I'M STOKKED!!!

[RICH MUISE]

I took my restoration shop buddy's advise and started painting my car in sections instead of trying to get it done in one shot. I figured if I planned on a pinstrip around the cabin area just below the windows, I could paint the roof, firewall and window areas all in one shot and not have a blend area to contend with, so that's what I did. At the bottom of the front door post, I stopped the paint just at the front of the rocker so I'll have a seam line there I can mask off when I do the lower body.After spending about 30 hours fri, sat and sun. morning blocking it out, I got it finally ready for paint, however the winds here had picked up to 30-40 miles and hour and had turned the sky brown with dust and silt, and was imposible to keep out of the garage, so I waited until today, and the weather was perfect. I got the sealer on, then the basecoat. The metalics in the paint laid down perfectly and the clearcoat flowed great with no dryspots and no runs. Very minimal orangepeel. I loved the color I had picked, and it glistens like a jewel even with no buffing. The great part about it,there is not one area that I thought to myself I should have spent more time. After 5 years it's absolutly wonderful sqirting something shiney on the car and being absolutly thrilled with the results. Now on to wetsanding and buffing so I can move on to the rest of the car.   Rich

[drof75]

Rich Congrats!!!!! I can't wait for that feeling. I got tickled pink just installing the Pertonix conversion. I bet I quote Larry the Cable Gut when I finally get the paint on, "I just crapped my pants" 

[Ford Blue blood]

What, no pics?

[Ford Blue blood]

Rick look at a product that is a foam rope like masking product.  You can jam the car, the doors, trunk area and under the hood, mask the edge with this stuff and close the door, the trunk the hood and shoot away.  No tape line and the very little hazy area just under the edge of the foam can be buffed out by hand.  Really a neat produce.

[RICH MUISE]

Bill, I thought about that and decided to paint the car disassebled..It would just be easier for me in my very tight working area. If I decide as planned to do the semi-ghost flame job on the nose of the car and down the sides, I'll look into that product for the hood and doors.
 a few pics...
The second pic has the roof joists reflecting in the paint..makes an interesting design..

[RICH MUISE]

"photoshoped" red pinstripe to show the line I was talking about in the opening post. This is where I'll do the hard masking and actually paint the red stripe and the gray all in one shooting. same way you'd do pinstriped edges on flames without actually brushing them.  Rich

[Zapato]

guessing that's about as rewarding a feeling one gets.

Zap-

[RICH MUISE]

hey Zap...you're absolutly right. As I have said before, this is my first build, and I also keep saying "I can do this, I can do this". Mostly the reason I keep saying it is to give encouragement to others who are doing or contemplating a first build..You can do it too.

[Ford Blue blood]

Very very nice, well done sir!

[JPotter57]

Is that gray or silver?  It looks awesome.....makes me second guess my color choice, lol....more photos please.

[shopratwoody]

One of my favorite accomplishments,is what you're doing. Next
being a stout engine build. Looks great.

[RICH MUISE]

Thanks guys. The g.m. color name for it is "dark Tarnished Silver". To me looks like a medium gray, but with direct lights on it it it's gray with a dark siver cast to it. It was on a 2006 chevy HR one of the woman drives at work, so I got to look at it in all light conditions. It's a very neutral "gray" and remains that way thruout all lighting conditions. I liked that...some grays can get very taupie or cool in certain lights. If your looking at HR's on the road, gm offered at least a half dozen silvers and grays that year alone.

If you guys ever see a newer car in a parking lot that you like the color of, and want the paint code...just copy the vin #(redundant I know) visible thru the windshield on dash and call the dealer for that make of car. From the Vin they can look up the paint code. That I can tell, the new cars don't have paint codes on the vehicle ID plates any more.

[Zapato]

Years ago a body and paint guy told me the best paint chip was a car. When you look at paint chips in a store at best its going to be close to what you'll end up with. And at the very least you should take the chip outside and see it under natural light. Your thought process of watching the car in lots of conditions is spot on perfect. Some colors look great in the sun and just ho-hum in low light times of the day.

Do believe all cars do have a paint code on them someplace, otherwise it would play hell for body shops. They're not always in the best places. Few years back I was at the paint store and another customer couldn't find the paint code and figured they would know at the counter. came to find out there were 3 different dark greens for that particular year and make mini van. The counter man however did know that the code was hidden behind an interior body panel. So with some borrowed tools they performed minor surgery and got the right color. Ranger I was working on had 2 different non metallic reds and one metallic red that year. On all late model fords I own the code is on a big white sticker on the driver door jamb.

Car looks good Rich.

Zap-

[RICH MUISE]

Even with the color code you may not be getting an exact match. The color I picked had 6 versions of the same color code...since I wasn't trying to blend to a color that was already on the car, it didn't matter in my case so I just picked the one with the least amount of metallics. They do this to be able to match what may start out as one color, but varies due to the different spraying conditions at different factories,weather conditions,fluctuations in manufacturing the original paint, etc. They had slightly different tones and metalic levels. My paint guy told me Ford explorers had a silver that had 28 versions of the same color code!  Rich

[Zapato]

And primer color will also affect the final coat.

Zap-