Wow! That is really something! I can see why you want it.

 

Yeah, I am just trying to decide if it is doable. Lots of materials, money and no room for error.

 

I hear you. As far as the not being able to match the paint goes I think that's ususally not a concern, not too often you just want to repaint part of a car, usually it ages somewhat evenly all over the car and by the time you find one area that needs repainting the whole thing needs it anyway. Accidents aren't that common.

 

how to mix the candy? experience - but it's learned by asking the paint shop (the place where you buy the paint - you weren't going to buy online, right?!) how much to put in.... seriously, it doesn't take much - less than a pint.

both the tint and the pearl go in the first coat of clear, you can do a second coat with tint, but not clear. The next layers of clear bury the pearl and give you a smooth surface. By the time you're done, you should have one, maybe two coats of basecoast, 4-5 coats of clear. If you have the patience, the more clear you put on the deeper the paint will look - however, be warned the drying time between the subsequent layers increases). If you do ghost flames, those go on after the first clear coat.

 

Honestly, wait until next time for ghost flames. Also, you can put ghost flames on much later. Trust me on this, on your first paint job you will struggle to get it right.

 

I was going to buy the paint local but wonder how much can be saved ordering it online. Not doing the ghost flames but plan to do traditional stripe around the hood scoop and body lines.

 

That was my understanding of your plans when you first posted about this blue/purpleish paint.

 

I was thinking about it but decided it might look a little better with striping (very suttle change on color) like the 78SA car but not two tone.

 

50-75% can be saved online. That said, if you have to do it twice, it'll cost 50% more..... just sayin' I will admit to being kind of short with the paint supplier around here - I needed some 1500 sand paper, and went to get it from them - it was 4x more expensive than from Amazon. Told them as much, and said if they wanted my business they needed to be competitive. They are, but I absolutely hate companies who do that, so I'm not loyal to them at all.

 

Ahem to all of that man. After redoing my rear bumper, my candy paint looked seriously bada$$, but it definitely has its cons. It is fragile, you scratch it, you take a piece of paint, not just a scratch. It is very expensive. I was told now-a-days most people reserve it for motorcycles as less is needed.

It was impossible to match, it took the body shop 5 layers of color to match my bumper to the rest of the car. HOK claims that their system of paint makes touch ups easy, bull$hit on that one. I needed to touch up two little scrapes, doesn't work, just doesn't.

If i was doing a show car, probably would take the candy paint again, so many ways to make you car different from the rest of them all. But for something you want to drive regularly, basecoat and clear, done.

 

not try to deter you from buy HOK paint fc, you could buy their basecoat and clear coat and would be just fine, you wouldn't have to do a candy coat.

Summit Racing carries it, and cheaper than what i paid for the body shop market up on it....

 

you have to be an absolute pro to put it on - because some colors change color as they dry. We did a (dang, they're blending together)... hmmm... think it was a 40 ford... anyway - we wanted a midnight blue. It was 30 days after we painted it. I went home that night, absolutely sick to my stomach because it was purple - and not a nice purple - close to lavender purple when we put it on. 30 days later, it was the color it was supposed to be. The rest of that story - we shut the shop (weekend paint job) and simply left it, never looked at it for nearly 3 weeks - when we did it was with sandpaper supplies all ready to strip the car and start over... it was a pleasant surprise, but one that left me with a "never again" bookmark in my brain.

 

I used PPG on my car with no complaint

Fatcat, I thought you had a guy that knew what he was doing??? If you have a few hundred hours of work into that paint job....do you really want to take a chance on having to redo it again?

You are pretty good and maybe I'm chicken $hit when it comes to paint but I do know it doesn't take much to completely screw up a paint job!!!

Get some help if you can when it comes time for final prep and paint

 

Ok guys sorry I had a very close friend pass away and have been away for a minute. Soooo I may lose my painter (long story but not my fault) and already had decide to not do candy but still going with dark blue and a pearl. The question is! I wonder of I can do it by myself now if need be. You guys have seen my mechanical skills and learning abilities. What say you? Do I dare having never touched this area?

 

The first car I sprayed came out very unevenly and full of runs. I wasn't really in the right frame of mind for it, I was feeling rushed because it was about to rain and I felt the high humidity in the garage would be a problem. The second car I sprayed I spent an hour or two on the phone with a professional painter discussing what patterns to use and how to move around the car. It came out much better, no runs but the light in the garage was not the brightest and while I got the top surfaces of the car properly on the sides of the car I didn't put enough paint on and in bright light one could still see the primer faintly. I used a red oxide primer with a light silver green topcoat so that was certainly a lot of the problem.

In short, I would not recommend spraying the car yourself. If you must do it spend a lot of time reading how to adjust your spray gun, where to start on the car and which panels to prgoress to throughout the paint job and talk to a professional painter at length about how to do it. Reherse in your mind repeatedly and make sure you have the progression well memorized, be in a relaxed frame of mind with lots of time and don't rush.

 

Of course you can do it! Use a solid color base, put the pearl in the clear coat. Use single stage paints for both the clear and the base - then when there are runs, you can stop, let it dry, fix it, then continue on with your painting.

And I'm really sorry about your friend - that really sucks

 

Superbuickguy is more interested in disagreeing with me than he is in giving you good advice.

 

Also keep in mind if you are using a solvent based paint the fumes are toxic and flammable/explosive. I didn't pay close attention when I was painting my second car and had the compressor in the garage with me. The whole garage was thick with mist, all it would have taken was one spark and boom! To be safe you should have a helmet with an outside air supply from a compressor suitable for breathing.

 

Fatcat I think you are the kind of guy who has the guts to paint his own car. You just rebuilt your engine having not ever done that before and so far, it runs.
Having said that though what kind of finish do you want on your corvette. Can you live with a 10 footer?. If you paint it yourself going with a plain color will be easier. Pearl in the color is hard to get to lay down properly and look like it's supposed to without some practice. I've never had pearl in the clear coat so can't say how that would go. Having a quality gun and a good compressor are a must. Make sure a water separation filter is used. I have painted a few cars over the years mostly when I was younger and I used Laquer paint which was easy to work with. But my skills and equipment always left me with a less than perfect finish in the end. I have used base coat clear coat twice. Once with pearl in the paint. It did come out all right, but only at a distance. "Looked good from afar but far from good"

Sags, runs, fish eyes, and orange peel, those are some of the hazards of painting. Then you need to get it on evenly and if using pearl even more so. Clear coat is not too hard but more likely to run and sag as I recall. Temperature and humidity are important while putting on the paint and especially dust. Seems no matter how hard you try there is always some dust trapped in the clear coat. So if you use your garage wet it down beforehand and mask off everything you don't want to be the color of your car with over spray dust. Make a spray booth in the garage with drop cloths would be best.
Then the stuff is really bad for breathing. At a minimum use a respirator with organic compound filters. Better a pressure breathing apparatus. Your "booth" is going to fill up with paint "fog" and make it hard to see if you don't have a fan sucking it out while you work.
Do lots of reading on this from books then get something to practice on before laying it on your Corvette. An old hood or something like that. In the end if you're like me you'll still end up with a 10 footer.

 

wow, more fans.

FC - the best part about doing it yourself, as I said quite awhile ago, is you can do the job 3x and still save money. 1st time, will probably be adequate; 2nd time, you'll have figured out the basic stuff (like venting, keeping water out, and such stuff); 3rd time - you'll do better than most production body shops.

oh yeah... the fumes, don't forget the fumes.... and the children; WHO WILL PROTECT THE CHILDREN!!!! brother - newsflash the sky has already fallen... happened back in Noah's day.
As for painting.... I'd like to present my high-tech paint booth with the extra air filtration devices




of course, the camera didn't survive so well.... but it was in the hands of a child!!!! and we can't forget about the children!