Last year I fell upon a 1975 C3. 50k miles and was stored for 22 years. I bought the car and the latest project has been bumper covers. Originals were in bad shape and literally fell of the car when I got it in the sun. Went with TruFlex. Install was a pain but worked through it. Next was paint. Went with Eastwoods spray can OEM match to the Bright yellow along with the 2k clear. Came out great but as expected slightly off color to the original paint. Original paint has a slight green tint to it. Questions is has anyone else done this and is it possible to correct this original paint at all with buffing? Or should I not worry about it? Also. I used the Eastwood cans because it was a small job, it’s a great product. I don’t have any painting equipment, I did it my self because shops either didn’t want to touch the job or wanted more than I paid for the car. And I just like doing things my self.

 

Have you tried a local paint store to see if they can get you a match closer than what you have?

Some will have a spectrophotometer which is a camera to measure the metamerism of your color and should be able to get you a closer match, they can put that paint in an aerosol can for you and you can again clear with the 2k clear.

Finding the right paint store to help may be an avenue for you.

 

In 75 the factory did not use clear. So, why are you?
If the paint on the car is original. You will never match it correctly if you clear it.
If the paint on the rest of the car has clear on it. It's been resprayed. So. As above, have a paint shop match it.
Should you just leave it as is?
Well, I guess that's up to you.

 

I did not locate any paint stores. Nothing really near me. Just worked with Eastwoods team. But maybe in the future I will find someone to match it. So I will live with it for a while and maybe respray down the road.

painting part was easy. The bumper cover install switching to fiberglass was the hard part.

 

Initially I was not going to use clear. But Eastwood did not offer single stage in cans. Only base/clear. I ordered one can of each and did a bunch of tests and was somewhat happy with it. So did the whole job that way. The car is all original with original paint so don’t want to spray it all. Down the road I may try to have a someone match it. Just not much local to me. Thanks for the replay.

 

If you go down that path down the road our company owns about 500 paint stores across the country, I can see if there is something somewhat near by and see if i cant get someone to help you.

I mention BC/CC for the reason you stated, there is very little R&D in single stage today outside of fleet/industrial and toners are getting produced less so less color match options... you stated that you have no spraying equipment so you won't get a 2k single stage in an aerosol can so your only real option DIY is BC in an aerosol and a Eastwood or Spraymax 2k clear in aerosol... I have a compressor and high end guns and still grab a can of Spraymax or Arrowmax 2k clear now and then for something small.

 

I live in 12078 Zip code. And I have a few cans of Eastwoods 2k aerosol left. Enough to clear everything again. Great stuff. So let me know if there is a store near me. I could bring in a t-top for matching.

question though. It’s ok to spray again after 2 coats of epoxy primer, 3 coats of color and 3 clear? Not too thick?

 

taking off on a plane, will check this evening and post response

 

You can smooth out 'orange peel' with some wet "color sanding". Get wet/dry paper in 800, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500 grit (you will only need 1 sheet of paper for 1500 grit and up; you will cut each sheet into 4-6 pieces for your work). Soak the paper first, then keep surface flushed with running water. This will keep the paint particles from clogging up the paper and clear the surface as you work. Don't rub hard, just work across the surface in one direction, about a foot wide at a time. Stay with one grade of paper for the entire area you want to smooth. Once the 800 grit paper has smoothed the surface well, you need to work thru the other grits to remove the 'grit' marks from the previous paper. When you get to 2000 or higher, it won't feel like you are doing anything...but you are.

After 2500 (or even 3000 if you can find it), it's time to wash and dry the surface and use a power wheel and fine rubbing compound to remove all other surface marks. It's a good idea to watch a YouTube video on how to properly use a polishing wheel, if you don't already have those skills. You don't want to cut thru paint at edges, etc. It's pretty easy...you just need to do it right. Clean surface, then use polisher and finishing polish to shine it up. DONE.

As far as matching the paint on the front bumper, you should know that new cars of that vintage had painted bumpers that weren't and EXACT match with the body paint. Yours is a bit farther off than that, however. It would be a PITA to repaint it. You might experiment with putting a light coating of Black paste wax on that front bumper to see if it would tone down the yellow a bit. You can always use detergent to remove it, if not a good idea. But I think that might have a chance of providing a better color match...without having to repaint it.

Lastly, you should always work with a auto body paint supply store for getting paint products to match. If you don't have spray equipment, they can even put mixed matching paint in spray cans that you can use. Much better chances of matching what you have. Surely there is a city within 100 miles of you that has such a store. 3-4 hours of driving to get a good paint match is worth it.

 

love the black wax idea. That just may do the trick. I may start there after buffing out the new bumper paint. I don’t want to do too much to the old paint other that buffing. Unless I have a shop do the wet sanding.
thanks for the input.

 

It's not unusual for a yellow with a green tint. The original 240Z had it and BMW currently has one...

 

...most urethane bumper's didn't match the car's body paint from the factory. My original paint '74 & '80 Corvettes did not either. To me, your's looks fine.

 

maybe I will just tell everyone I did it on purpose to make it original. lol.

 

That fact that your front bumper is "lighter" shade of yellow than the body makes it stand out more than if it was darker (as in prior post). But, I agree that it is a personal perception issue. However, if you are going to show your car at Cruise-In's or competition shows, you have to consider what the general public will think about that color difference. Certainly, if you leave it "as is", the car is very presentable.

 

good morning, I checked your zip code and looks your just north of Albany NY... coincidentally I am currently in Boston on business (from Az.) and driving to Albany tomorrow morning till Friday, I will be with some of our people in that area doing some business with Goldstein collision and All Country Northway
I know we have paint stores in the area called Kemperle Paint... I will find out the locations and who would be best to help match a color if you do go that direction in the future.

To answer the "re-coat" question you should be ok... the epoxy primer would be activated and the clear is catalyzed so the issue would be sanding down to the color and opening up an area to penetrate that non hardened color coat... just try not to sand through the clear and dont soak the new color too heavy.