Red or white?

[charlie8575]

I'm going to be squirting some red paint- well, actually, Garnet Maroon, on my '50 Olds, and I've been doing some reading regarding primer colors.

Previously, under some Honduras Maroon on another build, I had used oxide red primer, after discovering that gray primer on other parts and builds resulted in a very blunted, unattractive color.

The oxide red produced a nice color and looked really good. However, some people I've talked to suggest using white primer under reds is the better way to go.

I'm wondering if, like other colors, the choice of primer color should be dictated by the intended final color- in other words, a brighter red perhaps would look best over white primer, and maroons, burgundies, and darker red work well over oxide red primer.

Thoughts?

Charlie Larkin

[phil-east]

I am not speaking from experience here but i remember reading something about somebody using a pink primer in order to get a really nice red colour on a ferrari build. I cannot remember where i read this so take it with a pinch of salt but it could be worth looking into.

[SSNJim]

The primer color can affect the final color. The best thing to do is to keep all the primer colors on hand, along with some plastic spoons. Spray a spoon with each primer, then spray the final color. That will show you the final color of the paint. You can try to come up with some formula that only primer X should be used with primer Y, but it's hard to beat seeing an actual test.

I just went through this with a Ford Firethorn Red Metallic color. I tried a white primer, and while the color was pleasant, it was much brighter and did not match the Mustang color. I tried again with the grey primer, and the color matched perfectly.

[espo]

I agree with the spoon method. Has worked for me also. Just painted my 50 Olds Model Master Flame Red over gray primer. I wanted a more 50's red look than I got over the white. The white will almost always give you a brighter looking color.

[Ognib]

When I painted 1:1 in the Ferrari shop, we had red mix formulas for our primers & sealers that had to be used under the Ferrari red top coat, in order to achieve a correct final tint in the paint.

I just sprayed a burgundy/maroon on the steelies for my 1:8 deuce project & found that it didn't want to cover the yellow plastic in the kit, especially on the edges & rounded areas.

Ended up stripping & putting a black base down first & they came out dark & rich looking with just a couple of light coats of color.

Back in the 80's I did a 1:1 69 camaro for myself that had a 3 shade red on the horizontal surfaces over artic white sides.

The effect was achieved by sprayint the red top coat over black, copper & white, blended base coats.

The color shading differences when finished was a dark blackish maroon at the back of the car, blending through goldish, copper reds going up the sail panels to the front of the top & ended with a cotton candy pink on the header panel, where it was sprayed over the white.

Edited June 21, 2013 by Ognib

[Ace-Garageguy]

All excellent advice above, the best being that there's just NO substitute for doing your OWN test sprayouts and seeing what YOU like.

[Ognib]

Exactly.