Thread: Next big paint trend???

Tweet

I've been wanting to do ghost flames for a long time.

Originally Posted by Dave Severson

Solid colors and two tones. Also starting to see more gold and silver metallic. IMO custom cars still deserve custom colors---I still like huge metalflake, candy colors. Seems the import kids are still into the "hey, look at me" neon colors. I have such a lousy eye for color combinations, I usually go with other's advice.

I do hope the artsy stuff from the seventies comes back, it was a real opportunity for the pro's like Jay to showcase their artistic talent!

I'm still into sedate and subtle on cruizers and wild and crazy on go fast stuff!!!!!!

Dave, Thanks for the kind words. I also think "go fast stuff" needs paint that matches the cars personality. That same thinking really fits all rods and customs, whether you want them to look sinister... exotic & dreamy... classic... or any other "look" you want.

yep we added clear 50/50 to many of the lacquer and some of the enamel jobs if they were metallic or just get it nice and even then let sit 24 hours and nail it with dau 75 clear the good old days ... i have done many single stage solid paint jobs were guys would ask hey just how many coats of clear do you have on that things ? we allways talk about clear over some colors mosty over black were it just did not do any thing ...i did them every day at work base coat/ clear is the only way to fly most of the time easy to work with and blend not hard for most to paint.for many colors you can get nice job and good hold out .but i feel to only get a dead flat miles deep paint job the base need s to be dead flat with base coat /clear coat . can be hard at times when you walk around a car 4 or more times to get the base to cover and sanding some of it as a pain in the ass .single stage may be better for real paint in the can and not dryer clear in some cases not much paint. single stage solids you can sand till dead flat then wheel it or clear

Maybe it's a "hold over" from my 20 years of lacquer work... but I sand and buff everything! Guess I got used to that "glassy" look. I have just never been happy with a sprayed finish.

It just occured to me that we didn't mention "true fire"... "real fire"... "photorealistic flames".

I think it will be around for quite a while... though I think it has leveled off.

I see some guys are still experimenting with different colors.

Originally Posted by HOTRODPAINT

Maybe it's a "hold over" from my 20 years of lacquer work... but I sand and buff everything! Guess I got used to that "glassy" look. I have just never been happy with a sprayed finish.

many times it was hard to match the oem texture . many times the repaint level out better right out of the gun . sand it and wheel it to much then it realy stuck out i worked in a shop were some bone head would blow them self off by the booth filters . or open shop door up on a windy day . so just about every thing was cut n buff .it was a great feeling when one came out clean and flat and all you had to do was unwrap it

I just remembered a "technique" I guess you'd call it.. back in the early 70's, when I was in high school, one of our teachers wanted a couple of us to paint his golf cart and gave us free rein! One of the guys, he was a year ahead, knew of this technique and thought it would be a blast to try on a golf cart.

First we sanded and painted the cart white, then we used 2 different rolls of tape, 1 @ 3/8" wide and the other 1/8" wide. We then went around the cart making squares and rectangles in one continuous pass. Sometimes we would have the smaller lines inside a box and other times it would be outside. After going around the whole cart, we put on a top coat of dark blue. Later we removed the tapes and voila' a custom painted gold cart! And the teachers loved it!

I hadn't thought of that cart 'til this thread.. THANKS for bringing it back!

Something that is popular around here on commercial vehicles is "vehicle wraps". I kind of wonder if large graphics make a come back if we won't see some of that.

I can tell you that the vinyl wraps have been embraced in two areas that I know about.

One is drag racing, where the cars have a lot of advertising, combined with major graphics. That way the repairs can be made quickly... even in the pits between rounds. Also, replacement bodies can be prepared without a week or two in the paint shop.

The other part of the hobby is off road cars, such as sand rails. Maybe that is partly due to the ease of putting them on flat body panels. Some of the wraps rival the cost of actual paint... but is still widely accepted.

The one group that seems to resist the vinyl art is older rod and custom enthusiasts. I have hear many comments suggesting that they believe it is cheap looking... or a sad replacement for actual paint. One of my best friends is a life-long pinstriper/brush artist. He often has guys tell him not to make the work too perfect, or it will look like striping tape. :-)

That’s interesting Jay.

As far as the pinstriping. when I had the striping done on the 76 Dodge truck I spent a lot of time going back and forth trying to decide whether to have the stripes painted on or have then done in vinyl tape. I ended up doing the vinyl as it was what was original.

I can understand the wraps on the drag cars ( I also suspect stock cars are the same way). On those I personally think it’s kind of a shame. Not so much that they do it vinyl rather than paint, but that it makes it so much easier to cover every square inch on the car in advertising. When this thread started I remember thinking about the nostalgia cars we saw at SIR at the reunion a couple weeks ago. How much simpler the paint jobs were, often with just the car name, a sponsor or 2 and a few decals. You could actually tell the shape and color of the car. I understand the need for sponsors and contingency money to fund competitive cars, but it’s kind of a shame the cars have been turned into rolling billboards.

.

Had a friend of mine who died a few years back who was probably one of the best freehand pinstripers, letterers, and air brush artists around these parts. He would go to a car show, especially Back to the Fifties, and stay busy all weekend and probably have a couple months worth of work lined up when he left. He would do scooter tanks, cars, semi trucks, boats, helmets, or most anything else you brought to him. Since Ron died, a lot of us are still looking for his replacement!!!!! His work, too, was so good that people would ask if it was paint or vinyl!!!! Friend of mine had Ron do the tank on his Harley, told Ron to just do whatever he wanted on it.....Ron airbrushed an eagle on it that was so gorgeous when Lyle sold the Harley, he put a different tank on it and has the tank with the eagle on it hanging on the wall in his living room!!!!!

From a guy who has to use a compass and a ruler to draw stick people, my hat is off to Jay and the others who IMO are the last of the artist's that are inspired by the car, bike, or whatever they are doing, and paint what the "canvas" says that it wants!!!! What I've seen of the new guys around here anyway, the only thing that inspires them is the money and they all seem quite content to do their rendition of what is popular at the time and rarely come up with anything really unique, unusual, or creative.... I hope the guy's with the real artistic abilities keep doing what they do and not cave in to just the things that are popular and sell good!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by Mike P

but it's kind of a shame the cars have been turned into rolling billboards.

I was a "professional spectator" at Indy from 1962 (age 13) until '74. When I first started going, the cars looked like they were meant for a car show... with 'candy... 'flake... gold leaf... also tuck and roll, and lots of chrome & polished metal. They were exciting!!!

By the '70s, it was brushed aluminum wheels... simple paint... and tons of contingency decals... with little done to detail the car! I hated those changes! I want them to be "stunning" again. I guess the Pro Mods are visually exciting, but they are not national "headliners", like the Pro classes. {:-(

They also started boldly advertising a sponsor on the cars... instead of displaying the owner or team name, or a name that gave them personality! Names like ..."Showtime"... "Secret Weapon" ..."Super Cuda" ... and "ChiTown Hustler" were replaced with company sponsor names. Today it has even gotten away from automotive sponsors. I expect that soon we will see tampon and laxitive brands splashed on the side of our heroes cars. It's sad for me.

Dave I've seen a few guys who do excellent freehand work. Stucool had his studabaker at a Sacramento car show I went to. A guy was doing some nice freehand work on it there. Also remember Don and Don Jr.'s rods getting some nice free hand work he posted on this sight. Seems rare to find these guys, but when they show up at shows, there is always a line around them, and people asking for buisness cards! Von Dutch mught have been one of the first famous ones!

We have had a couple stripers in this area that used to do that at shows about 20 years ago. I haven't seen it done at shows in a very long time... but that might be something that show organizers could do to add to the experience! :-)

I think I will mention this to some of our local organizers. My long-time striping buddy would be a good candidate for that task. :-)

Anyone... Possible new trends in color or art?