Custom Paint Job

[Devis1957]

Looking for someone in the deep south that can provide a custom paint job. Not looking for anything special, just want that foot deep finish over pewter.

[jmsspratlin]

How deep of the South are you talking?

[Devis1957]

South of I-10 in Louisiana

[OrangeCrush]

My shops are not south of LA but I just had a customer drive his Corvette from Maine for us to paint some ground effects, hood and bumpers.

NC ain't that far away if you need help.

Even if you don't want to drive that far, if I can answer questions for you, don't hesitate to ask.

Mark

[HUMMERcustoms.com/TAZ]

You could PM Dragon in Conway Arkansas. He owns Motorsports Authority.
He does my custom paint. You can go to the pic section and search TAZ to see the work he did on my rig. We went way out on the custon limb shaving the rear louvers and taillights of. Put fleetwood caddy taillights in LED then shaved the side markers and installed LED lights painted over so you really do not see them good till lights are turned on. We filled in all the metal groves on the side so all was flush then filled the hood grooves in and installed a functioning reverse cowl hood scoop for supercharger.

Yes she is a show queen as we pulled in around $50,000 in sponsor equip. but, my commitments end this next year and the girl could off road right now as that was a theme we demanded to retain in the look of the rig. Once I get my full Brembo with all stainless steel lines brake setup they will be my last sponsor to take care of then I'm free to finally go out and try to set mile speed record for SUV's and some other things. Like drive it as much as I want.

We are going to media blast it sometime next year and put on the 3rd paint scheme and final one that Dragon, well me as well, want that will be the last one. PM Dragon if central Arkansas is not to far. He stays covered up but, will most likely make room for a forum member. Tell him TAZ sent you. Most likely will not count for much by you could try using me. LOL LOL LOL

TAZ

[Devis1957]

Want to get the engine and tranny work done first. I do know where Conway is, been through there on my first trip to Bass Pro Shop in the early 90's, back before you could find one in every neighborhood.

It won't cost me more if I mention your name, will it?

[HUMMERcustoms.com/TAZ]

I do not think mentioning I sent you would cost more. But, it could depend on what side of the bed Dragon got up on. No really we are great friends.

I let him have complete controll of what he does to my rig. If I have a certain idea he will see if he can fit it in. I wanted a 12" touchscreen in the center dash section and he worked that out for me. Had a computer built that handles all A/V, gps nav., and tuning software that boots up in scan mode. When rig is started so I can monitor tune and if I see an improvement I can pull over and flash truck computer right then or I can save it then make change later. It will run XM and will be running satelite tv this coming year.

I wanted to mention that Dragon has stripped my H2 to the bone several times and put it back correctly. I would be safe to say OrangeCrush has done so also. I enjoyed getting to see and learn more about my rig than I ever could have. I have no concern taking it apart myself I have helped or got to watch so much.

Tell Dragon I sent you.

TAZ

[Devis1957]

Not looking for anything fancy, has been garage kept, only 9000 miles, so very few imperfections to deal with, no road rash to speak of. I only want that foot deep finish over pewter.

Will contact Dragon and OrangeCrush to see what that would cost me. Thanks

[OrangeCrush]

Originally Posted by Devis1957

Not looking for anything fancy, has been garage kept, only 9000 miles, so very few imperfections to deal with, no road rash to speak of. I only want that foot deep finish over pewter.

Will contact Dragon and OrangeCrush to see what that would cost me. Thanks

Just for the record, pewter is not the ideal color to have a foot deep finish "look".

That color can shine but it's not really the best color for deep look if you know what I mean.

Obviously, the darker the color, the better the deep look. I'm going to give an example using two extremes....black and white. I don't need to explain further but I was just trying to make a point.

HTH's,

Mark

[HUMMERcustoms.com/TAZ]

Mark is exactly right on the color. I'm not a painter but, I have spent plenty of time look at colors coming out of Dragon's shop and choosing test colors for my H2. You can most likely take your rig to a good body shop and get as good a job as you can get on that color. Now if it had more of a deeper charcol grey color something might turn out better.

But, I defer to Mark take black versus white as a scale and pewter is going to be way up towards white as far as depth of color.

I picked stealth gray for the reason of it's deeper end on the scale so as to get deep shine. Even when we paint the mall queen we retain the original stealth color but, add to it or around it.

Take Mark's advice pewter can look good but, not the way a deeper color will so don't get expectation to high. There can be several coats of clear with sanding inbetween and it will look better than factory. When we painted my H2 the first time we were surprised how thin a coat of clear it had on it from factory. We shoot depending on vendor 3 to 5 coats if I remember right. The last paint job we do this next year will have allot of coats as it will be the girls final makeup into her older age.

TAZ

[OrangeCrush]

Originally Posted by HUMMERcustoms.com/TAZ

The last paint job we do this next year will have allot of coats as it will be the girls final makeup into her older age.

TAZ

I know you know this but more is not better. We recently did a $13K paintjob on a '63 split window Corvette.

Most of the money was spent on prep (fiberglass, do I need to say more....lots of blocking and sanding, blocking and sanding)

Granted, a paintjob like that is really two paintjobs. Once it's painted and cleared, it should be sanded, blocked and completely repainted.

THAT is for straightness. I just did the same on an El camino I'm putting together for myself. It's black and needs to be straight.

Point is, typically, we'll put 3-5 clearcoats on a paintjob assuming that we are wetsanding and buffing 1-2 coats worth of clear off it.

And yes, most manufacturers are skimply on their clear. There are certain cars that are notorious for thin clearcoats... to the point, we won't wetsand and buff the factory paintjobs. (ie. Mustangs, Corvettes, etc)

Mark

[HUMMERcustoms.com/TAZ]

Mark

You said it better than I could. It is why there are profesionals in each area of work on Our rides and that is the reason I let the Pros's like yourself do the work in paint and body work.

I know enough to help a little but, also sometimes knowing enough to be dangerous.

I do feel more comfortable in the engine, tuning, and rest of driveline. I'm not a Pro but, just study about it more and practice it sense my first hot rod 1968 Mustang 289 hi performance at 16. My parents had no idea the terror they had released with that temporary lapse of kindness.

I as always defer to Mark it is how he makes a living owning more than 1 shop. You must know what you are doing to reach that level of success.

Thanks Mark for clarify what I was wanting to convey as part of my response. You just know how to get to the answer with shorter words. Look at this post need I say more. But, then again I would not be TAZ if I did not write novels right Mark. I know you understand me better than most of new members since we have been here longer than many. Co-Pilot and KenP once suggested my post should be counted as 2 for 1.

Thanks Buddy and all our forum Buds that tolerate me.

TAZ

[OrangeCrush]

Just thought I'd give some helpful advice. Your advice was right on the money, I was just elaborating....

I can't tell you how many times I've lost custom jobs to someone else because that bodyshop told the customer they were putting on 13 coats of clear.

Yeah, right, and when the paint is thicker than the door handle, come see me.

I'll never forget this....


One time, I lost a job on a black Chevelle to a guy that wanted a slick look. He told me that he appreciated everything I had explained to him but he was going with this other guy because he used the "12 inch rule".

I was like, ah, what is that?

He said that's the reason he was going with this other guy because I didn't know what the "12 inch" rule was. It was a standard measuring system in the US that all custom shops used.

He explained to me that when the guy was done with his car, he could stand a ruler on the car and read a full 12 inches of the ruler in the paint.

I said, you're fuking kidding me, right? You're a moron, go get it done...please.

Not to mention the fact that back then, I offered the paint job for $1100 bucks. Back then, it was easy a $2000 paintjob but I was trying to help the guy out. (stupid me)

He said that because the other guy was using the 12" rule, that was why the other guy was $3200 bucks.

Anyway, he got the car done and drove it to my shop for me to look at a few months later.

He was standing there all proud telling me how well it looked and even asked me to bring out a ruler. All I had at the time was a 42" steel ruler.

Yep, he was right, there was a few spots of 8" but for the most part, they were 11 or 12 inches to be read in the paint.

Wow, I said, that's great, how much did it end up costing you? He coughed a bit and told me that the bill ending up being closer to $4K.

I asked him if I could keep his car for about 2 hours, I wanted to try something on the hood. To my surprise, he agreed to leave the car with me for a couple of hours. I gave him my car to drive and sent him away.

All I did was start wetsanding and buffing on the hood. First, 1000 grit, then 1500, 2000, 2500 and finally with 3000. I blocksanded it and polished it out.

When he returned, we took my 42" ruler and placed it on his hood.

It was reading 36-38"... Hummphh, 12 inch rule my ass.


He begged me to wetsand and buff the rest of his car, I told him to take it to the guy that painted it.

Fukking moron, paid almost 4 grand for the same job (same my ass) that I offered to him for 1100 bucks.

Stupid people....

Mark

[HUMMERcustoms.com/TAZ]

Mark

People are really thick. It seems the more I try to be a good guy just to be helpful that as time goes by it is harder just to do things because your nice.
I do not give up even though some have taken advantage of me during all these illness battles but, I can't stop because then I would be changing who I am. I loose then if I do that. The same goes for You Buddy! You know that.

TAZ

[Devis1957]

You guys are scaring me. Almost sounds like you want to whoop someone's a$$. That's the way I felt while waiting for the dealer to find the water leak in my Hummer.

[HUMMERcustoms.com/TAZ]

Sorry not meaning to scare. It is just frustrating trying to be a good guy and help then see people get ripped off because most times they have not reseached well. Wit web it easy to look info so you know who is BSing you or night.

Sorry Bud we are just venting frustration. Best to you in your search.

TAZ

[Devis1957]

I'm not scared, just joking. Looks like if I keep the pewter, I can't expect too much. Really like that color, even had the Hummer dealer call and ask me if I wanted out of my SmartBuy deal and trade up to a new model. Told him that I would consider but not likely, mainly because of color choices and the fact that they have changed the interior look. They were not too eager about getting my Hummer when I was trying to get a buyback back in 2006 / 2007.