Flat paint finish on a DD?

I kinda always wanted a flat-paint vehicle.  Couple that with how much I suck at automotive paint and I'm thinking about going flat brown on my truck.  Will it suck to maintain?  If I do thinned Rustoleum to keep it cheap, will the UV kill it quick?  Will I hate it in the end?

My daily is rollered Tremclad.  Enough orange peel to give cancer sores.

I wash it with a green scrubbie to keep the continual rust at bay. 

If you don't care about appearance all that much, go for it.  Put down enough paint that as you scrub it, you still have paint.

Having said that, as I researched a matt finish for my '61 Apache, I decided against it, as the upkeep for "nice" matt finish was far more than I really wanted to do.

What I've heard is that the best way to get flat paint is to do a nice shiny color coat and then top it with matte clear.

Duke said:

What I've heard is that the best way to get flat paint is to do a nice shiny color coat and then top it with matte clear.

That sounds like a lot of work :)

But probably really good advice.  The last paint job I did, my body guy said "did you paint that with a Hershey Bar?"

No.  Hard no.

I thought your truck is a nice example where you paid slightly more than "market price" to get one in good condition. 

I wouldn't then give it an inferior paint job thereby ruining its "niceness". 

Is plastidip an option? Can have a matte finish, protect your existing paint and not destroy your resale that way.

What I've read is:

If you try to remove bug guts, you end up polishing the matt away.

You can never wax it.

Even washing it gets tricky, including what kind of soap you can use, otherwise you end up polishing the matt away.

Finger prints. Everywhere. And try to spot clean polishes the matt.

There was more, but I just couldn't see myself wanting to deal with it all.  It -seemed- like lower maintenance, but in my research it did NOT read like low maintenance at all.

Heavy orange peel gives a sort of mat look, just don’t wash it.

I have a motorcycle gas tank painted rustoleum red.  It’s fully flattened and very shiny. The paint looks great. It’s rather vulnerable to scratching. It fades like MAD if left in the sun and requires re-polishing every few months.  This may be a red color thing though.

How about a satin color? Not as flat, maybe easier to maintain?

Get a Maaco repaint, then do not wax it, ever. It will be flat finish within a few years. Some PO did that to my X1/9. It could not be flatter. Only way to clean it is with sandpaper. Totally sucks! The original paint is still shiny underneath all the trim they masked over....

It's a colossal PITA to maintain. I'd recommend normal glossy paint with Xpel Stealth PPF on top, but that's just me.

The Toyotas using the single stage non-metallic brown/gray/green/white are a really nice compromise between the matte look and the ease of maintenance of gloss.

A TRD Pro 4 Runner in gray!  Awesome!

If you do it, it will be temporary as once I'm installed as benevolent dictator of the universe, all flat paint jobs on cars(*) will be outlawed, or at least have a $1,000,000 per year moron tax levied against them.

(*) Note that was cars.  Other vehicles may get different rules. 

In reply to Adrian_Thompson :

You have my vote. I don’t understand why you wouldn’t want a nice shiny finish on a vehicle. 

Wizards makes a wipe down spray specifically for matte paint.  Other brands may make one too but we were sponsored by wizards so I know that for sure.  As others have said, if you use the wrong detail spray or soap on the matte it will destroy it pretty quick.  The matte clear is the way too go unless you want to wrap it.

In reply to Adrian_Thompson :

Don't make the ghost of Kelly Johnson haunt you.

In reply to Appleseed :

That’s not a car

John Welsh said:

I thought your truck is a nice example where you paid slightly more than "market price" to get one in good condition. 

I wouldn't then give it an inferior paint job thereby ruining its "niceness". 

It is a stellar example of a wonderful, well-maintained, low mileage truck... that spent the equivalent of half its 24 years in Florida.  So, no rust anywhere, but plenty of faded paint.  Notice in this picture, the black paint around the windows has faded through to primer, and in the lightest spots you're looking at zinc galvanization.

The point was that A) I like the look of flat finishes, B) Flat is easier to hide flaws, and C) Spending $3000 for a pro to do it pretty much equals the cost of the truck.  I can try to buff out the roof, but I think I'll just go through it.  The black around the windows is pretty easy with some masking tape and a rattle can or two of a good automotive finish.  I was hoping to DIY it and not completely berkeley it up.  I could also get a pint of the factory color and do just the roof and hood, but the chances of matching the 24-year-old color are pretty slim.

daeman said:

Is plastidip an option? Can have a matte finish, protect your existing paint and not destroy your resale that way.

My experience hasn't been the greatest with it.  I did a set of wheels once and the first time I got into a little pile of snow with some stones in it, it peeled some off.  I have a feeling every year I'll have to re-plasti-dip it.

I'm hearing a lot of drawbacks to it, which is what I needed - honesty.  I know you guys will give it to me straight.

I sifted through my brain trying to think of a friend who is good with a spray gun and didn't think of any.  Some day this spring I might offer one of you folks a lot of beer and pizza to tutor me.

My dream color that I really wanted was Ford Kodiak Brown, but a multi-stage metallic with mica probably isn't a good idea for a beginner.

So, the problem area are just the upper surfaces?

I would two-tone with vinyl.

With the use of knifeless tape, Video, you could make a nice line at the belt line. 

This was a gray Florida van with REALLY bad sun damage to the top surfaces.  The blue is Vvivid brand vinyl bought from Amazon. Specifically, it is metalic electric blue Matte. They have lots of Matte.  I had about $100 on the car and about $50 in errors from never having done it before. 

John Welsh said:

So, the problem area are just the upper surfaces?

I would two-tone with vinyl.

With the use of knifeless tape, Video, you could make a nice line at the belt line. 

Yes.  The sides are lovely, shiny, and I have only found one ding in the entire truck.  My original thought was that if I'm doing all the masking and mixing to paint problem areas, it made sense to go one step further and make the whole thing a color I like.  And by that, I mean, not diarrhea brown with mauve and raspberry pixelated graphics.

That tape does make it look easy.... although I have never done vinyl wrap before either.  I guess that's a different thread. 

Army Brown Matte

I had no troubles keeping my Sportster clean with its matte finish. And it was a daily until I traded it in. I don't have any qualms with having a matte finish on a car or truck.