2 Tone Paint scheme: what do you do about the seams?

[dat240zg]

Ernie (and other paint experts):

 

While the motor is out for rehab, I've gotten back to tossing around paint ideas. I recently saw a pic of a Foose modded Chrysler 300 that had a 2 tone paint job. The seam was the top edge of the fender line/body crease and (I believe) that the colors were a charcoal/bronze and a metallic burnt orange.

 

After looking at the Z, I think that the same idea may work - following the top of the headlight buckets/fenders (ala 240z rally cars) and continuing along that same swage line, arcing up over the rear fenders to the tail. I was thinking the charcoal/bronze color on the bottom and black on top.

 

I guess my question is how's it done? How is the seam between the two colors handled? Is there a discernable lip? Does it typically look better to have the darker color on the top or the bottom or is it just personal taste?

 

You guys wouldn't happen to have any pics of well done 2 tone Z's would you? Or is that an oxymoron?

 

Thanks as always - I appreciate it that you guys take time out to answer my Q's.

 

Bryan

Dat240zg

[280Zone]

My plan is to also go two tone for my 75 L6 car. Since the Z does not have a sharp line from front to back it may take a bit of trial and error. Where the two colors meet people typically have a line of two pin stripped on. This helps to smooth out the overall look. My colors will be dark on top and light on the bottom but I have seen the opposite and it looks good too. Search the galleries there are few out there.

[Tim240z]

Paint the lighter color, back tape, paint the darker color, then clear coat. The clear coats will 'hide' or smooth out the ridge created by the tape line....

[Guest ON3GO]

search my paint thread. you will see abit different two tone looks..

if you dont see what u want i know for a fact u can get some ideas from it.

 

most cars a lighter or brighter color looks better on the top, but on a Z to me it doesnt matter. but a lighter on top always looks cleaner and better.

 

mike

[jaime240z]

Paint the lighter color, back tape, paint the darker color, then clear coat. The clear coats will 'hide' or smooth out the ridge created by the tape line....

 

I agree! Also, a nice "pinstripe" or other design at the two tone border will help hide any imperfections as well. Doing ALL of this under the clear looks great.

[mom'sZ]

dat240zg:

 

former professional painter - 25 years. You have two questions here as I see it.

Question 1 is does two tone look better light on top, dark on bottom or dark / light. Well... personal taste has more to do with this then anything else, but one point I'd like to make is dark color cars are HOT inside. The air conditioning has to work harder to keep a black car cool then a white car. So for me two tone was a chance to do dark on the sides, the part of the car people mostly see, and light on the top surfaces, the part mostly effected by heat. My favorite combo was always silver on top, black on the sides.

Question 2 is paint edge issue. On an open flat part of a panel a hard taped edge does indeed show. Not so much show but if you run your finger over it, you'll feel it. And if you check this on most two tones you'll see. As 280zone points out, this is mostly handled by covering the edge with a pinstripe. How much paint you apply has a lot to do with how bad the edge is. Sometimes, if I didn't what a bad edge, I would apply several coats stopping a few inches back from the tape and then only apply paint all the way to the edge on the last coat. Modern paints need less mil build (thickness) then the old days, most amatuer paint put on to much. (but that leaves plenty to buff)

Base coat / clear coat would be the chose for a two tone. Base coat doesn't build up thickness very fast and once both colors are on you clear over both all at once. If they are both solid colors you could even gently sand the edge down a little with like 600 grit. Either way, the edge will be there, no one wil notice.

[Zhadman]

I've been giving serious thought to the two tone scheme as well. IF I go with it I will have black on the upper portion (along/above the body line dat240zg mentioned) and my secondary color below that (which will probably end up being a Titanium pearl'ish color with a hint of bronze to warm it up). I will seperate the two colors with a pinstripe (lighter version of the secondary color). The only difficult part of using that body line is determining where to run the colors when you get to the headlight buckets. My idea was to run the black over the top of the bucket... meeting up with the top edge of the hood. I'm just not sure how the inner (cylindrical) portion of the bucket would look... being a seperate color than the top. The front lip of the hood would be the secondary color as well (obviously transitioned by the pinstripe). Not sure how that would look, though... it's the only thing keeping me from doing it.

[mom'sZ]

RacerX:

I even saw one guy who did this really wild scheme with multiple colors and stripes and stuff. He painted the whole car white as a base then painted each color of the scheme taped off seperatly so the paint was only one layer thick everywhere. I thought that was a little crazy but it looked great and he insisted it would last longer. A pro painter has to consider a paint job on cars like these could last decades. I did the paint job on my car fifteen years ago, it's acrylic enamel, (Ditzler I think) and it still looks good. Although I would have used the good stuff if I'd have know.

[Austenp405]

Here's something I was just goofing around with. It's a spinoff of a paint scheme that I saw in an old Z Car Club magazine. It's far from perfect, but I was bored in class. It's the second pic in the album.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=qbv67en.83ljc4qz&Uy=-oo4gsm&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0

[Vintage-TechZ]

If your planning on spending the budget on a base coat clear coat 2-stage......then simply do a great job on your mask job. Like has been mentioned , don't build material unessacerily thick. I always based my first color and let it kick ,then lightly wetsanded it complete and making sure where the next color would lay was perfect ( devoid of texture).

Then mask a perfect as possible cut line and use a "BACK MASK" method for the new color or second tone. Of course masking the other areas to avoid overspray,.

Once it has begun to tack but not too late.....very carefully remove the tape and mask paper (not plastic) and continue on with clear unless you feel the edge has a build line thats too thick.If its bad, wait til its cured enough to sand and knock down the edges smooth enough to feel decent. You'll have to resand all in order to get at least a good mechanical bond to aid the next aplication of clear.

Otherwise ...you would not ....and just sprayed the clear after the second unvail. and move on to cure in the oven or Sun.

Wetsand slick over the tone line and the entire body within the manufactures stated time or deal with a brick hard surface to polish out.

If you are a novice sander, polisher.......mask off any and all high or tall edges as they will buff fine usually without sanding required unless the texture is heavy and ugly.( we're shooting for glass...remember?)

Best of luck............Vinny