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53 paint

T

twhite

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Jul 25, 2005
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Location
Climax Springs USA
I have been looking for a particular color of paint for my 53 1-ton, called Maroon Burgundy, a color that was only used for 53-54. After much searching my local paint supplier found the formula, and mixed me up a gallon. I went through him because I wasn't certain I could get all of the proper reducer, solvent, and compatible primer material to go with what is available by catalogue.

I thought this was a sort of redish brown color. Turns out the stuff they mixed up is a purplish red. Also, they can only mix it in PPG brand, at $242 per gallon, which means I am looking at maybe $800 for materials to paint my truck. Has anyone ever seen the color? Does what I have described sound right? And does this sound like an appropriate price?

twhite
 
The price is what anything with red in it is bringing. Check around and see if any of the paint suppliers near you have a computer matching service. It will cost you $25 if you don't buy your paint from them--free if you do. With this information you are free to shop the markets, not be tied to just one brand. It will also give you paint type options like enamel, base coat/clear coat(BCCC), or single stage. There is a place in Ohio called Restorers Choice that has a system that lets you use regular enamel and their "basemaker" to go BCCC with less money. Dupont has a basemaker system but it's pricey. You have just entered the world of reality when it comes to painting, it takes a MINIMUM of $1200 worth of material to do a quality paint job on an old vehichle. You have media for blasting, rust treatment, epoxy primer/catalyst, filler, spot putty, urethane primer/catalyst, cleaner/degreaser, topcoat and usually clear along with reducer(some pricey "reactive"), thinner, fish eye eliminater, sand paper, sanding file strips,sanding discs, tape, paper and tack rags, ultra fine sandpaper for color sanding, course compound, fine compound, swirl eliminater, machine glaze, and hand glaze. This doesn't include buffing pads, foam pads, lint free wipes and towels. I'm sure I've forgotten some items, I always do when charging out to a customer.
 
I realized that paint is expensive. Last year when my daughter and I restored a 70 VW for her to drive I spent about $500 for paint, which was a catalyzed enamel on top of a catalyzed primer. I only needed 1 1/4 gallons of the paint, and that covered the whole car, inside, outside, and under. But that was a lower quality paint, which came pre-mixed in a limited assortment of colors. And I am assuming I will end up in the $1000 range for this truck by the time I am all finished.

I will probably buy my paint from my local supplier. They were very helpful when I was working on the bug, and helped me get a decent paint job, the first car I had ever painted. If it hadn't been for the fact that the bug was going to be my daughter's first car I would have gone for a better paint job, but I figured "16 year old..first car...don't worry about the paint until after the first accident".

I still would like to know if this color is the right one.

twhite
 
It is hard to believe you cannot find red paint for under $100.00 / gallon in a good quality single stage system , two stage is crap and will only last a few years , cannot be cut nor buffed , hard to make spot repairs and so on , not apropriate for a truck in any case as it is sure to get scratched .

Time to keep asking as there _will_ be a local place that does custom mixing to suit , I am not recalling this particular color , sorry .

DuPont used to have a very good tech line for vintage colors in modern mixes......

-Nate
 
Well, I got my paint, or at least enough of it to do the underside of the cab. The paint turned out to be a deep red, reminds me of the color of ripe bing cherries. I bought one gallon of paint, I had some of the reducer left over from the Bug, so I got a pint (?) of hardener. I also had some surfacer and reducer left over, so I only needed to get some hardener.

I spent most evenings this past week doing minor touch-ups, and cleaning the shop up enough to be able to spary. Then this weekend I shot the primer on the bottom of the cab, and the underside of the dash (very easy to get to with the cab upside down!)

Then I put three coats of color on the underside of the cab, as well as the firewall/toe board, and had enough to do the bottom of the outside of the cab, to about the belt line. I know I will have to paint over some of what I have done later, but at least I know that the bottoms of the corners and such are well covered now.

twhite
 
Sweet ! the bottom of my cab is 100 % rusty ~ only a few flakes of paint left . good thing I live in Sunny Southern California ! .

I hope to de-rust and paint it someday but life and work keep getting in the way ya know .

Any pix yet ? .

-Nate
 
So far things seem to be going well. I am not 100% satisfied with the quality of the paint job, but after talking to the local paint store people I think I am going to be buying a new gun. The one I have been using is the one that came with my compressor when I bought it from Sears many years ago. I guess it leaves something to be desired in quality. The gun I am looking at has a much higher transfer rate (the percentage of paint that actually goes on the truck) and much better atomization, which should make for a smoother coat.

I am still learning about this stuff. Wish I had known a bit more when I painted my daughter's VW.

I have taken some photos of the work in progress, and will send them along after I reduce the file size a bit.

By the way, how do I reply to an e-mail I got from someone at this site? The only address is chevyduty forum. Is there a way to get a real address, or do I just reply and assume they will forward it appropriately?

twhite
 
RE: 53 paint & E-mails

Look on the upper right of the box containing this message , you'll see an envelope and paper with a pencil over it , hover your cursor over that and you should get a pop up message saying " send an e-mail to VWnate " or whomever it is that wrote the post . click on the souce of that popup and you should get a window opens up to warite a direct , off list message to the original poster . I hope this helps .

I find that by slowly hovering my cursor over things I don't recognize , I get cool messages that teach me things .

Being a computer dufus is no fun but I muddle on through anyway .

I hope you're planning on buying a HVLP paint gun now ? the kind that had the paint cup on the _top_ rather than hanging below , you'll find it's far easier to use and as you said , get WAY more paint on the job , making it extremely economical too .
Be sure to pracice on some junk fenders as it requires different thinning of the paint and handling techniques too .

My buddy who is a professional painter bought a cheapo HLVP paint gun from Harbor Freight and loves it better than his old super expen$ive Binks paint gun..

Did you know that the diminuative VW Beetle is considered the hardest car in the world to paint ? that's because it has so many compound curves you need to compensate for with your hand .

There should be other , older posts containing good painting tips & info in the archives .


-Nate
 
I know this is an old posting, but I've been looking for lower priced good paint too! I saw this site on ebay called www.paintforcars.com. They sell Hawthorn paint. It appears to be as good as PPG but a lot lower in price. I am considering their Aqua Metallic for my 1950 Suburban. A gallon of the paint is about $45.oo!
That doesn't include hardner/activator. But I think I can come out a lot cheaper without looking like a poor church mouse!Anyway it mentions that if you have any questions to email them [email protected]. Their phone # is 732-240-6667. I'm no quite ready to paint my Burb yet. I still have so much sanding to do yet! I hope this helps you - Keith Gilchrist - keithburb50
 
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