Technical Can paint jobs be too beautiful ?

Maybe I'm just gettin old and my tastes have changed some, but recently there has been some discussion about the cars competing for the big name awards at major car shows. Lately it seems to me that the paint jobs have reached the point of being too "glitzzy" and the vivid and foot deep colors seem to overwhelm the actual car. Maybe its the lighting surrounding the vehicles............but it seems like I have reached the point where I really don't care for that look. Not that my opinion matters to anyone besides me, but I find I enjoy looking at cars where the emphasis is on the car.......not just the paint. I like flames when they are done right, and custom highlighting when it accents things properly.
I like a tasteful amount of chrome or nickel but don't care for overwhelming chrome everywhere. I can like a vivid color as well as a basic color.........but I just don't care for the extreme shine and foot deep clearcoat.
I guess I just tend to appreciate the mechanical aspects of cars more than their gloss.......Rant Over

 

If it don't shine,
It aint mine!

But I get your rant. The Great 8, far more than AMBR, is more on an exercise in excessiveness, at least as I see it.

 

Show cars have to keep pushing the boundaries to compete. Its not always pushing in the right direction.

 

I think a lot of cars end up with paint jobs that make them "undrivable". Too much effort in the paint, to be able to drive it and risk damage.

I'm all in on your rant.

 

For some*,yes for a time? *

Often show car paint=Over the top done!! Ya!
.,But really only if it total stops owner from driving. Mostly the big deal is the first few scratchs"OMG". = It's going too happen,if driven,some.
Face the fact,an enjoy the car!
Between 1959 an now{ 2024},I've repainted my 28A hotrod 5 times,always Gloss Black. Sure a little touch-up in between for a scratch or something that seemed to bother me.
*I do find that some,have a idea of how it's got to be,that actually keeps them from having fun. ="I have to buy real high $ paint an have a pro do it!"
When actually the smooth prep of car before painting it ,is what makes most of a great look. Not the cost of a can of paint.
I've always just used gloss enamel,but lot of my time for smooth body to put it on!

 

All depends what you want in a car. If you are building a "trailer queen" and all you do is put it in the trailer to and from a car show, because you don't want to take a chance at road rash ruining your paint then yes, your paint is too beautiful. I have seen cars in so called "Top 25" or "Top 10" areas at shows that have 10 or 20 miles on the clock. If you don't want to drive it, why build it. Or leave it in the garage and carry an 8"x10" picture around your neck and tell people that it's a picture of your car.

 

No they can’t!

 

I can understand where this is coming from. The paint color want for my 48 is a three or 4 stage paint that costs 1000 extra on the little offshore boxes of wheels it comes from the factory on. That Porsche Indiana red that is over on my avatar photo that I didn't clearcoat as I should have cost me about 40 bucks a gallon in 1982 dollars plus the extras for an under 200 dollar paint job. I would have been a lot better off to have painted it a non metallic color though. That because I got jail bars in the metallic.

I'm going with a production color as I always have simply because If I ever have to have it fixed it should be a lot easier to fix.

Still I am not about to knock other's folks strive for perfection be it in paint or total hand built build. That does raise the bar but that is where we can borrow ideas that someone spent hours our weeks figuring out and trying out to take and run with on or own projects or in some case abandon ideas that even done by the best craftsmen in the land don't work as well as we thought they might. Those high dollar paint jobs might challenge some of our younger members to raise the bar and their expectations a bit and work to develop similar skills. They might push some of the older highly skilled painters in the group to experiment a bit more than they usually do. Remember Candy paint came about because some painter said "what if" Metal flake the same way.

 

This is my truck and it is about as good as I can paint. Am I scared to drive it? Nope. I can fix it if it gets marred. I like driving nice cars...that I built.

 

There are show cars and cars that are driven. You don't put $20,000 worth of paint on a car you are going to drive to show and around town. I painted my cars, are they perfect? NO but I drive them and built them myself with junk yard parts. Am I proud of them? Absolutely because I did it myself. Most show cars are painted by professional's for big bucks, not the owner. The owner just paid for all the perfect work.

 

No.
Nor can engines be too powerful.

 

Don’t know what’s wrong with me, I’m more attracted to this than that

 

The "in betweens" have always been the ones for me. Not rough like they came out of the field or so nice that if a kid touched them the owner would need lifeflight. Just a nice clean paintjob that suited the car, and maybe had a few scratches and rock chips.

 

Yep, I'm more in your camp. Been on both ends, and ones like this will always catch my eye first.

 

The nicer the paint job the more it costs. If the cost is steep the owner might overprotect the vehicle and not get the full enjoyment out of it. It will get scratched and/or dinged.

 

Not if I do 'em!

 

Hot rods built for "show" lack Soul... IMO
As they get more "perfect" they seem to lose something.

 

If you’re competing for a big name award you go as far as talents, vision and wallets will take you.
Each award set it’s parameters.
Restoring an old ride for Pebble Beach? then the work probably should represent the original work. If Lacquer was used originally, then a BC/CC paint probably isn’t what you need.
I like the mile deep paint and insane detail these big award cars achieve.
I drive junk with crappy old paint and rust. I love that as well.
I’m just as proud of my beater as Kindig probably is of his winner. I at least hope he is.
I guess I’ll never understand why some can’t respect someone else’s lane to build what they like.
It all kinda comes off as being either envious of abilities or deep enough pockets to pulll these big name award cars off.
Each build represents builders, craftsman, designers, suppliers….. making a living doing something they enjoy.
The cars most of these people drive to work to build these “works of art” are the same crap we drive.
I’ve seen folks called lazy for not painting stuff so what do we call the ones that try too hard?
There just ain’t no pleasing some of you curmudgeons.
So I guess these builders will just keep on pleasing themselves. Many find solice in the fact that their pursuit of excellence bothers other people.
I think it’s funny as well.

 

I understand what you mean.

I like a nice paint job, not excessive, one that means it's driven, rock chips and all.

To me it's getting back to the Era where it's getting to be too much, much like the early to mid 60's where the more crap&chrome you put on the more points you get. Getting to the point whether or not the piant accents the body lines or just stands out to get your attention. Me I prefer accentuates on paint. Not just wide diagonal strips down the body that do nothing but fight against body lines.

If I can't drive it- I don't want it. If my grandkids can't get inside it and ride- I don't want it. If a kid at a car show can't come up and be allowed to touch and sit in it-I don't want it.... guess that's the easiest way to say it...

...

 

I’ve heard those cars referred to as “glazed hams”

 

I can appreciate the work that has gone into a high end paint job, and they look great, but if I had spent that much on a paint job, I would have to go see my heart specialist each time I came back to my car, hoping no one scratched , leaned or slobbered on it. I lost interest in having a fantastic paint job after getting back to my car (which had a nice paint job that cost loads when I was young) and finding that some arsehole had "detailed" my doors with his boot. This was at a hot rod show, no less.
Funnily enough, when I used to pull up somewhere with my original paint job 37' Chevy, sometimes next to a megabuck street rod with a fantastic paint job, people would migrate around my car, and ignore the big buck monstrous blown thing next door, much to the teeth gnashing disappointment of the owner!

 

Haha, around here $20K is a driver paint job now. 25 years ago it was a show car job. I was just looking at the cost of materials. $800 for a gallon of base coat for a modern Ford nonmetallic gray. $1,500 for a gallon of a modern GMC tint coat deep red color. That's just paint. No clear, masking, reducer, primer, filler, tape, gun wash, time, or consumables. Not all of us can paint our own stuff, but even a simple paint job is very costly now.

 

At some point these cars become more like artwork than transportation....when that happens there's no limit to the paint, and/or the plating.
Car shows have their place in automotive history, and the evolution of it.
If someone creates one of these pieces of artwork, and wants to do nothing more than admire it, more power to them.
To each their own, until/unless it adversely affects me.

 

NO !
What’s the point if you can’t drive it for fear of a scratch or road rash, Drive the bitch, those little dings scratches etc add character. Lately a lot of people get excited about patina, you ain’t getting patina sitting in a garage. I love old race cars and hot rods that have some character especially if they’ve been cared for. A friend has a gorgeous 57 Chevy doesn’t get drove you know “don’t want scratches or dings!” Well one day he tips a ladder over and smack - big old ding- Oh the humanity!
I agree some paint jobs are so over the top that any ding is going look hideous. Maybe the thing to do would be have a 500 mile drive to the show qualifier.

 

SHOW OFF!!

Ben

 

I lean towards Hot Rods with under done paint jobs as opposed to over done paint jobs. Base coat, clear coat is for show cars…nothing I’d ever dream of owning.
But, life would be boring if everyone liked the same thing.

 

...I prefer my $11.00 paint job, including the brush...and still have a 1/2 a quart left.

 

I've always been cheap, er economical. Had to be, couldn't afford anything else. A nice smooth shiny enamel paint job looks as good or better to me than a multi stage deep clear coated candy bar. Kudos to those who can afford it or can do it themselves, not going to knock it, but I have to keep it simple. I drive my stuff, rock chips and scratches say I'm not afraid to hit the highway.

On the other hand, rust is not patina, rust is neglect. Patina is a well worn or faded paint, not surface rust everywhere. Mine has some rust bubbles, I'm not proud of them. They will get fixed in time if I live long enough.

 

Amen. I've looked at cars that had to have $30k in the paint, but couldn't be driven. I have tons of respect for the amount of work that goes into perfection though.