What color shoul I poaint the bird?

[gimp19]

I'm gonna be gettin the bird repainted soo and have my mind stuc on three colors, a really dark grey, dark blue or black. I cant decide Does anyone know where I can find a pic of a dark grey f-body, or any car for that matter? I've tried but couldnt find any.

[TraceZ]

Re: What color shoul I poaint the bird?

Originally posted by gimp19
I'm gonna be gettin the bird repainted soo and have my mind stuc on three colors, a really dark grey, dark blue or black. I cant decide Does anyone know where I can find a pic of a dark grey f-body, or any car for that matter? I've tried but couldnt find any.

Repainting a car is one thing, but changing its color is a whole different ballgame. What is your plan? Are you going to disassemble the whole thing? How are you goin to get the doorjambs, bottom of the hood, insides of the doors, bottom of the car? Changing a cars color properly requires a ton of work and if it isnt done right, it looks like crap.

Assuming you are going to do it right, I'd go with black.

[DJ Taso]

Black.

[TimeLord]

All three,just blend them like mine!!!!!

[Black97]

Take a guess

[gimp19]

I'm gonna have it done at my brother's autobody class. I like black to but its really common and I'd rather have somthing mor unique, my red paint is in fair condition but red is not a one of my favorite colors.

[Joe 1320]

If you change the color, you kill it's resale value. To change the color is not as simple as people think. Are you going to have all the jambs done, the engine bay and strut towers, undersides of the rear deck, etc? The only way to do it right would be to gut the car and paint it bare, then reassemble. I can tell you right now an auto body class is not going to take the time to do that kind of color change. They usually don't have the time nor the staffing. Regular paint and body is what they are all about. Before you even attempt it, find out if they will even want to mess with a proper color change. IMHO, if red isn't your color, sell it and get one that is. Sounds harsh, but in the long run you'll be far better off. Now if you were changing shades of colors, that's a little different. You could change the color to a darker red metallic like the f-body Cayanne Red, or Corvette Dark Red Metallic and that's not too bad, still not like doing a basic color refresh.

[fastTa]

I've always liked a deep midnight metallic blue.

Similar to this:

[gimp19]

Damn I washed the car after posting this it looks 200x better now, starting to rethink getting it painted. Then I looked at the pic................. Thats the dark blue I've been seeing in my head!

Anyways, while I'm thinking this over anyone have any good tricks for "refreshing" a 10+ year old paint job? After I washed it I realized with alittle help I could make it look halfway decent. There are alot of "swirls" in the paint and the clear coat is chipping off the nose. I can take care of the body work and stuff, just not to good with the detailing part.

Thanks

[Joe 1320]

Sounds to me like what you need is what I call a basic face lift. That is a complete clay and polish of the whole car except the front bumper cover and perhaps the hood. Most higher mileage cars can get by with paint on the front bumper cover and hood. The rest is not subject to as much abuse from flying debris. Painting the hood and bumper cover at a regular shop typically runs $500, at a body shop class.... $150. Paint the bumper and maybe the hood, completely polish and detail the rest and believe me it will look virtually new. No worries about painting jambs, most of the car will still be original and your wallet will have more dough for other stuff.

[gimp19]

Thanks for the ideas, the hood looks just as good as the rest of the car. Aside from the fact that it has the most swirls in it. Do you think if I just got the nose repainted it would match the rest of the car?

Any tips on polishing/using a claybar, I think I do somthing wrong because it dosn't make much differance when I'm finished.

The only time I've ever polished or waxed a car and noticed a big differance is when, I waxed my Caprice with that colored turtle wax suff that comes with a "chip stick". The car is blue and so is the wax, some how the blue wax made the paint look alot richer and shiny. Also the Caprice was a cop car so as you can imagine the paint is not in the best condition, far worse then my birds.

[Joe 1320]

Then I wouldn't paint the hood. A mild polishing compound applied to the paint should help clear most stuff out of the clear coat. Apply it on the sides in an up and down fashion, not a circular motion. The upper surfaces go back and forth from front to rear, not side to side and not circular. The same will go for the use of the clar bar and the application of Zaino Z5. That will make the swirls all but disappear. Since the paint is in good shape except for the nose, the paint should match about 99%. No problems, mate! If you want to tackle this yourself except for the paint, we can go step by step via PM.