Projects The Consolation Prize - '61 Olds Super 88

Jesse got the car in gold this weekend. The color is absolutely nuclear, and has an amazing effect even right out of the gun, with no clear on it.


I'm glad I overbought materials since it wound up taking more candy than we both expected. We batched the candy gold to even the color prior to spraying.

Here's what the order of materials looked like.

 

This is going to be stunning!

 

Niiice…. Gonna be killer

 

That Pagan Gold with the pearl white will be a knockout…

 

Yep.

Anxious to see the final result.

 

Quick update on progress...

I took a couple days off of work and got in the booth with Jesse to figure out what layout we're going to go with. Even though I've had the vision fairly well in my head for a while, there is no replacement for laying tape , taking a step back, and having honest conversation with someone else who "gets it" about what does and doesn't look good. I think that's an important step, everyone leaving their egos out and bringing their ideas and frank opinions to the table, with the sole objective of creating the baddest custom paint job we can.





I've been a vocal House of Kolor fan boy, and I just love the vibrance of the colors and the wild effect, not to mention the HOK paint held up beautifully on my 57 Ford. But holy hell do they make you work for it. It's just a steep learning curve for those of us who aren't real familiar with the system. Jesse is a hell of painter, and was able to work through whatever difficulties we had. We wound up having to lock down the gold with a catalyzed clear, then resand the whole car and reshoot the white. We both agreed that it wasn't worth the gamble to risk the gold bleeding up into the white, and I was more than happy to eat the labor to prevent that possibility. Do it right and do it once.

 

Jesse also had the idea to white out the jambs, which I wasn't super stoked about at first. But he made a solid case, and we went for it. Glad I did, I think they look killer.

 

Oooo, ahhh, Dayuum that's nice Joe...

 

Man, this is coming out killer!

 

Very nice layout, and I also like the white doorjambs.

 

Right off the gun, the paint looked great with several coats of USC01 show klear. Had to roll it out for some shots in the sun.


The hood and decklid got put back on, and the buys have been busy sanding and buffing.


Seeing the smooth hood on there makes the hours spent smacking it back into shape all worth it. You guys know, this is the exciting part of the build where all the elements start to come together.

I'm also officially registered for the basement at the Detroit Autorama 2024, so I have my work cut out for me to get this totally buttoned up before it makes it's real debut.

That pretty much brings us to the present

 

Wicked!

 

High fives in droves Joe, just making my way through this journey you're well into now...you have a high bar and it shows...

 

Are you freaking kidding me? Gorgeous

 

Damn…can’t wait to see it in the Basement..

 

Un-friggin-real!! Gorgeous!

 

I may just have to schedule a trip to Detroit!

 

This cool Oldsmobile of yours is definitely turning into one magnificent KICK ASS ride!
Time well spent, money well spent also!

 

Very exciting updates. This car is going from great to greater.

 

What a 'Like' fest...and some real drama thrown in to boot...the pay off, I'm still picking my jaw up off the floor...

 

Oohhhh that is nice!!!

 

Veeeerrrryyy nice!

 

Stunning I tell ya... I have just ventured into doing 2-tone paint work on model cars. The key is using the right tape for that. Big cars must be easier.

 

That will sure brighten up the depths of cobo hall!

 

Go Man Go !

 

Absolutely killer paint.

 

WOWZA!

 

Thanks for the kind words guys. I'm very pleased with how it's all coming out.

I'm not going to kid you, the paint has been a battle. I think a lot of that has to do with HOK and how complicated their paint system is. That's not a knock on their quality at all, it's just that sometimes it felt like there was no clear answer in how to proceed or which product to use. Jesse has used mostly Axalta products in the course of his business, so the House of Kolor was a steep learning curve.

Luckily, their tech support is great, and Juan "Munch" Gonzalez was a great help in guiding us on the approach to the job considering how the products would react together. Munch is also a local NJ guy, who used to paint at Valhalla Restoration and Fabrication in Port Murray, NJ before taking on a national role with HOK. In fact, I met him first not through cars, but when we bumped into each other ordering Mexican at Juanitos and I pulled up in my 57 Ford. He was a huge help and a great resource.

A few things:

-"Kandy Basecoat" is really a misnomer. Make no mistake about it, this is a true candy. Any preconceived notion about this paint system operating like a standard base coat should go out the window. You have all of the issues and difficulties with this Shimrin2 system as you do with the Shimrin1. It is transparent and will change colors based on the color beneath it. If you don't paint it robotically with consistent speed, overlap, gun setup and so on, it is very easy to stripe it, darken it, lighten it, etc. It's sort of marketed like a paint that gives a candy effect but sprays like a 2 stage. That's absolutely wrong. It's not a paint system for a beginner.

-My rudimentary understanding of paint would have dictated that the easiest way to do this would be spray the gold, intercoat it, and then mask it off and spray the white. That is one approach, and ultimately the one we went with. The other approach, which we initially had intended to go with, was to paint the entire car in the white, use that as the base for easier coverage of the gold, and then mask it off and spray the gold. The main reason for this is because the candy concentrate is so strong that adding base coat formula paint over it reactivates it, and causes a bleed up. We tried to use the SG100 intercoat to put a barrier in-between the layers. However, all that did was cause a striping in the paint that then needed to be scuffed down, and sprayed over with more color to undo it. We later learned that basically nobody uses the SG100 anymore, and the better choice would have been the S2-00 Trans Nebulae, and used it as an intercoat without an effect in it. That wasn't apparent, and now something I'll know going forward. Even without, there still would have been some bleed through the white, since it started to do it in the jambs. The other aspect of it, is that the effects pack for the white is $100 per half pint, of which we needed 8 of them. 90% of that would be buried under the silver and gold. At that point, we figured we needed to bite the bullet and get the gold down first, and then lock it down with the show clear. That would then require the resanding and remasking of the entire car. We were trying to avoid the labor cost of that, even at the cost of materials, since wasting material is still cheaper than labor, but it is what it is and ultimately you have to make the call to get the right result. It was an extra couple days of work.

-We blew through material like crazy. Cody Walls was kind enough to give me the tip off that he used more materials than he expected when the E-Job got painted and to be prepared. I took his advice to heart and overbought since it's not a paint that I can just make appear over the local counter. That wound up being sage advice. I don't have a drop of gold left.

Again, this was a difficult job and I can't say enough good things about how its coming out. I've been trying to get Jesse on here but this really isn't his scene.