Any custom paint gurus here??

[YNOT]

I've got a customer whom I'm designing a paint scheme for his 1969 Sebring MG. We're close to nailing down the design and he's thinking of using a gloss black for the main part of the car and a satin or matte silver/charcoal for the stripe.

I'm attaching my rendering here for reference. The design has changed a bit and will now be a single stripe as opposed to the double stripes, but this will give you the idea...

My concern is...I'm not sure about care/maintenance of matte or satin paints, so I'd like to help him be sure he wants to go this route before finishing the car and having issues with the paint.

I've seen some satin and matte finish cars and they seem to show fingerprints badly. Plus...what happens when the paint gets scuffed or scratched? On a clearcoat, obviously you can polish out the scuffs/scratches, but is that even possible with matte/satin paints?

This guy is pretty picky with his cars and this will be garaged and mostly driven to shows and the like. So it won't be sitting out in the elements 24/7 as a daily driver...BUT...I'm just trying to weigh the pros and cons so he knows what he's up against if he opts to go this route.

If anyone knows of any good custom paint forums that you can direct me to, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks in advance for any tips/advice you can give.

 

[C. Charles Hahn]

Matte/satin paints definitely can't be polished as it will alter the level of gloss (or lack thereof), though they can be 'waxed' with one of the specialty products for such finishes (e.g. Swissvax, Dr. Beasley's, Chemical Guys) -- and if he doesn't mind it looking satin instead of matte he can even put a coating like Opti-Coat over the stripe area as it won't cause a significant change in the look of the stripe. With proper wash technique he shouldn't have to worry about scratching/swirling too much.... I'd just send him to the forum to learn about proper care.

If scratching IS going to be more of a concern, has he thought about the possibility of using matte vinyl for the stripe instead? That way a section could just be replaced if necessary.

When it comes to custom paint advice if there are other questions you have, talk to Kevin Tetz (and/or GaryL) over on his Paintucation forum:

http://www.reggiewatkins.com/paintucationforum/