Car Paint

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JohnBM01

JohnBM01

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Anyone who may have played Gran Turismo 3 may have seen varying types of car colors for the cars. Colors range from the normal pearlescents, the sugar-sweet metallics, and the candy-sweet "candy" colors. Personally, the metallic and candy colors are my favorites. But anyone who may have seen the TVR Tuscan and Speed 12 in the game know that they are... well, special. They have color-shifting paints. The most colorful color-shifting paint is the "Reflex Spice" color in the game. This thread is open for discussion about how they work, your favorite paint colors, how they are made, or anything related to this. So reply now, GTPlanet.
 
Some German company has come up with a paint that is almost chrome in appearance. Not cheap though at about $5000 AUD a litre!
 
I think paint companies should focus their efforts on paint durability.
I'm sure each and everyone of us that owns a car, would love to see a few less chips, dings and scratches. No matter how hard we try, and no matter how much some may not want to admit it, all of us have a chip, or scratch that we would love to see disappear.

I live in a climate that experiences winter conditions 6 to 7 months of the year. To combat the winter, road crews love to use sand, salt, magnesium chloride and gravel to maintain the roads. These conditions wreak absolute havoc on a cars paint. There isn't a car up here that has escaped the ravages of the road. Wether someone drives a Honda, or a $75,000 SUV, each car and it's owner would love to have a more durable paint.

I'm sure conversely, (as vat_man has mentioned before) that a cars paint, especially blacks and reds, are torn apart by the sun in the warmer climates.

My car for example, (although Lexus is notorious for it's soft paint) has areas of it where all the paint has been chipped off. My car is black, and there are large white spots, about the size of a fist, near the rear wheels where rocks come up from the road and mercilessly rip the paint off the car.

If I could turn back time, I would have had my whole car covered in that 3M clear bra material. And I mean the whole damn thing.

I would definately trade some of a paints shine and luster for some added durability.
 
If that Skyline in Pimp Racer's picture in that page was silver and not black, that car would be a mirror! A mirror running 30-50 mph. Don't even try that at Le Mans or any other hardcore racing. Speakng of which, on an old episode of SPEED Channel's "Hi-Rev Tuners," it featured a Honda Civic that, get this, makes a good chalkboard! The paint was so much like a chalkboard that if kids wanted to do math problems on it, it could. This wasn't even close to bling. It's a chalkboard a teacher can go math problems with by takiing his/her kids out to the parking lot for a school lesson.

But never got the "pearl" and "Metallic" down. I don't know if pearls were ever meant to be shiny. I'm surprised there isn't any "diamondescent" colors, where a color juist SPARKLES in the sun. But then, it would be as illegal as driving a car with horrible emissions.
 
I hate the color-changing paint. It looks dumb on everything. It's like the owner couldn't decide on a color so he has to have several.

Ohh and I like Lapis Blue and Lava Orange, both metallic, and both look great.
 
Lectra Finish is the newest technology in paints. We bought some in the body shop I work at and tried it out on some test panels. You spray a base color, whatever you wish, and after it cures, you apply a coating of this liquid like syrupy solution to the surface and let it dry. After it dries over a period of 10 minutes it caused the paint to crystalize. After this takes place you shoot on another coat of a difference color. After the whole panel has cured you take soap and water and scrub the panel. The Lectra Finish that crystalizes the base coat is an adhesion demoter, causing the top coat of paint to not adhear to the crystals. The soap and water will scrub off the top coat off the crystals causing the crystals to be a different color than the base coat, making them jump out of the paint at you making a 3D affect.
Check it all out...
www.lectrafinish.com
 
The paint on my Jeep is awesome. I don't care for the color much, but it looks new even thought the vehicle is six years old. I'm amazed every time I wash it at how shiny it is. And only a few minor scratches and dings, too. And in AZ it doesn't matter because nothing rusts here.
 
Originally posted by JohnBM01
Speakng of which, on an old episode of SPEED Channel's "Hi-Rev Tuners," it featured a Honda Civic that, get this, makes a good chalkboard!
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:lol: i saw that i was like WTF has this guy been thinking. But it was cool in a way.
 
Originally posted by milefile
The paint on my Jeep is awesome. I don't care for the color much, but it looks new even thought the vehicle is six years old. I'm amazed every time I wash it at how shiny it is. And only a few minor scratches and dings, too. And in AZ it doesn't matter because nothing rusts here.
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My 16 year old Sunrise Red paint looked new after I waxed it. Ofcourse it doesn't last, I park under trees on the driveway and birds and stuff. Still looks great once all the pollen and stuff is wiped off.
Like this:
wax.jpg


Before the waxing renessiance I've begun on the 323, it went years without waxing(sometimes washing too) leaving the paint a pinkish color and felt like sand paper. Ofcourse my brother is probably the best with waxing. When he use to have the time, he'd wax the MX-6 all the time and it looked spectacular. The 323 looks great too.
The stuff I used is this Diamond Luster. Liquid stuff, just put it on 1 rag, wipe it on the car, and take it off with another rag. No waiting time, no nothing. Instant shine and color improvement. I should have taken a pic of half the hood waxed and half left to show the difference.
 
Originally posted by SPD_RCR
i have a lancer evo V and its paint color is Nayes Blue its my fav color
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Uhhhh, yeah. Standard backup request:

Make a hand lettered sign saying "Hello GT Planet" in big, fat marker. Prop it up on the car somewhere, take a picture, and post it here.

Then we'll believe you.
 
don't these extremely fancy paint jobs add a lot of weight to a car? I mean, they use up to and over 30 coats of paint to get some of the gorgeous pearlescent paint jobs you see on cars like TVRs...
 
Nope. Dried paint just isn't that heavy.

Unless you're talking huge quantities: the paint alone on a C5 Galaxy weighs more than a Piper Cub.
 
Originally posted by boombexus
My car for example, (although Lexus is notorious for it's soft paint) has areas of it where all the paint has been chipped off. My car is black, and there are large white spots, about the size of a fist, near the rear wheels where rocks come up from the road and mercilessly rip the paint off the car.

If I could turn back time, I would have had my whole car covered in that 3M clear bra material. And I mean the whole damn thing.
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We get some ribbing from owners of other marques at my work, saying our paint isn't as durable as other luxury brands, especially our blank paint. I like black paint on someone else's car; it's just too much work to maintain to perfection. Visible swirl marks are annoying to me, and you can see where the paint's clear-coat has been rubbed down. And washing a black car when the sun's out will fry your palms!

White is in the other extreme, as every stain on the paint shows, and dirt is quite obvious. It's also a fairly non-unique color, because just about every car comes in white. Silver is a good middle ground to me, you can see variances in the silvers from different automakers and from model to model. You can't see as many imperfections, it blends with the road, and it doesn't show dirt as rapidly.

We get more an more people asking for the clear-cover, as we call it, it looks like someone steadily "keyed" your car at first glance, but during love-bug season (such as this time of year), it makes sence, and doesn't trap water against the sheetmetal like a car bra.

And something tells me the Nayez Blue doens't really exist on the Evo V (let alone this low-life putz called SPD_RCR), it looks awfuly like a copy of the Subaru Impreza's "WR blue."
 
Originally posted by MazKid
My 16 year old Sunrise Red paint looked new after I waxed it....it went years without waxing(sometimes washing too) leaving the paint a pinkish color and felt like sand paper.
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Back in '98, I washed and waxed by sister's Miata in return for borrowing it for a weekend. The paint was exactly what you described, sandpapery, almost pink in color, and dull as pavement.

5 hours of washing and waxing it with Meguiar's did the trick, but I wasted about 8 towels which turned red from the job.
 
Somebody scraped my bumper. Any ideas about how to touch up the paint here? Rustoleum or something?
 

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Would Rhino lining be more expensive to spray on a car body than rust inhibiting paint?
 
i prefer colors that dont show dirt so much. beige and so on. keeps you off the police radar too, certainly moreso that a nice attention grabbing "hey look at me" red. especially on a sports car.

i also like colors that dont fade, metallic light blues, silvers, creams and to a lesser extent white. black is hard to maintain, althoughit is my favorite color otherwise.

and one of the reasons for paints not being so durable is that the paints have to be environmentally friendly. lead based paints are no longer allowed to be used, but they were a lot mroe durable than the water based ones we use now.
preparation is the name of the game when it comes to paint. a $200 paint job at .......(insert cheap body shop here) vs a $1000 one somewhere else can make a world of difference. wont really matter for the first few months, but the quality will show up as the years roll by.
 
danoff
Somebody scraped my bumper. Any ideas about how to touch up the paint here? Rustoleum or something?
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Gah, the farging bastiches!

It looks the parabola-shaped bit off to the right is actually build-up on the paint; it should rub off with good polishing compound. Of course it's hard to tell from a picture.

Without getting the bumper painted, you'll never make it go away. However, the dealer's parts counter will sell a brush-tipped tube of the correct paint color. You'll need to give them either your VIN or the paint code, which is usually indicated on the manufacturer's info tag (usually located on the driver's side door jamb). Then you just brush it on like nail polish.

Otherwise, you can go to a pro auto parts store like NAPA or a body shop supply place. They can mix you up a spray can of the exact color from your paint code. Tell them it's for the bumper and they will put some plasticizer in it to keep it flexible. However, it will always look like a patch to some extent.

Good luck.
 
Gah, the farging bastiches!

It looks the parabola-shaped bit off to the right is actually build-up on the paint; it should rub off with good polishing compound. Of course it's hard to tell from a picture.

Without getting the bumper painted, you'll never make it go away. However, the dealer's parts counter will sell a brush-tipped tube of the correct paint color. You'll need to give them either your VIN or the paint code, which is usually indicated on the manufacturer's info tag (usually located on the driver's side door jamb). Then you just brush it on like nail polish.

Otherwise, you can go to a pro auto parts store like NAPA or a body shop supply place. They can mix you up a spray can of the exact color from your paint code. Tell them it's for the bumper and they will put some plasticizer in it to keep it flexible. However, it will always look like a patch to some extent.
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Yea, I don't know how you can do that to someone's bumper and just take off.

Anyway should I patch it then? Will it reduce the resale value if I have a patch rather than just leaving it alone? I imagine it would not since the real solution would be to repaint the whole bumper, which wouldn't be any harder to do with a patch job than without.
 
You won't hurt the resale one way or the other. I'd just paint it, probably with the brush/tube method. It will look good enough from 10 feet away. I'm not one to obsess about road rash, as long as the car is clean and in good repair. You can waste your life agonizing about every nick, or you can drive the car.
;)
 
You won't hurt the resale one way or the other. I'd just paint it, probably with the brush/tube method. It will look good enough from 10 feet away. I'm not one to obsess about road rash, as long as the car is clean and in good repair. You can waste your life agonizing about every nick, or you can drive the car.
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Thanks for the advice that's probably what I'll do since I'm tired of looking at it.
 
Man, sorry to see that, danoff. Some people.... :rolleyes:

Depending on the kind of car it is (I can't tell from the pics), it may or may not hurt your resale. If I'm buying a car, I'd definately use a scratch as a bargining point and would try to knock the price of a good repair job off the negotiated price.

Looks like less than a quart of paint, plus about an hour's labor. So depending on the shop, around $100-150 bucks.

Or like Duke said, you can do the job yourself.


M
 
White paint is awful. I love how my car looks when it's clean, but it only stays that way for two or theree days, then it looks like crap. I honestly don't know how people can keep their cars so clean...
 
Bringing this forum, here's a question I have.

I've heard of all sorts of colors, including color types. Can anyone tell me the difference between car paint with names like:

A.) Pearl
B.) Metallic
C.) Clearcoat

Looking online, I haven't found anything decent or useful in understanding these denominations given to car paint styles. Is there any difference to how these colors with "Pearl," "Metallic," and even "Clearcoat" are different in terms of luminosity, vividness, reflectiveness, or anything like that?
 
Now, I may or may not be completely correct here, but I'll give it a shot.
Pearlescent paint has ground up pearls in it (or something to that effect).
Metallic paint has small chips of metal in it.
Both Metallic and Pearlescent paints will stand out among other paints, especially in the sun. Pearlescent paint is generally more expensive than metallic.
Pearlescent is very vivid and luminous, and metallic is more reflective.
Clearcoat is a clear coat of paint that adds gloss and durability to the paint. It almost makes the paint look 'wet'.
 

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