My convertible top is going to be replaced but the frame is in great shape. Just want to freshen the frame up. What color paint/sheen should be used to paint the frame?

Have recently done this with the jaguar so understand the process and protecting the moving parts from sand blasting but unsure on the color.


Thanks all.

 

The frame paint color on my 75 with a black top is black. It is not matte, but also not glossy. I know this is not exact, but hope it helps.

 

A semi-gloss would work. If you do your own work, and you do enough of it, you can either buy a can of factory pack 'satin' black, or you can buy some flattening agent and get whatever shine of gloss to semi-gloss or any degree of flattness you want. That's what I do. But they do make satin black paint. You could even use Rust Oleum semi-gloss from an inexpensive pint container from a farm & barn store ....and add hardener to it..that would work too.

A can of PPG Flattening agent HERE, is $150 at our local paint and body store (I just priced it out last week), but cheaper online as you can see. It's expensive but a quart would last most DIY guys who use it intermittently ..a decade or two. It doesn't harden in the can like paint. So when you think about it that way, it's not that much. There are other universal flattening agents too (like below). I have a partial can of PPG F/A which is over 20yrs old I still use. And a new unopened can I bought when it was a lot cheaper. It's handy to have when you need it. So that's a possible avenue to go. The only difficulty with the flattening agent is there really isn't a true guideline how much to add to achieve a certain level of less gloss. I mean there is...but I usually find myself mixing a small-ish amt of paint, not a full quart to spray. So there's a little experimenting till you get the level you want. I usually go by how many spoonfuls per amt of paint and write it down for the future. And you might want to brush some on a sample piece, and maybe put the sample part in the sun for a few minutes to get the sense of how much shine you knocked off. Then add more if you want to go flatter. Or add more paint if you overshot. It takes a few spoonfulls of the flattening agent..it's not like an eyedropper of flattening agent does anything. Eventually you kind of get a 'feel' for how much ya need for a given amt of paint to get where you want to be. I've been using it since the 80's. It works in Rust Oleum too.

It can be used for other things too. I've used it for knocking down the gloss on parts or colored items I've sprayed over the yrs. I've flattened home-center clear (oil-based) like you'd use on natural stone (for bathroom or floor), and it's turned out great and still looks great. I have some which is 10+ yrs old and looks great and has worn well. A lot of the water-based clear is real thick. It dries like a paint on the surface of natural stone. Not all but a lot of it does. I don't like W/B for stone/slate floors. I prefer to go with a thinner oil-based clear that penetrates the stone.

However, getting oil-based clear for stone in semi-gloss is harder to come by nowadays due to regulations. Companies that have it seems to be way thinned out for an insane price for a liter ...for stone work. It's a rip-off! And often you have to order it and wait..pay shipping. You can literally buy a lot cheaper oil-based clear, more durable ...that penetrates the stone ...for way less by the gallon, thin it to whatever consistency you want and add whatever flattening agent to get just the sheen you want ..put some hardener/activator too. Rather than run all over hill and dale looking for the for 5x overpriced product. I usually go a tad more on the gloss side of semi-gloss bc it looks better longer, even after several yrs of wear, it still has just a bit of shine left to it. Just right. Roll or brush it on (obviously wear the right mask and have proper ventilation!). And when it comes to stone, eventually you need to re-apply to get back the shine and cover scuffs. The solvent-based clear 'bites' or melts into the old stuff ...water-base stuff you're in trouble. Some water-base product is 'ok', but I'm old-school and stick to the stuff I know for sure isn't going to cause me more work and trouble down the road. The point is, flattening agent may have other uses for you.... or not. Just sayin'.

There's also this Omni product below which says it's a universal flattening agent...probably the same PPG product in an Omni can, or slightly 'watered down'. I haven't used it though.
https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/c...nt/ppg4/m148qt

https://max.ppg.com/adaptivemedia/re...dd203362da08fb