Is flat black over?

I have been arguing with myself, trying to decide whether to paint my LS1 Miata, gloss black or flat black.

The car was originally black, so it makes it easier to not have to change the color of the jambs etc. I have it down to 2 options. Gloss black with red rally stripes, or flat black with gloss black rally stripes. (I don't want to entertain other options, I can't decide between 2, more would blow my mind!)

My thought process:

Flat black would hide my limited body work skills, but my non-existent paint skills could be highlighted by runs that can't be sanded out or blotchiness from poor technique.

Gloss black would expose my crappy bodywork, forcing me to spend more time on prep, (which I hate but should be able to achieve an acceptable result) but, I would be able to wet sand any runs or other paint issues. (it will be painted in a garage, not a booth.)

Gloss allows future scratches to be polished out.

Flat hides some issues but could be harder to make look good.

If I paint it gloss, I won't have to keep answering the question "what color are you going to paint it?"

If, I go with the red stripes I will use red wheels that I already have good tires on.

I would use charcoal wheels on the flat black. I have them, but they have race tires on them now.

I have some photos of the car in primer in "My Garage".

Opinions?

Yes. Flat black is over.

Agreed, no more flat black.

Plus it has to be done RIGHT on the right car or it looks redneck-nasty even if it weren't overplayed.

flat black with glass black zebra stripes, rally stripes are over

I just painted my son's racing kart body gloss black because he thought flat looked unfinished. Advise from a 12 year old. I had the flat already to go too since the body we have looks batmobile-ish.

Do what you like. Who cares what's "over." Gloss black has been around since the Model-T.....one would say maybe it is over.

The nice thing about flat/matte black is that lousy bodywork looks good from anywhere. Hell, my GT6 bodywork sucks and it's rattle-can flat black, and it constantly gets complements. Meanwhile, my gloss black WRX with few body flaws still looks like crap. Gloss black gets scratched easily and shows them, and is always dirty anyhow.

I'd say matte black WHEELS are more over than matte black bodies. There are tons of the former, but not many of the latter out there.

other than that, I'm not a fan of longitudinal stripes regardless. I like captdownshift's idea :) If you don't do it, my rallycross car may have it later this year, lol.

Sincerely, The guy with 3 gloss black cars, 1 flat black car, and one car that is about half of each plus some white :) Oh, and I have a car that is mostly black primer too.

I like both combinations, If I liked one better than the other, I would already have my answer!

I am not as worried about whether or not Flat is over, as much as which I can make look better overall.

I think that it is interesting that, when I had it at a couple of shows last year in primer, and asked people their opinion, most of the women, like the flat idea better. I would have thought that men would have liked the flat and women would have liked shiny, but it seemed to be the opposite!

When in doubt, consult the coin. A coin flip has made a lot of important decisions for me.

By the way, I have 3 black Miatas currently, so adding stripes to this one will make it stand out a little. If I use red stripes, my wife will know which car it is. Right now she doesn't know / care which is which.

It's Sofa King over.

But I'd say it was almost always a bad thing, and irish44j's right that you shouldn't care what I think anyhow.

If I were going to lobby for my position, I'd say that IMHO, every clever stripe combination (especially gloss black stripes on flat black) has been done enough that it doesn't qualify as clever anymore (again, not that you should care if you like it), and also that all-black, all-the-time (or even with red accents) can walk a dodgy line between "looks badass" and "looks like trying really hard to look badass". Once again, if you dig it, more power to you. But these observations seem like they might be pertinent to someone wondering whether flat black is over...

In reply to Sofa King:

How the hell did you wind up with three black Miatas? I seem to be a magnet for white cars and blue cars... And neither is my color of choice.

Flat black is still in!

For wood-burning stoves.

Ransom wrote: It's Sofa King over. I almost missed my own joke! Like I said before, I am really more interested in what I can make look better from a skill set stand point, rather than from a "fashionable" stand point. I do like "rally" or "Cobra" stripes, and none of my cars have stripes, so I am sold on those.

In reply to Ransom:

Totally by accident! I don't especially like black, but it is one of the Miata colors that I don't dislike. I just seem to find deals on black ones. This one came to me for $600, and it was so rough, I probably over paid!

holy E36 M3! I hope not. I just bought a case of flat black gas grill hi temp paint for resurfacing track wheels. I would hate to find out you bung holes didn't approve.

Flat black with gloss black stripes sounds cool. Gloss black is just so hard to maintain I wouldn't bother with it.

Go for the Fiat Arbath look. The ads won me over!

I gotta say though that I love when someone does something they like and TRULY don't care what others think (as opposed to pretending they don't care by acting like they don't care. Adding faux rust comes to mind)

+1 on faux rust. I don't mind real patina, but why fake it? Work harder to make it look worse? I am also a little tired of watching shows where they try not to disturb the dirt and grime when they work on an "original" vehicle. I don't think that accumulated dirt should add anything to the value of a classic. I understand not restoring a car, but I think that cleaning it to the best of your ability presents it at its best.

Back on my original topic... I probably mis-named the post. I am not as concerned about whether Flat black is in or out, as I am wondering which is easier to make look good for an inexperienced painter.

I have always thought that flat black looked like e36m3, I do like the flat silver bmw did a while back on the m3 but it seems like it would be a lot of work to keep looking nice.

Why don't you just wrap the thing in flat black, minimal body work and it fixes all the issues while being way cheaper.

Am I weird for hoping that flat white would somehow come out looking nice and not like chalk? Like maybe if it was mixed with a small amount of very fine metal flake.

who cares if it's "over"... if you like it, do it.. no one needs anyone else's permission to paint their car however they want.

Flat black is never over.