STEALTH Fighter Black - How To???

:cool: Does any paint guru out there know how to duplicate the flat black rubberized radar-attenuating finish on the Wobblin Goblin fighter jet? Sure - its top secret, and the radar attenuating material is for sure highly illegal in all 50 states, but is there a good facsimile of that rubber armour coating out there? Reason: I am doing a suburban steet rod project I affectionately call "The Tank Killer", and was thinking of doing it in SOLID flat black with maybe a ghost digital camo flame job. Thanks, and peace -

PPG actually makes it for the government, they will be happy to sell it to you for $22,500 a gallon :eek: . Of course you do have to by it by the 55 gallon drum which is the only way they sell it.

Ah well, scratch that idea, unless you could actually go up to your nearest friendly airbase and offer to scrape all the paint off one of thier fighters for free. You may get a reaction out of them:LOL: :LOL: :LOL:

Try ALSA Paints they have a Urethane clearcoat that has a rubber / leather feel. We have used alot of thier products in the sign industry.

Back in the sixties I had a spray-on simulated vinyl top on my 60 Impala.-If its only the "look" your after, that might work if its still available.

Would one of the polyurethane bed liner materials work? Black is a standard color for most. Rhino has sprayed the exterior of vehicles quite a bit. I dont know the smoothness for each brand but you can get or view samples from most of them.

The real stuff is filled with solids like the adsorbing foam.

By the way, according to my buddy at PPG, most automotive paint is shipped to the auto manufacturer in big containers that are about 400 gallons (as I remember). The container is a big cube instead of a drum. The microwave adsorber may ship in drums.

mike in tucson

oh come on guys just go on over to mcdonald douglas and ask them for a cup or two or three....

there was a formula of metals suspended in paints for absorbing microwaves from cellphones a while back. actual jamming of cellphones is illegal, but passive methods of interference is legal.
(was to be marketed on panels for upscale restaurants)

gee, isn't radar just microwaves?

googling, i see carbon fiber is a good microwave absorber,
may be ferquency specific.
maybe the higher amounts of carbon black in a flat black paint
will be helpful already

I doubt the general public know what the paint looks like up close. Just go flat black. If you ever have to strip it, you might have made a lot of work for yourself with the thick products.

Are you mixing up two different types of stealth technology? Radar stealth requires absorption of radio waves by a special coating but sonar stealth for ships uses the rubbery absorption of sound "pings". A rubbery paint coating on a metal automobile probably would do little to reduce State Trooper radar reflection, although the question is interesting in the case of a fiberglass car. As suggested above it is probably best to just use a flat black, add ghost flames and enjoy the visual effect. Probably the lump of iron in the motor will provide a radar reflection even with a fiberglass car and a metal car with some smooth surfaces will reflect radio waves nicely. After all a trunk mounted CB antenna uses the metal trunk lid to form the bottom half of a "P-wave" since most CB antennas use a half-wave whip type sending antenna .

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

I just remember a show on Discovery or History Channel or Modern Marvels or something that mentioned the STealth fighter having a rubbery or soft texture to the "special" paint.

If I go with just plain old flat black, is flat black flat black flat black no matter who the manuf., or paint type? Has anybody used a flat black that came out well?

Are you looking for cheap....or tough and long lasting?

hahaha - There hasnt been one thing about this project that would fall under the category of "cheap". I want a finish that is comensurate with what I have already spent. No - Im not Fitty Cent painting his Lambo ALSA chrome, but I think the motor alone will have $7000 in it when it is finished.

This car is done in a catalyzed single stage black urethane with PPG's DX365 flattener added. I would suggest the "full flat" mixing ratio. I did another '32 in the semi gloss, but the finish had a somewhat uneven look. The full-flat looks much better. It's about 5 or 6 years old, and still looks fresh. Just wash with a sponge and soapy water.

Does it show finger/palm prints? How about sloughing off rain or water splash? Does it make the paint look like it has mange or a "sweat line" like if I wear a black T-shirt to the drags on a hot day?

It's not my car, but the owner hasn't complained yet. Any flat finish will have some compromises involved, but this one is about as good as it's going to get.

I've used several flat blacks/ low gloss blacks in the past and they all show finger prints and water marks. Then again so do most dark colors reguardless of the gloss. If you are interested check out the pics of my newly painted car in the gallery. Is that what you are looking for?

My dad still works on the u2, i can see if he can get me some paint, also i thought most of the f-117`s radar reducing ability was the triangle shapes, causing smaller surface areas to break up and disguise its size

the flat black should help on laser reflectance
to lower the range they could pick u up.

read a car craft article ~1977 with great interest.
seems cross sectional frontal area being the biggest issue.

semi- reflects enough radar to be picked up ~ 1/4 mile
honda civic- radar range ~200 ft
corvette (tilted radiators)- Radar range ~ 170 ft

they recommended to tilt a/c condensers up ~15 degrees
to reflect radar up, not back at the receiver, to cut radar "range"

don't forget the license plates too (tilt)

not much u can do about those
metalized headlight reflectors though

Then there is all the glass a flat screen like on a rod would bounce everything right back to the radar reciever. Tilted glass like on a vette would bounce most but not all reflected beams straight up. Then there is the construction material fibreglass absorbs more microwaves than it reflects as opposed to metal. Carbon fibre does a pretty good job of practically muffling most microwave emissions.

1. most glass isn't vertical/ perpendicular to the sender
2. radar goes through glass, hence the fine screen
in your kitchen microwave's glass door
3. any paint/gelcoat containing black iron oxide or
red iron oxide on fiberglass would bounce radar
back just as much as steel would

Any thickness glass ? And you say fibreglass has iron in it:confused:

where did anyone say fiberglass has iron in it?

You did oh okay then iron oxide then.

iron oxide in paint ON fiberglass, duH

Ah so ???? How much do you know about paint and fibreglass :p

paint chemist 1 1/2 years
degree in chemistry
hand built my body for my street indycar

:D I bow to superior knowledge, I can't even paint to save my life:rolleyes: I just stick to my spanners.... Mechanic for to long...:D