile says it all…it is black, new, powerful and all paid for by me…James Nak…

Hello,

We had seen plenty of cool paint jobs on custom cars. The first custom truck in our neighborhood had a wonderful bright Tahitian Red or Candy Apple color paint that was so deep and shiny that everyone enjoyed it daily as we all walked by the custom truck and the owner’s shop in the Westside of Long Beach.

I called it Tahitian Red, as it looked like the same color we saw on some coupes in the various hot rod/custom car magazines and car shows. Others called it Candy Apple Red as they are similar, depending on the painter and quality of the paint.

But a stock Chevy black paint job that was so deep as new was definitely an eye opener. It was our first all black car. Well, our dad did have a 49 black Buick Roadmaster sedan, but it was not a custom hot rod or we were too young to notice, other than it was huge in the backseat area and a giant car for us.

“there is nothing about nice paint that makes a car undriveable....” @Moriarity

Jnaki

So, yes, the black paint was beautiful and it took plenty of coats of wax with clean cotton cloths to make sure the paint shined and did not leave swirls when finished. We had a stock pile of soft, white cotton cloths for applications and wiping off when dry. When one cloth got loaded up with the wax, it was set aside and a new clean cloth was used on a different area of application. The same for wiping off the dried wax. It loads up with old wax and needs to be exchanged for a clean one, so as not to leave swirls on the black paint.

Black obviously leaves more deep color areas to show swirls and blems from everyday weather. It was a difficult and time consuming job to keep it pristine for the time we both owned it. The fall of 57 was my first attempt with my brother’s chosen wax (Vista Wax and Cadillac Blue Coral)and a ton of clean white cotton towels. Now, it was up to me to keep black paint pristine. So, over the years of getting rides to actually driving the Impala, I was noted for my outstanding upkeep of the shiny black paint and exact detailing, including a toothbrush to get the dried wax out of the fine hidden edges.

Then by the time I sold the 58 Impala 8 years later, the black paint had some swirls, but the deep paint was enhanced with the latest Classic Car Wax for protection and deep shine. I was still a stickler for using many clean white cotton towels when noticed the “loading up” of the applied wax. That still worked throughout all of our car ownerships.

Note: not only was it fast at the Lion’s Dragstrip competition races when we were heavily involved, but the next step was being a tow vehicle and parts chaser for our 40 Willys 671 SBC coupe build and racing activities.

A final version of our pristine black Impala…thanks, @themoose

All the while, the black paint was still pristine and show quality. Taking specific care was necessary and it paid off in nice comments and notoriety, from 1957 to 1965. Through varied road trips, weather conditions, and the dreaded “salt” air areas of coastal So Cal, the wax jobs held up and it looked brand new when sold to the next round of teenage cruising/racing in Long Beach.

Currently, black is not our favorite color, although one car my wife bought was black. The latest Carnuba Wax from Colonite was used carefully and it worked to keep the Black paint “like new.” I had to take special care to keep that deep black paint pristine until we sold it for our next long line of Pearl White, Silver, and Grey cars, to this day. Once…twice… was enough… for sure. YRMV

 

Jnaki that is a beautiful car.
Dan

 

“there is nothing about nice paint that makes a car undriveable....” @Moriarity

4000 mi round trip.. killed a zillion bugs & got a few rock chips as well - proud of every one of them!
Photo by drdave (thanks Doc!):


-Dave

 

I have felt that way for years. I have never liked the base coat/clear where the clear is a foot deep. I doesn't look like the old lacquer jobs. In my book old cars should look like old cars including the peariod coreect paint. just my op

 

Nobody has EVER accused me of doing a "too beautiful paint job".
Just about every hot rod I've built in the last few decades has been painted with Valspar Semi Flat/John Deere Blitz Black. Besides the obvious cost savings (under $200 in materials), I've always just preferred that low maintenance primer look.

 

This custom 40 Ford got the paint just right, anybody have a guess as to what the color is? It's a beauty.

 

I knew a painter who would scratch his cars in a location hard to see, touch it up. Always said I get first scratch, then others are nothing.

 

Can your paint be too beautiful? NO. For that matter can anything be to beautiful? Not really. If you enjoy a mega dollar paint job, or like a trailered show car, that's cool. I can't afford that, and I like driving them much more. My Hot Rods have never been judged by anyone but me. But like they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

 

Actually Ron, everyone of your cars gets judged. We all look at other peoples cars and judge them, and sometimes we even issue an award by acknowledging that we really like the car. Sometimes it's the acknowledgement when someone asks you to stop so they can just get a picture of your car. Personally I find that kind of award much more desirable than trying to jump thru hoops and hurdles to meet the standards dictated by some organization. It's pure and unfettered and unsolicited recognition given for no reason other than to show appreciation of how you did something.

 

Well, the Bell Roadster's paint is probably "too good" because you can clearly see how ugly my brother and I are. We went into the Suede Palace at the GNRS last year and dayum. That paint was so deep I couln't help but take a mirror picture. Fun day. In looking through the photos posted elsewhere it's amazing how many gray haired mofos were there wearing black shirts and Levi's. I admire the perfect paint jobs but haven't owned or laid down any.

 

WOW
Dan

 

El Camino in my avatar. Twelve coats of rubbed out black lacquer. Got to go back to college and it just wasn't the right car for college parking lots. The reason for my break in enrollment is standing next to it.

 

(PS: Great Pic)

Anybody have any idea how many awards were given out at the GNRS show. I was surprised at the number. Here is a list from the 2023 show.......... How many judges do they have?

rodshows.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/2023-Grand-National-Roadster-Show-Results.pdf

 

This is why I love lacquer. One of my first truly fun cars was an OT black Challenger. Being young, I hand rubbed every coat of black lacquer we laid down on the car. Every coat of black and every coat of clear. The car looked like it was always wet. But, as much as I tried to be very protective of the paint, the car was driven hard. But when I was young, it was just a car and I could rebuild it or repaint it. If I put that much time and effort into a paint job today, I'm not sure I would drive the car hard nor do half the things we did with and to that car. When I sold the car after joining the Army, it still looked good, but nowhere near as perfect as it did after we finished the paint the first time. The fun had in that car, helped me to realize that no matter how nice the car looks, it's still a car and the fun is in driving them. I wouldn't want one with perfect paint for fear of tainting the fun. Remember that first ding in a new car or new paint job. It hurts, but to what lengths would you go to avoid that hurt? And how much fun would you skip to prevent it?

 

This is a nice car and you take extremely good care of everything you own..........

I don't consider this to be an extreme gloss paint job though. People will look at it and like it, but they will also notice other features about it, especially if you have the hood up.
But think about it like this..........if you believe that no paint job should keep a car from being driven regularly...........then why don't all of your cars get driven regularly? You have some beautiful cars, but I think that most of them either don't get driven, or driven very much because they are more show oriented . I still believe that many people drive their cars sparingly because they don't want to risk hurting the paint or its luster. I'm simply arguing the view that many people have pictured a beautiful car as their lifelong dream, and when they get to that point they cannot enjoy it. Maybe they might want to think about the enjoyment of driving their vehicle and not having a spectacular paint to worry about. I'm not trying to be negative, just pointing out that when someone builds a car, they should enjoy it. If showing it in real car shows is what they want.....thats great for those people. But if someone is the type of person who wants to enjoy driving as much as weather permits, then they might want to think about whether they want to emulate full on show cars....or not. I consider it to be two "positive" choices.

 

Sure does!!

 

I can appreciate a beautiful slick paint job and have had a few cars in the past that had presentable finishes but as we all know building hot rods is not as cheap as it use to be, In my case I love driving my Deuce still sporting the last paint job from 1962 and it's really showing it's age, I have considered shooting it with Kirker semi-gloss black but I just don't want to take the car apart.

It makes me happy just as it sets. HRP

 

I like nice paint. There is a difference in top tier show quality paint and top tier going to use the car paint. Both have great shine and attention to detail, but to show the difference, I will post two photos from this thread. This is not intended to slight either of these cars nor their intended use as I don't know what the current owners of either plan to do with them. But, anyone that knows anything about paint can tell you how much more labor went into the show only paint and prep as opposed to the amazing but going to be used paint.
As posted, this car is driven. And it looks amazing. However, look at the reflections in the body panels versus the bumper. Notice the slight distortions in the reflections on the body panels. They are not perfectly flat nor perfectly rounded, this could be age, or flex from being driven, or any number of root causes but they are there. The car does appear to be extremely well done and I'd love to have that quality on any of my drivers.

This is a show car finish. Notice the paint looks like a mirror and there is no visible distortion in the picture. I don't know if the owner of the show car plans to drive it, but the cost to get that level of detail is way more than the extremely well done done driver. To give paint depth is one thing, to give it mirror like reflections takes countless hours of preparation and detailing. The question implied by the OP was if you shelled out the bucks for this level of paint, is it too much to consider driving it? Is it too beautiful to take it down the road and risk flex and distortion or road rash?

 

This is Cheetah number 1, owned by Brit Duncan Pittaway. It is the real deal and worth a LOT of money. He knew how he wanted to drive the car and so he spent around 1,000 pounds getting this paint on it. He has a TON of fun with the car. Different strokes for different folks!

 

Exactly what I was trying to get said....but you did it better. Notice that it's sitting in a "gravel" parking area and most likely had to drive on some gravel to get there......but enjoying driving it apparently. The Historic license plate says New Jersey and I think the KKOA is in Kansas as far as I know.

 

This 50 Olds was painted in '96, and cut and buffed a week later, never waxed. I live on a short gravel road, and the longer it sat in my garage untouched, I couldn't bring myself to finish it, because of the paint. I longed for the days, of my '49 fastback, that my brother Jerry painted outside in 1965.

 

If You Are Uncomfortable With A Nice Paint Job Then Just Leave It Outside...Problem Solved...

 

I'm in the no such thing as paint too nice to drive. The average economy bucket sold new today has paint hot rodders would have called to nice to drive twenty years ago. Paint is paint. It can be repaired if needed or redone if a type that doesn't look right blended. And a wild paint job can hide flaws. One thing I remember reading years ago was that the psychedelic paint jobs of the sixties grew out of the factory supplied drag cars. Like the ones with ultralight aluminum panels. Stuff like the areas around the door handles would start to sink in from use and being weaker than the normal steel. So they'd do crazy paint jobs to disguise it

 

(Sorry, hit the "click to expand)

 

"If you want to be happy for the rest of your life,
never make a pretty woman your wife"
Perhaps it works with cars too.

I wouldn't know. I married a beautiful woman and drive beautiful cars, and I am very happy.

 

Not if I paint one, it isn't...

 

I respect their decision for that type of very high end paint job but I always gravitate towards the stock type (or less) paint job. Something I can see myself owning or driving. I even like primer at times. It allows me to look at that car or truck and allow my mind to apply the color I would want if it were mine.