What Paint for a 63?

[James H.]

I am in the middle of a ground up restoration of my one owner Daytona Blue 1963 SWC.
I will soon be to the point where the car will require a paint job.
My research has showed that all of the local paint shops do not supply lacquer paint in any of these old codes.
Base coat/Clear coat paint is about all that is available now.
Per a Quote from the Judging Ref Manual the Car only has to be preserved or restored to factory original appearance and function.

[John H.]

Re: What Paint for a 63?

Jim -

You can use any material you want - nobody cares what it is, and nobody will do a chemical analysis of the paint. All that matters is that it appears to be lacquer, and appears to have been applied as the factory did it. Experienced Corvette painters familiar with NCRS judging criteria know how to do that with modern materials.

[Dick W.]

Re: What Paint for a 63?

BC/CC has been used and is still being used, but it requires more work to appear like lacquer than single stage paint does. Your biggest problem will be getting the correct color match and correct size of metallic particles (Daytona Blue has a little metallic in it the best I remember)

[James H.]

Re: What Paint for a 63?

Is Orange Peel the look that is required?
Can anyone provide me with a brand and code that is the best match for Daytona Blue?

[Dick W.]

Re: What Paint for a 63?

You will not find a code that can be mixed with todays tints. PPG has a telephone # that your local paint jobber can call to get a mixing formula to use with modern paints. That is just your starting point. You/your painter will have to shoot some let down panels to compare colors (hopefully your car still has some original paint) and most likely tint it to match. Then you have the problem of metallic particle size and shape. It is somewhat of a task

[Chuck S.]

Re: What Paint for a 63?

Is Orange Peel the look that is required?
Can anyone provide me with a brand and code that is the best match for Daytona Blue?

The presence and appearance of orange peel, e.g. close and fine versus large and coarse, is function of the type gun (HVLP vs siphon), the pressure at the gun nozzle, the material being sprayed, and how much the finish was buffed.

Modern materials are like thermoset plastics...they cure by chemically crosslinking. Acrylic lacquer was like a thermoplastic that can be "remelted" to flow out: that's why the heat generated by buffing makes it reflow and become shiny.

Acrylic lacquer had a LOT of volatile solvents which served as the carrier of the solids, and that's the main reason the feds have outlawed its manufacture in the US. Depending on the ambient temperature, acrylic lacquer tended to flash very quickly before the paint had a chance to "flow out" on the surface. That's why acrylic lacquer has to be buffed...just a little at the factory because of the heat reflow process, and a lot during commercial body repair. On a very hot day, my experience was it is almost impossible to avoid dry spots in lacquer paint; the paint was mostly turning to dust before it even got to the surface.

Base coat is a low gloss color coat that appears much like unbuffed lacquer, but it has no weather resistance. The clear coat must be used to protect the color coat, and this material (and single stage urethane) spray more like enamel, creating a coarse orange peel with a typical HVLP gun setup. If you know what you're doing, and you have an ultra clean spray environment, a good painter can lay down urethane clear or single stage urethane that requires absolutely no buffing. They do it every day

So, you want some orange peel to remain...you know, kind of like if "reflowed" acrylic lacquer was half-azzed buffed. The orange peel has to first be intentionally created, and then partially buffed out. The orange peel remaining after buffing should be a fine orange peel like it was acrylic lacquer that was buffed and not clear coat or single stage.

A painter that can use modern materials to duplicate the appearance of acrylic lacquer to the most demanding eye is a real artist.

[Roger W.]

Re: What Paint for a 63?

There is an article about matching modern paint to laquer finishes in the January 2010 "Corvette Fever magazine". The article is in the resto clinic section.

[Randy R.]

Re: What Paint for a 63?

Would someone be willing to make a copy of this article and email it to me?

Thank you,

Randy

[James H.]

Re: What Paint for a 63?

If anyone sends out copys I would like one also.
Need all the help I can get. Thanks, Jim

[Tom A.]

Re: What Paint for a 63?

Check the Corvette Restorer Spring 2003 artical: Restoration paint or NCRS training video Paint and fiberglass