Custom color paint schemes for a Sport?

[metal4life]

1996 Sport 4x4, currently dark green and faded gray plastic moulding.

About to embark on a paint adventure, was trying to get some ideas.

I'm gonna throw some Ion Alloy Type 138 17x8 wheels on it and 275/55/17 tires, so I'm looking for something that would compliment silver/black 5 spoke wheels and dark tinted glass...

I was thinking of stripping all the plastic off the sides and laying down a two tone scheme with satin/semi-gloss black on the bottom, gun metal silver metallic everywhere else, with a satin black stripe starting at a hood scoop, up and over the truck down to the license plate area.....or maybe just a black hood accent and leave the roof gun metal.

In any case, I doubt it would look bad AT ALL...but just looking for ideas.'

I love silvers, blacks, very dark reds and blues, charcoals. I'm looking for something simple to apply as I'll probably be doing it myself as a project(not too fond of the Maaco horror stories, nor am I fond of $1,000+ jobs), so I'm limited to single or dual color schemes.

I'm so excited to do this, if you have any other tips on how to do it right, I'd appreciate it a ton, thanks guys!

 

[FIND]

Paints with red or yellow pigment in it is the most expensive, black and grey is the cheapest. 80% of a paint job is the prep work, 5% is spraying, and 15% is finishing details, like polishing. Base clear jobs are more forgiving, single stage is cheaper and easier to do. You should be able to do an Explorer with around 4-5 quarts of paint for a single stage job Spend some time practicing on other things before you attempt a car. You will need a fairly large air compressor with at least a 5 hp motor to get you enough air delivery. Cheap paint guns = worthless paint jobs. You will need an area that is sheltered from wind and nature, but can still get you fresh air. You will also want some method to keep dust down, there are plenty of things you can spray on your floor and wall to keep dust down. I've only painted one car, most of the time it was farm equipment where I didn't really care that much, or trucks with mostly fiberglass bodies, but when you are painting metal parts that you care about, one should tie a ground strap down from a body ground to the ground to keep static down.

All told, if you have never painted a car before, and want a professional job, you are better off having a professional do it, especially if you don't already have the equipment. $3000-5000 aint a lot of money to make your car look brand new, especially when you consider that you are going to be spending at least half that for equipment if you want to DIY it, though it can end up costing a bunch more depending on who is doing it and how much damage they need to repair. A Maaco job doesn't necessarily have to be bad. The reason they are cheap is because they barely do any prep work. If you do all the prep yourself, you can get a good paint job from even Maaco.

 

[flamingX]

I agree with everything FIND said.

in regards to your plans with it, if you remove all the plastics you are looking at a ton of holes to weld up and the bottom of the quarters behind the wheel wells is just plain ugly under that molding plus will leave a 3" gap between the quarter and bumper.

I personally love the look of painting all the tins Gunmetal Grey and all the plastics, bumpers and add-on accessories black (I'd paint the grille surround grey and the insert black) then black out the the lights, either black euros or tinted covers. But that's just me. If in doubt, paint everything gunmetal, and piece by piece paint stuff black. That will be way easier than painting a whole bunch of parts black, deciding it's too much than trying to match the grey (metallics are touchy that way)

 

[2000StreetRod]

photo shop?

I suggest that you use photo shop or some other graphics program to generate an image of what you are comtemplating. Or you could take a photo of your vehicle and paint it to get an idea of what it's going to look like. Otherwise, you may be very disappointed with the results. I restored a 1960 Jaguar MK II many years ago. I picked the color for the exterior from a color chart with samples 1/2 inch by 1 inch. The blue I picked turned out much darker than I anticipated when the entire body was covered with it.

 

[Joe Dirt]

I agree with FIND on the prep. I had my Mustang painted at Maaco, but I did all of the prep myself- heck, I even papered the majority of the car in their parking lot.