I just painted my car with flat gray pait so it will look like primer. Shiney does nothing for me. Boring.... I have always walked by the shiney car to get at the one that looks "in progress". But I think it has somthing to do with the time and place you grew up in. Real Hot Rods wore primer. Daddy bought muscle cars had paint. Also I think it depends on what part of the process you enjoy. For me it's about the build, once the car is done (whatever that means) I tend to lose interest. Boils down to, I really don't care what others like. I pay the bill for mine.
I agree with Terry Flat is also a look. Some of my cars are shiney (my 48 Lincoln Continental) some are flat (most of the others). Some primers absorb H20 so I choose to spray flat on top of primer. I choose by what I want not what others think correct.
When i was a kid, my 1st few cars were primered. I couldn't wait to have a painted car. Just couldn't wait! Finally, i got a decent painted car, and then eventually had one freshly painted the color of my choice, and so on. To go back to primer makes no sense whatsoever to me. Just like tossing my TV and buying a black and white TV. WHY go backwards? However, I'm a big fan of base coat. The body doesn't have to be lazar straight, and the choices of color are infinite
Primer has been p***e since the first rodder took his Mom's Kirby or Electrolux vacuum cleaner with paint spray attachment (Mason Jar with siphon feed top) and a quart of paint from the hardware store and painted his precious car in the driveway under the tree. Who, after all, wanted his rod to be seen without a proper coat of finish paint? Let those guys building customs go around with "hotrod grey" or "hotrod red" primer around their recontoured fender caps and tail fins.
Base coats are cool... primer is cool for bodywork, I dont care too much for the blacks and greys and reds.. groucho i agree, base coats are a good way to go cause of the color options. -Anthony
Just finishing my 5th black suede car in 10 years, someone else has always liked the color as much as me. Maybe I'll have to repaint this one to sell it?
**Oh my gawd!! I totally saw Jimmy's car at the mall last week in primer and I was like eww, primer is So0o0o last Thursday and he was all "As if!!" and I was like "What-everrr!!!"**
LOL!! You can lock the thread now, this post covers the whole discussion. Thanks. Off to work, Larry T
Time for primer in any color but black. Flatzz has some cool colors. My rat is rattle can black but think I would choose another color next time, just to be"differnt". No rules for rats....
I never appreciated nice paint when I was younger. Sour g****s, really, since I couldn't afford to have it done. Then I learned to do it myself. Now I couldn't imagine just primer. But I really can't get into the bare steel deal. Way too much upkeep with the scotchbrite and the WD-40, etc. Good on ya, but I'm too busy for that nonsense. Course I have been known to go a couple of years in bare gelcoat...does that count?
As noted in the picture above you must use a gun for the primer. A brush is entirely to soft and if you could fire the primer with it, it would be quite dangerous! Seriously, use a gun.
If you paid for the car and maintain the car then it is up to you. Who cares if the rest don't like what you are doing. At the end of the day it is going to be parked in YOUR garage and you have to be happy with it. Pretty soon we will be talking about bare metal cars the way we talk about primered cars. Its a vicious circle really? Since the hamb is geared towards tradition, isn't it kind of going against tradition since primer spots and such were how things were done back in the hayday. Black primer with red wheels may be way overdone and kind of commercialized but it has its roots and place in our niche. If we start on what is in and out, sooner or later we will start saying a 1930 Model A is P***E! Do what you love, this is not a fashion show. AND YES UnIOnViLLEHauNT hit it right on the nose with his post. Absolutely hilarious!!!!
I wish I had a dollar for every FNG with the word rat in his name,,,,,,,I could finally afford a real paint job.... Bryan
I want Rods and Customs to be p***e so the price of stuff will come down. I like the FNG rat comment, cl***ic.
I agree with you, some of these guys are afraid to be old out of vogue. Just do it the way you like it.
Seems like a lot of people are getting offended and/or responding in a negative way towards this post. The question wasn't biased and is a fairly pertinent one. Whether you want to admit it or not, there are trends in everything and seems like there are certain colors that seem to run more at a given time than others. For a while, a lot of cars were copper and orangey colors, then golds. I, personally, have seen a lot more cars in paint as well...seems like they are either fully painted or totally patina'd and bare metal/surface rust. Not that there aren't any primered cars, but it does seem less to me. Also, seems like cars are getting lower in the rear, but I think there have been some posts about that already. That's my take...
I looked a a very nice 32 roadster at the kzoo nats last weekend black primer nice interior had red new style painted wheels with the nubs for the caps on the outside on the center and white walls.. They wanted like 35k for the car.. If im gonna spend that much id like it painted with something nice instead of the flat ****.. Dave
I don't know about offended but trends aren't relevant to me, other than how it has driven up prices. The coupe I'm driving has been in my head since I was 8. For years I dreamed, chased, and gathered bits and pieces long before it was "cool". I'll be running her the way I want long after it's cool too. I build what I like. If others like it, great. If they don't, I couldn't care less. BTW someday my coupe will be shiny, an intense blue. Who knows when that will be though.
I think it all has to do with 2 factors, maybe 3. How much money you have, how you spend the money you have, and what you have to start out with. I personally don't have a lot of money. What I am going to do with my money is build my 34 ford truck and get it running and safe for the road so I can drive it. I would LIKE to paint it but how it gets painted will depend on what I have left for money when that time comes. I only have the cab and a few suspension pieces right now and the cab is pretty rusty around the bottom and someone has used it for target practice. If it still had original paint and no holes in it, I might leave it that way because it's the original paint, or at least not new paint and that has some character. If it's original and doesn't look like a pile of **** why mess with it. If it looks like a pile of **** I'm going to do whatever I can with the money I have to make it look better. I wasn't around in the 'old' days obviously but I have talked with my father quit extensively on the subject. When he was younger, you did what you could to make the car fast, then you worked on body mods and if there was money left over, you painted it. Most of the time there wasn't any money so the car ran around in primer, no big deal. I think doing something because it's 'cool' or 'in' is stupid. If you like your car in primer and you have the money to get it painted, I don't understand why it stays in primer, but to each his own I guess. I'm all about having something that works well AND looks good doing it. No 'gingerbread' or anything that isn't needed. Opinions are like ***holes though. Everyone's got one and most of them stink.
Well I can only speak for myself, but I can't picture my car in anything but flat gray. Even if it is paint. I can't see Ryan's coupe but any thing but DP90, and I think Jimmy's is perfect in bare metal. Litening to those hear that think that the Rat, beater, or crusty (pick the name you like) is ****, and now that primer is just a un-finished car, sounds familer to me. Sounds like 30 years ago when the Gold Chainers started taking over. Are we becoming the thing we most hate? All that being said, I look at some cars painted and upholstered and am blown away. So I guess I'm just another A-hole with a opinion...
Who cares. Finish your hot rod to the level you desire it to be, not to the level of the "flavor of the month". It's all about the cars anyway, not what some jack*** cl***ifies it as. (rat rod, easter egg, street rod, hot rod, traditional, street machine, gold chainer, rust bucket, blah blah blah)
Thirty years from now fifty year olds will be telling twenty year olds,"That rat rod isn't trditional, when rats were built in my day..."
Any ***** who thinks primer is bad should go run for Paso city council. I'll spray my car with whatever I friggen want - maybe liquified dog doo next time - then people will have something real to go on and on about.
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