The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Paint that looks aged??

I'm gonna paint my '51 1/2 ton with white on top of the cab and dark green for the rest of it. I know that isn't a factory paint scheme until '54, but all green would be too much for me.

What I'd like is a paint that looks like its been on there a while and not too shiny so that it doesn't draw too much attention when its in a parking lot. It'll draw enough attention just being old, but if its shiny I feel like theres a better chance of it getting stolen. If it doesn't look like its recently received tens of thousands of dollars of work and parts, it might be less likely to be targeted.

I'd sort of like the truck to have that worn, distressed, and used look but be protected from the elements, like water and UV, with a decent paint.

I was thinking of using single stage acrylic urethane, but am open to other types.

Any suggestions? A flattening agent?

rod and custom did an feature a couple years ago on a patinaed paint job.the guy who came up with it was named shaw.he owns shaw signs in batavia ohio. they base coated with cheap enamel to seal and protect. then thinned out one shot sign paint and brushed the truck with that then sanded lettin yhe base show through in aeras.i've seen the truck several times at local shows its awesome.theres a bunch of young guns that runs with his son that all have traditional style hot rods painted this way they all look good...........dave

NM,
I think the best and most cost effective way to get what you want would be to use an inexpinsive paint with none of the addons(hardner,clearcoat) just color and thinner.Try Western synthitic enamel.The reason I Know you can get the effect you seek is I do a little painting for friends and relatives and some do not want to spend the money on the extras. i have seen this stuff loose its shine in 6 months,still looks ok just not shiney,and if you decide you want a shine take some turtle wax to it it will shine right up good luck, Aaron

Dave... do you recall which issue of Rod & Custom that article was in ???.. that sounds like an interesting approach... i am looking for a similar technique for my '35 chevy pickup... i am doing mine as an "old truck with new goodies"...
thanks...
Bill in VA

I like the idea of doing a white coat beneath, a color coat on top (green) and then sanding through the green in a few spots to make it look worn or sun damaged! Sounds easy and fun!

Does anyone know if to keep the color coat less than shiny can I use a flattening agent?

One advantage to this approach that I like is being able to be happy with less than perfect body work 'cause the dings lend to authenticity.

What I really care about is killing the rust.

If you want some gloss you might try a quick drying reducer instead of a flattening agent. It won't give you a "flat" paint job but it'll shine less than if it was painted using a slow dry reducer. In fact I've used super quick drying laquer thinner in enamel before with no problems. If you use a flattening agent you could end up with a no gloss finish like primer is. Depends on the look you're looking for.

I don't mean to be the devils advocate here... but if someone's thinking about stealing a truck they probably would look for one less likely to be missed by the owner. ?? I don't claim to be thief but just guessing they'll take it either way if they wanted it badly enough. Good luck though.

Regarding my post from 5-15-06...

I just wanted to say that I didnt mean to sound harsh and to clarify that I certainly dont want anyone to steal your truck... just meant that if somone is holding back from a nice paint job or nice wheels or any kind of project that would beautify their classic just because of a fear that someone will steal it... then the "bad guys" have already won.

hillcitybill, i kept the issue i'll try to dig for it this weekend and give you the specifics. been workin alot and tryin to get my mower back together. weve been gettin alot of rain and i'm about ready to hire someone to come in and bale my yard. be patcient and i'll find it........dave

thanks Dave!!... i really appreciate that... i'll try to get by there and cut that grass for you and fix your mower...
lotta rain here too... i need to rent COMBINE to cut mine... i'm building my '35 with a 350/3 deuces/4 speed... i want to do the body very "old-timey" looking with the updated drivetrain...
it will be "different" and all-Chevy too!!...
Bill in VA

if you are going to paint do a nice job and make it look sharp,,why down play what you have worked to create,,the truck is worthy of standing tall and so do you for bringing it back...doc

Thanks for everyone's input!

I'm not going for the rustic look out of fear of theft, it's more for the patina of an 'old truck' that I think looks cool. I like sharp and shiny for some things, but for an old truck I'm planning on using as a daily driver I'd like it to look like an old truck.

Too bad I've already started 'de-rusting' my '51, we could've made a trade-it has lots of, umm 'patina'!!


Dave, just noticed your in Franklin-small world!!

[img]http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/5/web/2285000-2285999/2285825_2_full.jpg[/img]

bret... yours looks GOOD compared to mine... lotta work to do to get mine the way i want it but i look forward to it...
hang in there buddy...
Bill in VA

NM
i was trying to talk caroline into that same paint job white rimmed top above the cab windows and forrester green. she just wants forrester green and a pin strip grill and cab.
my brother & i had a 47 1ton mustache grill stude truck and painted it red w/ a white top
ie fire type truck
in my case now w/ the 51 i wanted it
1. to be different
2. to help keep the heat out, reflect the heat rays..... a little

give us a picture or two when you're done or half way done

The article you're looking for was in Street Rodder 2 or 3 years ago. It's in my locker at work so I don't have the issue on hand right now. I can find out in a day or two if you still need it.

Although the flattening agent works good, the main problem I've encountered with it is maintaing consistency of gloss. The agent settles very quickly in the can and when I've used it, no matter how carefully I stirred and measured the components, it always seemed like what I sprayed the day before had a "hair" difference in the gloss. Not drastic, just enough that you could tell a slight difference when set side to side. If you paint the whole truck in one shoot, it probably wouldn't matter.
I've also heard that the single stage urethanes in there nature try to gloss up. It takes quite a bit of the flattener to work, in the case of PPG it's usually at least 2 parts flattener to 3 parts paint, all depending on the gloss level desired. You have to get the P-Sheet from the jobber to know exactly what you're looking at, and then experiment to get the desired level of gloss.
I've heard it's easier to do BC/CC and flatten the clear but I've never tried it.

Bob

Here's what my current "old truck" paint job looks like, NM51. I'm pretty happy with it and it pretty much came about by chance. It is rattlecan Rustoleum (Dark Hunter Green). It's too "bumpy" to wax since it hasn't been color sanded but I found that you can use Meguiar's Quik Detailer on it to keep a dull shine and protect it some.

This is a hi resolution pic (895kb) so it will take awhile to download on a dial-up connection.

BillyBob "old truck" paintjob

howdy Bob...
i would indeed like to check out that issue of Street Rodder... i have quite a few of them so i will check through the ones i have to see if i have it... if not i will try to obtain a copy...
thanks a bunch...
Bill in VA

I see that even though I am ALONG ways from paint that others like the idea of the aged look to. Hard to beat a great SHINNY paint job also though. Like was mentioned...after all that work, show it off. Both sound KOOL.

brjr51, your right it was streetrodder.im thinkin may or june 2004. bill looked thru stacks at home ,no luck but i have more at work will check tomorrow. i also like the "alternative"paint jobs.after all the fretting over what to do about paint i decided to do the john deere blitz black. paint ,primer , thinner and hardner is around a hundred bucks.i bought a spray bomb and sprayed about half a door and really like the look. bret, we need to get together and talk trucks. i saw another guy on here from miamisburg,but geez your just right across the river.

It was the November 2003 issue of Street Rodder.

Bob

Backissues of Street Rodder are available for $6/ea + $3/shipping by following the link on the left of their webpage www.streetrodderweb.com.

Just got the 11/03 streetrodder magazine article about how to do the patina finish. Here's a summary:

They started with red primer in the spots where the paint usually wears through (or do the whole thing if you have time), then painted the whole truck with flat black paint, to seal it against the elements(they used John Deere Blitz Black).

Next they scuff the black through to red in the normal rust/wear spots using a maroon 3-M pad, then topcoat with BRUSHES using paint and flattening agent.

Next scuff through the top coat in places the paint usually wears down to red in the middle, down to black around the edges(ie where your arm would wear outside the window). Put some polish on the red to stop water from getting through.

Next airbrush some oxidation stains and rust stains around the doorhandles, hinges, louvers, bolts, and other common spots for water normally runs off the body with thinned 1-shot white or medium brown paint, each mixed at about 1:10 paint to thinner. I'll use this treatment around the dents I don't fix just right...

The guys who the article is about will do a professional 'fauxtina' finish at their shop if you want- Dan or Joshua Shaw 513-575-3535

I just don't understand why anyone would want to got to the trouble to make a truck look aged or faded! Anyone with a little brain will know it has been repainted (restored). In my opinion, a bright shiny paint job is better than a faded one. The shiny gets more attention than the faded. If you want to make it look old, leave it as is.

Why do some people prefer vanilla rather than chocolate, modern art over impressionist, blondes over brunettes? Why does one guy think a particular woman is deliriously goregous while most others can't be bothered to look at her twice? Why for some people is a hot rod a travesty while to others a full restoration a waste of money? Personal taste.

Some people would say its a crime to take a restorable 32 Ford Victoria and put a big block and auto tranny in it and paint it anything but the original color and type of paint, while others would think thats the only thing worth doing with the Vicky.

The reason I've got to paint my truck and can't leave it alone is that I've sandblasted every surface of it down to bare metal, have welded in some patch panels and have painted it with etching primer. If the body were straight and had faded paint I might not have touched it.

I like the look of aged paint on these trucks, I think it'll add characther and depth a shiny paint job lacks. I'm posting what I can find out about how to produce an aged paint look so anyone else interested in doing it will have some ideas!

Sure, most adults looking at the truck will figure out it has been repainted to look the way it does rather than shiny. But that isn't the point. The point for me is that I like the way old faded trucks look and enjoy the way a hopped up engine, five speed and a/c make the ride.

This is one of the beautiful things about hotrodding- What you think is cool I may not, but I can appreciate the effort and artistry that went into what you did to your ride.

The "aged/faux-patina/rat rod" is gaining quite a following of street-rod and old car/truck fans... for the same reasons most of us choose old vehicles as our hobby...personal preference. For what it matters most anyone viewing any vintage vehicle could probably tell whether it has been repainted but that doesn't stop many of us from doing it. These vehicles reflect the individual tastes and artistic statements of the folks who own and restore them and draw crowds around them at car shows and double-takes by folks when they are going down the road.
Typical "shiny-repainted" clunkers are a dime-a-dozen. It takes an artist to build a "resto-rod". I talked by phone to Dan Shaw just last week about his work... I couldn't have been more impressed!! Photos of this work are in Street Rodder Nov03 and Jan04... it looks good enough to encourage me to do my '35 Chevy pickup in a similar fashion...using some of my own ideas of course....
...all that glitters is not gold.....
Bill in VA

hey NM51... if you can get a copy of May 2004 Rod & Custom check out the little 1932 Fwrd pickup on page 27... that thing is awesome and is just about where my '35 is heading... shiney is as shiney does...
Bill in VA

Hillcitybill, I'll keep my eye out for it at used book stores and in friend's collections, but the Primedia, the publisher, is out of copies for that month/year.

hey NM51... it's only one small picture but i found it very inspiring... when you first started this post i started looking for the magazines that might have the mentioned articles and i came upon the reference to this issue so i happened to find one on ebay... i later tracked down Dan Shaw and called him and he gave me the proper issues of Street Rodder to buy so i ordered them... Dan Shaw is a very nice fellow and both he and his son Joshua are quite talented... we had a very nice chat and he gave me some very good advice... i will be doing my '35 pickup similar to his '32 Fwrd but with some ideas of my own thrown in... if you could look up the R&C back issue on the web you can get a glimpse of the pickup i'm referring to...
Bill in VA

in reply to ad pickups post, i dont think anybody is trying to fool anyone.its just a personal choice.now i'm probly gonna tick some people off with what i'm gonna say but its meant with no malice or ill intent. its just my opinion and my own personal feelings and taste.how many red,black,blue or green bolts can you look at?when you go to a show its the same old stuff over and over again.if its a custom it seems they all run the same stuff.same tweed interiorsame billet inserts withe the quad gauges same steering wheels,wheels the list goes on.i go to the nsra nats every yr. cause i know alot of bolts will be there. normally go by myself to this one by choice,as a treat to myself.oneday a yr .just for me. this past yr. i took the wife so we could spend the day together.her taste runs more towards muscle cars, so i had an unbiased opinion. after walkin awhile i asked her what she thought ,her reply was alot of it looks the same.but then again its their trucks the way they want them. the "shiny" paint does not draw me. i like different. i tend to hunt out the primered,the works in progress.this is what i draw to at a show. some purist would probly crucify tommy for stretching his truck. but that would be a draw for me.its different. not the same old same old.do i like the faux patina? yes.would i do it to my truck? maybe,probly not.right now plans are for john deere blitz black. this is what i want. i'm building this truck for me to enjoy not to be a show truck . i dont want to be aslave to a paint job.or to be afraid to drive it,cause it might get a rock chip or something. i'm thankful for creative thinkers , like the shaws for steppin outside the lines, not caring what others think and doing it how they like. i've seen their stuff at shows and they are what they are. and it impresses the snot out of me. just build em' and drive the wheels off..........dave

Check out "Old Skool Rods" "Rat Rods" Magaz and internet.

chester,i have every issue of ol skool rodz.also read car kulture deluxe.will have to check out rat rods.thanks.....dave

the March 2004 issue of Rod & Custom / pgs 42-43 has a nice little article on "color sanding" entitled "New Old Paint"... the color photos of the steps involved are quite nice...
Bill in VA