Painting race cars and patina.

So the patina thread has me thinking. Plus I have been mucking about with the paint on the 550 build. 
 

Want is the proper was to paint a car that is going to get raced and more importantly need repairs in the future. I have been looking into doing a two stage 2k paint job in the Porsche. It will look good and it will look modern. It's also will be fragile and difficult to repair and blend. 
 

So I have been doing this for the last hour.
 

A bit of fake patina on the car. If I did the paint like this it would cost me about 150$ in paint and another 50$ in sandpaper. I could fix it for years with the leftover paint and it could get used and abused and have fun. 
 

Or I could send it out for a full job at about 2k usd all in and be done. 
 

middle of the road is macco for about 700$ in a single stage. The reason is that I cannot spray this low voc paint with any of the guns or skills I have. 

Do you want it to look good or like crap on the track?

Maaco plus pre-loaded rattle cans for repair. Or a couple of $10 HVLP guns from HF and use the NAPA single stage. Really easy to lay down and it'll cost you about the same as your fake patina but look good. 

So gonna put it out there that what you're presenting would qualify as fake patina in my eyes. Sure paint it nice once and if things get out on track and beat on and age that's fine and not repaired, it was nice once. Making it to be crappy is just crappy. Like buying pre ripped jeans. Gotta earn that look.

Practical me says sounds like a quick cheap solution but will always have that cheap beat on look.

I have a hvlp Gun coming tomorrow from a friend. All of my test panels look like crap with the water based urethanes. Actually sprayed some older paint that I had and it lasted out decently. Good enough to sand down at least. 
 

i think your right. I just am  just cranky that my test hood looks like crap. 

Race cars can get away with 50:50 paint. Heck, I forgot to put reducer (I think) in the main paint on my racer and nobody's ever noticed. 
 

Seriously, the cheap NAPA urethane paint lays down really well. It's what I used for my stripes. 

In reply to wearymicrobe :

I did one lacquer paint job on my Black Jack in 1977.   After  decades of racing, between grit on the race track and scrapes in the garage it was starting to look a little rough.  So I went on line ordered another quart of the same lacquer color. I spent an hour or so sanding  and then touched up the rough spots. 
If you visit the Packard museum your see it on display that way. 

Yesterday I was aghast. Today, well,  please, just step away from the car, do not use any paint or other chemicals on it or sand it more. Get your checkbook out and be ready to write a check for two grand. Quite likely more, as the car probably needs to be properly primed & blocked again before real paint. If you paint over the light/dark surface (dark is the gelcoat?) with the light blue you'll see a difference in the color where the dark areas are.

I can't imagine spending 30 large building such an awesome car and not painting it nice. What's next? Letting the cats use the upholstery as a scratching post? (Joking)

The amount of time the car spends on track will probably be a very small percentage of overall driving time so I'd put a nice paint job on it.

I'm not sure where you get the notion that 2 component 2 stage paint is fragile or hard to repair or blend. 30+ years of body shop ownership and now selling paint and body supplies. 2 stage is easy and very repairable. I agree with the suggestion to step away from the car and pay a professional to paint the car. It's much too nice a project to fudge at this stage.

Just say no to fake patina.

You don't have to give it a concourse paint job, but at least make it look nice.

You can go with 20-30% more reducer on the Napa stuff and roll in it even, it'll cost you some time wet sanding unless you top it with rattle can 2k clear, $120 in 2k clear covers a lot of sins in base coat (as long as there's no runs) 

Rule # Whatever in Duke's Rules of Life:

YOU CAN'T FAKE PATINA.

So don't even try.

I'm a terrible painter; haphazard mix, impatient, finger poking, beginner. I still managed to get a very nice black paint job done using single stage acrylic (Nason). The final finish involved a lot of super-fine sanding and polish, but it was reportedly still looking good almost 5 years later when the car was totaled by the second owner after I sold it.

This is Your build and Your project. Somehow seeing it sent out out to have it painted would diminish that a bit, like you are just the 'parts picker' and other people are building it for you. Find a scrap or panel to practice on and give painting a try. You can do it and it is a skill worth developing. I don't think that it would be hard for you to get a track-ready finish such as this, that would be easy to maintain:

1955 Porsche 550 Spyder by Adam Swank, on Flickr

- Not a mirror finish, but a smooth even coat of color on a car that gets to be used. Build the patina one scuff at a time at the track.

If you like a faux patina look, remember—it's your car. If you're into something you should do it. Because honestly, someone is going to like it or hate it whether you spend 5k on fancy paint or 100 on sandpaper and rustoleum. 

Decided to send it out. I am going to get it running first and then decide what to do. But still leaning on just having someone spray it in a single stage and calling it a day. The wife thinks that I would enjoy it more with a good paint job and to sell of some of the rest of the parts I have collected off the original beetle that I did not need to pay it off. Getting it mechincally done gives me some time. 

In reply to wearymicrobe :

I agree with your better half on this one. 

In reply to wearymicrobe :

I missed the  "water based"  paint thing. Odds of having that work at home are pretty much going to require the use of imaginary numbers. Ain't gonna happen. Get some real paint.

I'd rock it as is. But I am a heathen

The most important camp I'm in is "don't listen to me unless you want to." But...

Some legendary race cars had mediocre-at-best paint because racecar. It's a fantastic car; I don't think it matters too much whether you give it a super-spiffy paint job or a competent paint job, but I'd rather see it with a cheap, competent paint job than fake patina camouflage.

It occurs to me like this: I don't always mind cheap hardware, depending on the application. But I have a loathing for the fake antiqued "brass" stuff that burns with the fire of a thousand suns. Putting fake patina on this car seems akin to taking a nice, high-quality brass casting, then painting it to look like pot metal from HD instead of polishing it and letting time work on it.

The first nick will bug you, but it'll get better with time.

Krylon/Rustoleum. A touch up is less than $4 at Wal-Marx.

I'd rather have it be all one color but look rough, than have it be intentionally multicolored and look rough. Just my personal taste.

Part of my hobbies love patina but I feel it needs to be earned and then accented if you replace parts. Intentionally doing an entire car/bike anything too look like it's Patina'd doesn't seem to work near as well. Some of the wraps they do look the part but I don't understand spending money just too look worse. 
 

this all coming from a guy with a flat black car and a native Ohio "patina" truck.

White semigloss tractor paint and a cheap gun & compressor seems like the easiest to repair and hide flaws with.

I'm a real patina /rust guy (read: lazy), but I think the idea falls apart on stuff that's fiberglass/too new to have "earned" it. Ever seen naked bondo celebrated by its conspicuity? Me neither.

If you like rough/easy to repair, how about army drab or desert tan? Though played out a bit, shark teeth still look good in my opinion. 

Of course, my opinion is worth exactly what you paid for it.

Maybe paint it white yourself, and have it wrapped like a fighter plane with rivits (or whatever your imagination says).

Still banging ideas around thanks for being a sounding board guys I do read everything even if I don't respond directly. 

So I stripped all the blue off I don't like the color and it looks odd on a 550. I will need to reprimer the hood and some other small areas I found today but not a big deal. I can block sand a hood and the small bits of black that are poking through everywhere else super easy. Its hot her and in a respirator it sucks. 

Before I stripped it I had a bunch of rustolium paints around from other projects including the aluminum metallic they sell that I used once on a engine. Figured in for a penny of stripping paint in for a pound.Nice to know I can at least lay out nice spray paint. Looks like below. Sprayed out nice and even no orange peel. Looked decent. I hit is with a grey 3m pad to matte out the color and it looks even better. It keeps the matte color even with a very heavy spray of matte clear coat. 

I am going to spray the front mirror assembly and post a photo and see what you guys think. 

Now THAT looks like a German silver. Silver with a tiny touch of blue. At least on my screen it does.