Projects Black paint, let’s discuss

At one point my better half and I both had black daily drivers and a black OT Mopar. Not sure what I was thinking...

Nothing looks better than black done right

 

I don’t know if I have the dedication to own a black car. I am getting lazy in my old age…

 

I just shared this thought on my PU thread but it is applicable here. It is easier to date the uglies than the Betty's. The cute ones are high maintenance like black paint jobs. The ugly ones might cook better but the beauties are worth the extra effort...for a while at least.

 

I’ll circle back with you in a year @Bandit Billy. I’m sure I’ll still be just thinking about getting started.

 

I’m too lazy for black vehicles

 

I love shiny black cars! I've owned several but I have to admit that non-shiny, non-black cars are a lot less work.
My last shiny black car...

 

I've had two black vehicles. The first was a '65 El Camino I bought w/o an engine or trans, no rt. quarter and the front sheet metal in the bed. It was white and had 1/4"+ of spilled paint in the bed. Luckily the paint shop was painting an antique fire truck and had rented a monster sand blaster. Twelve coats of black lacquer and a black vinyl seat, no A/C. I was a young man then. The second is my current OT daily PU. It's black because it was used and met my needs and wants at a price I was willing to pay.

 

Black is a pain to keep looking good; get it all washed up and a couple of hours later there's dust all over it. Having said that, I've always had at least one black car for the last 51 years; usually have 2 or 3 at the same time. Guess I'll never learn...

 

If I can do it you can do it better. You're the one that made me pony up on that Iwata paint gun! BTW, what a nice gun. I have several older HVLP's for completes and jambs but that Iwata made even me look good. Gloss is good. Flat isn't so good, for example; boobies, beer, soda pop, music, tires or paint...IMHO

 

I wanted to buy this roadster, it was shiney and black, but it was NOT for sale!

 

Here is a very happy teenager with his new 1958 Chevy 280 hp Impala getting the scratch free squeeze in our very narrow 40s house and driveway opening.

Hello,

Ever since the fall of 1957, we have been caretakers of a shiny black new car, the 58 Impala that my brother just bought after selling his 51 Oldsmobile two door sedan and our Model A Coupe that was going to be our daily driver/drag racer. It happened so fast that the new car erased all ideas for the next two years. It was drag racing every weekend and maintenance the rest of the week.

Although it was my brother’s car initially, it was up to me to do the detailing and maintenance in exchange for “free” rides to where ever I wanted to go in the area. The Pike, the beach, school dances, Lion’s Dragstrip, until I got my own license to drive. I found out many years later that my brother was given to ultimatum by our mom to take me where I needed to go, as she did not drive.

But, my brother was sneaky and said he would do it. The sneaky part was that he seemed like a nice guy offering to take me somewhere, as long as I washed and waxed the Impala. Our mom never got the trick he pulled for several years. I did not know about the ultimatum, but my maintenance work gave me access to trips to friend's houses, Lion's Dragstrip, and especially arriving at school dances in a shiny black 58 impala was very cool and character building.

I found out that a black car instantly got dirty as soon as it was in the shady garage for its thorough wax job. But, as long as I was there to wipe down the car with a clean rag, I was on call to “prep” the Impala if my brother was going out with his friends.

One of the first things my brother had done was to remove the two rear antennas and got a new front fender unit installed. The job was done with lead filler work and the black paint matched perfectly.

The black paint was superior in deep shiny looks after a good coating of wax. After starting with a rough Vista Wax, the Cadillac Blue Coral Wax came along and made the shine last longer.

Several years later, when I was driving the Impala, we discovered the Classic Car Wax for the deepest, longest lasting shine, ever. The display at the L.A. County Fairgrounds made a believer out of all of my teenage friends. We all went home with several cans of the wax. That lasted through many cars in the lineup over the years.


One of the last “mods” for our black Impala as shown by @themoose Thanks, M...

Red is nice as an overall color, so is Dark Blue, but compared to all Black, it is hard to compare as Black just stands out so much cleaner and cool. IOHO

Jnaki

As much coolness of black cars were in the storied history of hot rods, one thing was that they stood out from all of the rest of the early cars. Yes, black cars are one of the standard colors and was a favorite, but comparing a black Impala to a White one, to many, there is no contest. But, black gets dirtier faster and the upkeep is eventually going to beat up the brain and old muscles. YRMV

Note: In more recent times, we have discovered that living along the Pacific Coast does wonders to cars, let along Black cars. Since those high school days, we have owned two black cars. Learning about the best wax for salt air protection by using a product called Collinite saved the day. But still, the black paint was a magnet for dust, salt air mist, fog and ordinary night time mist.

 

Three words, Chris:
Three Window Larry.

 

Remember all blacks are not created equal- there are different colors of black- brown black, blue black for example- the best way to see this is to park a black Ford next to a black Lexus in direct bright sunlight- you will see the difference.

 

True fact! When I picked out my black for the truck I just sprayed I went to the paint dealer and we went through the books looking up the ingredients in each formula I liked. Some had yellow (BMW) some browns and many had blue and/or purple. I went with the inkiest black we could mix. It eats light and craps out darkness. Ozzie would like this hue on his fingernails

 

For me getting my first black car 29 roadster last spring,
I’m now painting my 28 Tudor black on black.

I guess the old statement is true “once you go black, you never go back”

 

Black is beautiful... On someone else's car!

 

Once you go black you never go back. Ron

 

I spy a Cadillac.

 

My 55 is black. It always has been. Since it is my 1st car, I did a full body off restoration that was finished in 1998. The first photo was taken 20 years later, in 2018. The second was taken this summer.

About a month before the first photo, I did have the paint rebuffed for the first time since 1998. However, very little has been done since then. I've probably washed it maybe two times since 2018. However, I have not waxed it since then. It's probably been waxed maybe 4 - 5 times since 1998. In case you haven't guessed, I hate washing and waxing cars.

It does get dusty quite quickly. My solution is the California Car Duster that I bought a year after the body off was finished.

My biggest complaint about having a black 55 Chevy is that I quite often get asked if I built it to be like the "American Graffiti" 55. The answer is No! It was all black when it rolled off the Tarrytown N.Y. assembly line on Memorial Day 1955. It was black when I bought it 45 years ago and it will always be black.

By the way, it's base coat clear coat. It did get washed in the second photo, though. It rained and later I squeegeed it off. LOL!

I really ought to wash it properly...Well, maybe next year. LOL!

 

^^^^Nice paint!!!

 

I have nothing against black but when it comes to hot rods it seems they only come in 2 colors, black or red, atleast at car shows.

The wife's ot dd is black and it shows dust terribly. And during the summer it's hot, damn hot to the touch and with a black and tan interior it gets real hot inside too. Go to the store for an hour and come back out the first thing you do is start the car, turn a/c on hi, roll down a couple windows then put the groceries in the trunk.

My dd is copper colored and not near as hot. Dings definitely show up worse on hers.

Thought about black for my 31 tudor but it was only once, then I decided on a neutral color.

.

 

Go ahead and just paint it Black. Body work must be flawless. Use PPG or Sikkens. You will love it.

 

Only skimmed this thread but I will say my black car has been so filthy most the time that the hand prints have dust over them. And it still looks like a shiney black car in a photo or from 20 feet away.

 

Thought I would ask, it's always been a curiosity to me: why does OLD black factory original paint have that distinctive blue tinge (esp Fords and MoPars)?

 

"It eats light and craps out darkness" Thanks for the chuckle !

 

LOL...but once you go FLAT black, you won't have to "wax-off" anymore.

 

I don't think my black cars are any more work to maintain than any other color cars. Paint is paint. And the real issue is whether or not your body work is good, which is within your control.

Here's a trick, too. If the bodywork isn't great and your paint is looking a little weathered, just take pictures from far away and in the rain. Nobody will notice.

 

I have a friend who used to say that "black is the absence of color".
Have had several black vehicles - both our '39 Fords were black. This sedan was painted with PPG DDL-9300 black lacquer because I had it sitting on the shelf in my garage and I love the look of hand rubbed black lacquer.



Is it higher maintenance than any other color? I don't really think so. As others have said, with any color you can do as much or as little maintenance as you feel comfortable doing and the results will "reflect" that....
But if it was mine, and you're shooting for that 1959-1962 timeline, I'd go with something a little brighter as that seemed to be the trend about then.
The big decision comes from not whether you're willing to put in the work of maintaining, but more so do you have the skills and patience to get it straight enough for black?? I finally got to the point where I said, Good enough". And for me, it was.