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Topic: 12 bucks in spray paint = a new front end! (Read 1416 times) previous topic - next topic

12 bucks in spray paint = a new front end!

Eh, what the hell. Hadn't taken any pics since before the tint job, which is a must with a dark blue leather interior. It's been raining nearly every afternoon this summer, (including right now) so what work I can get in comes in little chunks.

When they repaired this car after whatever accident it had, they slapped a sandalwood-colored header panel on it and then proceeded to paint it the wrong color. So I had a tan header panel on a crystal metallic car. Bugged me quite a bit.

I had picked up this "Metal Specks" paint awhile back mainly with the intention of painting the smaller bumper strips on the side of the car. When I did the driver's side one, I noticed that it very nearly looked identical to the color of the car. If you look really closely, (in the pix in the next post) you can see the driver's side trim is painted and the passenger's side trim is still all yellowed and nasty. Figured what the hell, I'd try it on the header panel.

Also painted the rubbery part of the front bumper (and the license plate holder) with a paint that Shawn put me onto: Textured Metallic.. this one in graphite. Topped both paint jobs over with a bit of 500 degree clearcoat. (same stuff I use on things like that 5.0 HO plate I did)

I'm also working on painting most of the insides of the grille in the same textured metallic.. so in the meantime I put the old grille back on. Ideally, when it's done, it'll just show the chrome on the front of each grille line and the sides will be blacked out. The big chrome frame around that will remain chrome.

Hopefully, if some people like this stuff, it'll inspire ya to go out and do something similar that you may have been putting off for awhile or whatever. Not really fishing for compliments or whatever.. just hoping this stuff puts ideas in people's heads.

Re: 12 bucks in spray paint = a new front end!

Reply #1 –
I love this tint. Simple non-metallic tint done at a shop owned by a friend of the family. Cost me $110. Now the A/C has a fighting chance against that hot-as-hell dark blue leather. :D Anyway, this is just a sort of before-and-after shot of the little bumper strip with that paint on it.

I think in the near future I am going to pick up another can of that paint and do some of the faded trim sections, like the surrounds on the side mirrors that have gone gray over time. (not the whole mirrors, I'll leave the chrome parts chrome) Some of the lowest trim pieces will get that textured metallic stuff.  you Shawn! :p

Re: 12 bucks in spray paint = a new front end!

Reply #2 –
Oh yeah.. while I'm at it: I intend to keep the car the same color at least above that little chrome trim strip near the bottom. (the very bottom [of the sides of the car] is some faded darker color, like dark charcoal or dark blue) Any ideas out there for a decent/not-tacky color to paint the LSC wheels to go with it, or leave 'em as is with a little cleanup?

Re: 12 bucks in spray paint = a new front end!

Reply #3 –
I would either keep the wheels as they are, but cleaned or paint the centers back leaving the outer lip natural. It would go good with the tinting.
 

Re: 12 bucks in spray paint = a new front end!

Reply #4 –
Yeah, I was thinking of leaving the outer lip as-is even if I painted the centers. So black or maybe the graphite (textured) color I used on the front bumper?

As a small and very much trivial side note, usually the tires look better than they do in those shots. They're all pretty much brand new, and I tend to wipe them down quite a bit with a bunch of Armor-All Low-Gloss I bought way back before I realized Armor-All was about the worst thing to put on anything inside the car. So basically I'm just using it up.. but it does make the tires look a lot better. It's just been a few days since I last did it. Any painting done to the LSC wheels shouldn't be offset by py-looking tires.