Projects Tim's (aka anothercarguy) 1938 Ford Club Cabriolet Build Thread

What a tale of frustration!
I would have scoured the interwebs for one for sale. Many dealers include a picture of the door jamb sticker, which should have the paint code.
Picture 24 of 25 here.
https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/26ae63bf-8e38-475f-a8c3-28a8b455c770/

 

Yup...that's what I did from the comfort of home...on my desktop.

 

Good on ya!
I think I'd call those dealers again and try to reach a higher-up. Explain how every bit of money they spend on advertising is wasted on anyone within the range of your voice due to the lack of proper public interaction shown by their staff. This isn't a key code or privileged service data, it's a paint code that's on every one sold and in the manuals.
If the parts department requires a VIN for each and every conversation, they are going down the Radio Shack path of limiting sales to only those providing data. There should be some serious training going on.

 

Takes lot of Sherlock work to fine paint. See car for sale call ask vin # “ want to do CarFax “ on that vin. Looks like you ended up with a match, good luck

 

Your version of the color will look great on your '38. Looking forward to the photos!

 

I'm treating this thread like you guys are all my buddies, dropping into the shop to see what's going on. I get to show you what's happening, the good, the bad and the ugly.

The first thing I did when I got down to the shop is started to give the fenders a wipe down with the anti-static wax and grease remover. It seemed to make the fenders tacky and there was paint color on the rag...a little heavier pressure and sure enough the the first colored basecoat (which had been sanded with 600 wet) pretty much wiped off! The good news, I discovered this before applying a wet coat of the newly colored base and had the whole thing lift into a wrinkly mess! The basecoat doesn't have any activator mixed in with it (just reducer) so am guessing it depends on the activator in the clear to kick it hard. The bad news meant I was going to have to "wipe" the first basecoat off the fenders using lacquer thinner and a roll of paper towels. It took a bit less than an hour.


Front fender done, rear to go...
Then, for the moment of truth...applying the science experiment revised basecoat...I'm calling it "Almost Tony Green"!

I like the color...so started mixing up a batch of the clear...first pic is through the window in the booth.

And because I couldn't wait...I stuck my head and camera in the door and snapped one more shot.

I'm very happy with the outcome! Tomorrow, I'll start on the second set of fenders and my fingers are crossed that there will be far less drama and excitement!!

 

I’m no painter, but don’t all layers of paint need an activator (hardener) in them?

 

I too am not a painter (obviously!), and would have also thought so too...but not according to the Technical Data Sheets that came with the products I'm using...I'm mixing the products and quan***ies as recommended. The flash time between the basecoat and the clearcoat is 10-15 minutes (very short)...which is what leads me to believe the manufacturer (Transtar) are counting on a chemical bonding/hardening between the base and clearcoat. Fingers crossed.

 

My very limited understanding is in a base/clear coat, the base is often not catalyzed and does not have UV protection. The clear is normally both.
A single stage can be either non-catalyst (often older and cheaper) or catalyst, but should have UV.

@anothercarguy that wipe down saved your backside!

 

Looks like you hit your mark on the color. Looks great! Good to see you’re making good progress.

 

I know that color. This is also Fiat green Bad lighting, but it’s the Fiat green.

sprayed most of this one years ago, another shop did the front fenders.
Next time ya need help with a color, PM me.

the lifting issue, I haven’t had that in a while.
Usually due to a “hot” reducer. I think some companies added a hardener to the base to help with that. I’ve added a cap of hardener to base before even though the tech sheet doesn’t mention it.
No adverse effects.

 

Thanks...will do!

I used a medium reducer, shop/booth temp is 68 degrees.

Interesting...which hardener? The same as the clear?

Thanks for chiming in.

 

Yes, the clear hardener.
“Hot” is not necessarily a temp term. Some reducers are stronger than others. Sikkens paint didn’t like itself back in the day. It would wrinkle if you had to repair fresh paint.
Wetting up the base heavy would cause issues.

 

Well, now you have a "custom" mixed -or- "hotrodded" paint color... . & you can say truthfully, "you did it yourself". . If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself - or something like that... .
Marcus...

 

Might be useful to someone watching all this paint stuff.
http://www.sharpe1.com/sharpe/sharpe.nsf/Page/Paint+Terminology

 

The whole VIN thing to get a color on a new car is because each car is literally a different color and they keep track of that. Generally speaking, no two are exactly alike, despite having the same name, because of what color was in the spray robot from the car/cars before. Imagine they spray 50 white cars and then 50 green cars, the first few green cars are getting progressively darker as the residual white in the system after initial clean out is being flushed out. Possibly by the end they are all the same true color but the first bunch coming off the line after a switch over are not. The factory makes a record of the spectrum and that is the color you must order to make a match. In the old days they had the books with variations of each color to account for the dirty gun from the last car but that was a visual guess, now its much easier to match for collision work.. So what you did getting a VIN is the only way today to get a perfect match to a single automobile. But that car, with that VIN is a unique color and possibly why you had to add the black to get to where you wanted to be. If you had a different VIN of a car that was sprayed after a changeover from black cars it might have been spot on.

 

@Crusty Chevy I would believe that if they offered an exact match pint of paint. And that the paint supplied would spray out exactly the same shade anywhere in the world with the local hardeners and reducers, equipment and conditions.
And if they ignored all of that and understood this customer across the counter is going to be shooting an entire car that's not a Fiat so that level of granularity is not only unneeded but a waste of everyone's time. The car that was painted in the middle to end of the group of Green is the base standard and fully acceptable.
Considering how difficult it is to get replacement modules and then have them properly programmed for new cars, I doubt strongly that the manufacturer's are really scanning each car for exact color match for future owner repairs. Is that first car after a color change covered with a gradient? Is the spray path do***ented and shared so it can be duplicated during respray?
Can someone like OP get a visual indication or a mix formula so they can select the 'best' one out of the spectrum of cars produced?

 

No offense intended, but I'm a little skeptical about this explanation.

I worked for 32 years for a major car manufacturer, and personally, I never read or heard that VINs (which are bases on international standards) contain such precision.
I can ***ure you that their painting processes absolutely prevent color mixing. However, colors can vary depending on several factors: paint and related product suppliers, primers, and painters themselves a**** others. They also change, notably due to the effects of UV light.

Here, the cause seems to be something else entirely: confusion between two colors with the same name but produced at different times with different compositions... and that's where the VIN can be useful for identifying the correct color!

 

I agree...and I also suspect a computer system that doesn't have wide spread search capability. The computer has been made idiot proof, give me a VIN, and I'll spit out what you need to know.

 

This is how it was explained to me at my local ColorCrafters auto body supply place. I normally just bring them in old color chip charts usually and they have to call it in to get a modern formula that hey can mix. I once asked about a new dark blue Porsche color and they wanted a VIN and that was the explanation they told me.

 

A newer Porsche has a wild amount of color choices, since they do Paint To Sample and that may not have door sticker codes for every variation.
https://www.porsche.com/stories/innovation/a-porsche-innovation-powered-by-your-imagination/
50 years ago, mopars had a paint code of 999 for fleet and other non-standard colors.
A 13 year old Fiat in a standard color is not the same.

 

All this talk of color matching factory color makes my head hurt. I like local farm hardware store has selection farm tractor paints. Latest fav I like are Ford blue & gray. Primer black works also. Last paint job was jeep in Caterpillar yellow - used a brush; spay bomb over hood to hide some brush strokes. Drive em get ‘em dirty

 

Hey out there to all you HAMB'rs and Hoodlums...on this Christmas eve day, I'd like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and happy holiday season! Hoping your 2026 is filled with prosperity and hotrod fun!

I'd also again like to say thanks to all of you that are following the thread, offering advice and inputs, words of encouragement or praise, and of course all those "Likes"...I appreciate them immensely.

By way of an update, I've been rolling small batches through the "paint booth" and thankfully all have been without any further drama. The second pair of fenders are done as are the doors and a few small pieces. It is apparent they will need a cut and polish before ***embly, but I'm used to that. I may even let the pieces cure, give them a wet sand and then shoot another coat or 2 of clear before doing the final cut and polish.


And, just for sh*ts and giggles...here's a photo of a small gag project I put together while waiting for the paint to dry...because I have a sick mind, and the tools to see the sick thoughts through...I call it the "Pogo-lunger", for when "**** gets real" and an industrial level of plunging is required!!


Have fun out there!

 

Merry Christmas Tim! Sorry you had problems with your color. It looks great though! You are sure a lot faster at this paint stuff than Don and I are.

 

LOL,love it!!

 

Nice work Tim and Merry Christmas and Happy New year as well. I like the pogo plunger! Useful for the next Curmudgeon road trip. lol

 

Yup...now you're in on the gag/plan!

 

Colors vary for multiple reasons.
A car factory is an ***embly plant. Company A makes the plastic parts and delivers them to the ***embly plant painted
The ***embly plant can purchase brand X paint the change to brand Y
The plastic parts can be sprayed with brand Z
Brand X,Y and Z all have different batches.
The ***embly plant has a color standard that would probably surprise you on the acceptable shade variation