68hemi

NO especially for our cars that are coddled. It is not like they are driven daily to sit in the parking lot of some acid rain environment like a coal fired steel mill and only washed once a week.

Patrick03

What version/color of red did you use Frankie?

GTOguy

Nope. Not for the 10-20k that they now cost. 15 years ago to me seems like about 5 years ago. Time flies. I am delighted my 33 year old paint and 25 year old paint on the GTO's is still holding up and I can simply drive them, rather than be on their third BC/CC paint job by now, and out of pocket tens of thousands on the new finishes over time. No thanks. Am not sold on BC/CC: I have yet to see ANY BC/CC job hold up over the long run, and do not like the look on classic cars anyway. It is too shiny.

Frankie the Fink

Its a painstakingly selected Riverside Red (or as close as you can get with modern products). It was matched to original paint areas under my car's door sills and a Roman Red (same color -- different name) 62 car in original lacquer that happened to be in the shop alongside mine.

This paint will be fine 'in a few years' Tim Burke has been in the paint/body business for 48 years and has used the product that is on my car extensively on lots of Florida cars that are actually driven.

I'm not even worried about it

Nowhere Man

Frank that is what I was getting at. New paint always looks good. The real test of a Painter and their prep work is looking at cars they done years ago that has been used. Trailer and garage queens need not apply.

65silververt

AZDoug

Metallic is different than metal flake, as you know. Some people confuse the two.

Metal flake needs the clear to look right, metallic does not.

Doug

AZDoug

But, do your GTOs sit out in the sun all day, every day?

I have found that the factory applied single stage or BC/CC finish, on any car will outlast any respray i have ever seen on a car that gets lots of sun.

Doug

car junkie

My 16 year old dodge ram base coat clear coat truck I bought new still looks very good, my wife frequently comments that it looks new. That's a bit of an overstatement but it does look very good and I never waxed it. I do you use a wax soap pre mixed car wash on a regular basis, no specific brand, whatever is on sale. The truck spent the first three years of its life outside 24/7 and was and still is used in the salt and crud, not as much as before though. I do paint my own cars and its definitely base coat clear coat for me.

GTOguy

Thanks for clearing up the metallic vs metalflake, Doug. You have something there. And as for sitting in the sun, yes and no. The '65 was painted in '85 and was parked on the street until I had garage space in '96....so 11 years out in the elements. Never inside. It was a daily driver, and not a real valuable car back then. I kept wax on it, and back then, lived in the Bay Area, so no real brutal heat. The '67 was pretty much garaged after getting repainted, but has spent thousands of hours in the sun and has been on cross-country trips more than once in the past 25 years...the real issue I'm having with it is the many small rock chips on the front clip from all of those highway miles. The '66 GTO I had a high dollar base/clear job done on started to fail in its 7th year, and it was only garaged part of the time (Bay Area mild climate as well). The red started to fade under the clearcoat in year 7, and by year ten, it started to get the sunburn peel on the top of the front cowl. I have friends who have cars from the 30's that have original paint in good condition (garaged cars from day one) and repainted cars that have 50-70 year old paint that still looks good....and all of these are solvent-based enamels or lacquers. The lacquers usually check if they are really old, but look pretty cool on a 100 year old car......

MOXIE62

As stated above I think the sun is the killer of paint, regardless of what you use. The ten year old paint on my car is BC/CC and looks as good as the day it was sprayed. Why, because it has never been in the sun except when I drive it. Of course there are times when it has sat out 15 or 20 minutes when I go to the store or other places but has held up great. As far as color. Red is red, white is white, blue is blue and so on.
Anyone ever seen the 1948 movie "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House". I'm paraphrasing but there is a scene where the wife is telling the painter what colors she wanted for the rooms. She said for one room she wanted yellow like the color of an egg yoke. Another room green like a piece of thread she had, another room blue like so on and so on. The boss then told his painters to use yellow, green and blue.

GTOguy

Great flick, with a really neat '48 Buick convertible. I remember Cary Grant referring to their windowless house as a "$38,000 Ice Box" among other classic dialog. The way most of our collector cars are now driven, durability is less of an issue. It's mainly about appearance in my case. Had a friend with a '65 GTO that got the two stage paint....painter talked him into it. Barrett Jackson would love it, but he hates it. Waaaaay too shiny....looks like it was dipped in Varathane.

dplotkin

I'm not sure I'd agree that BC/CC is less durable, my winter beater is a 2001 Mercedes sedan that I've owned for 15 years and has never been parked in the garage (because my Corvette was in said garage!) Its paint is still flawless except for the dents, scrapes and rust that is gradually consuming it.

It really is personal preference. Some folks want a wet looking car, probably the same guys who cannot apply too much Armor-All on their tires or dash tops. On modern cars I like that wet look, but on mid century cars it just looks wrong to me.

I have friends with 50's cars who have mixed clear into the basecoat to try and have it both ways, with mixed results, pardon the pun.

The black 61 Plymouth I posted above was painted in 2007.

Dan