And I thought electrical was hard - picking paint is much harder

[Alex_V]

Man, I am loosing sleep and my hair is turning grey. This is more difficult then I thought.

So, my car has standard chrome roll bars, replica aluminum wheels, and chrome accents. Nothing is blacked out.

Originally I wanted to do Honda Sonic Grey since my car is a fusion of modern tech and old style. Coyote with 6 speed M82 on the inside, and classic looks on the outside. With the Honda a thought of millions of Accords and Odyssey's on the road pained same color threw me off. Now I am leaning towards BMW Brooklyn Grey (light grey) with darker stripes, or slightly darker blue Porsche Graphite Blue with white stripes. Hell, or maybe ditch the stripes all together.

Anyone painted their roadster in a BMW Brooklyn Grey or Porsche Graphite Blue Metallic? Stripes or no stripes, white or dark?

Here are a few samples:

1. BMW Brooklyn Grey
182787

2. Porsche Graphite Blue
182788

3. And what I originally wanted. Honda Sonic Grey
182789

Thoughts?

[Alan_C]

Buy small quantities of the colors you most like and then do spray outs of them. Do variations as in number of coats of base and clear. Your automotive paint store will have spray out cards you can use. Your color looks to be a solid color which should make things easier, metallics and pearls are more finicky.
I understand you dilemma, I spent two weeks looking at color chips. Minor wiring issues are easy to fix compared to a color you are not happy with.
FWIW, I like the BMW Brooklyn grey as it appears to have a metallic or pearl content that will change color a bit, called flop.

[Alex_V]

Unfortunately the color swatches just don’t do it for me. An object painted in larger volume always looks different than a small swatch. I really liked a chip with Porsche Frozen Blue metallic, looked great. Seeing a whole car painted that made me throw up a bit in my mouth.

I was an art student many moons ago, followed by near 30 years working in ad agencies doing various levels of graphic design.

[Lidodrip]

I started out down the Viking Blue with Wimbledon White stripes pathway. As time got closer to paint, all these other thoughts popped into my head. I ended up buying quite a few spray paint samples from PaintScratch and did samples on small plastic car molds from Amazon. It was a helpful exercise and the car molds gave a sense of how the paints looked on curved surfaces. After six or seven colors, the family vote was right back to Viking Blue. Oh well. Body goes out for paint this month. Good luck!

[facultyofmusic]

Please please please find examples of them in real life and see them in person. Pictures just don't do some of these best paints justice! On BMWs in particular: modern BMWs have sharp lines and straight angles. The cobra has none. Luckily I saw one in person and saw how the paint reflects the light. The paint looked slick on a BMW but on a cobra the car would look like a candy bar...

[mikeinatlanta]

Expired white single stage airplane paint here.

[Alex_V]

Please please please find examples of them in real life and see them in person. Pictures just don't do some of these best paints justice! On BMWs in particular: modern BMWs have sharp lines and straight angles. The cobra has none. Luckily I saw one in person and saw how the paint reflects the light. The paint looked slick on a BMW but on a cobra the car would look like a candy bar...

You are not helping me here, jk.

I see your point, sharp lines vs. curves on newer BMW's. Any chance you snapped a pic of a cobra that you saw? What color was it? Did it not look right?


Expired white single stage airplane paint here.

I spay canned all my race bikes back in the day, with this project I am going all fancy.

[Nigel Allen]

I used Audi metallic silver. Also wanted it to not look like every other silver Audi on the road, so the painter added a 'coarser metallic grain' (not sure of the correct term, maybe Jeff K can enlighten us) to the paint. This really made it look different and gave it a more vintage appearance. Still loving it 7 years later. It really contrasts nicely with the bright work and certainly pops in the sun / under lights.

[GoDadGo]

Picking a color can be difficult, but you'll figure it out when the time comes.

Dodge Challenger Torred is what I wanted; however, we found that same color code had slightly different formulas from model year to model year even though it was the same paint code. I settled for the 2020 model year color.

Any color you choose will be 100% perfect because it is your car and your color.

Good Luck From The Dark Dart Side!

[rich grsc]

Many paint shops have the ability to mix the color you want and put it in a spray can. Fo about $15-20 a can you will be able to see the color sprayed out on a large surface. Well worth $60-100

[Jeff Kleiner]

Oh yeah, I see it on almost every car. Some guys agonize and surely must lay awake at night fretting about colors! I’ve had cars that were 100% ready for paint but the owners were still undecided—-those cars got pulled out of the line and the next one moved ahead!

The spray cans and duplicolor type touch up products will get you in the neighborhood but to be truly accurate a spray out needs to be done with the actual paint and put under clear.

https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=182792&d=1681218920

Cheers,
Jeff

[dbo_texas]

You have some of the same colors I've been doing spray-outs of. Here are some pictures (without clearcoat applied). I buy 2oz paint jars from automotivetouchup.com, then mix with acetone to thin an use a $25 airbrush I bought on Amazon. Buy some detailing tape (also Amazon) for about $8 to do the stripes - it comes with 1/16", 1/8", 1/4" and 1/2".

My #1 choice for the longest time was Porsche Graphite Blue Metallic w/ Porsche Miami Blue center stripe and Porsche Chalk pin stripes. I would do a chrome delete with this color palette. This is from a Backdraft RTB3:
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=182800&d=1681222292

I bought the Porsche colors and did some spray outs - overall I wasn't very impressed with either the Graphite Blue Metallic (way darker than any image I've seen online) or the Miami Blue (too much green hue to it). Here are some spray outs - the top row, 2nd from the right are the Porsche colors.
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=168173&d=1655404657

Sonic Gray Pearl is also on my list - I did some spray outs with it and it looks pretty unique. In the sun, you will catch some purple and even some green from the pearl. I've never seen a Cobra painted this color and I think it would look really good. Here are some of my spray outs - none have clear coat yet which would make a huge difference. From left to right: Honda Sonic Gray Pearl, Kia Wolf Gray Metallic, Kia Everlasting Silver Metallic
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=168172&d=1655404657

Here's a few more I'm playing around with. Top row: Porsche Graphite Blue Metallic w/ Jeep Chief Blue stripe, Honda Sonic Gray Pearl w/ Jeep Chief Blue Stripe, Kia Everlasting Silver w/ Jeep Chief Blue stripe + Acura Palladium Metallic Silver pin stripe; Bottom Row: Honda Mountain Air Metallic + Acura Palladium stripes
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=182801&d=1681222735

[Jeff Kleiner]

Darryl,
Colors change tremendously under clear, especially if they have a high pearl, mica or metallic content. Frankly, without clear your spray outs aren’t really telling you much.

Jeff

[dbo_texas]

Darryl,
Colors change tremendously under clear, especially if they have a high pearl, mica or metallic content. Frankly, without clear your spray outs aren’t really telling you much.

Jeff

Yeah I had seen you comment on other threads this is the case with clear coat so I planned to do this before making a final selection. I've also been to dealerships to look at the colors in person (except for the Porsche Graphite Blue). I do have a can of the 2K clear coat I was going to put on all of them once I'm done driving myself crazy with an endless list of color options I want to try out. Also, I talked to the paint shop I plan to use and he'll do a professional spray out also just as a final check.

[Madfor67]

WOW! That's awesome! Make sure you put clear coats on these samples though. Base coat colors change a lot once the clearcoats are sprayed. Also, the pearls pop so much more with a few layers of clear coats.
Whichever color you go with please pick the one with lots of metallic flakes/pearls. Cobra body looks absolutely amazing with lots of pearl flops under the sun.



You have some of the same colors I've been doing spray-outs of. Here are some pictures (without clearcoat applied). I buy 2oz paint jars from automotivetouchup.com, then mix with acetone to thin an use a $25 airbrush I bought on Amazon. Buy some detailing tape (also Amazon) for about $8 to do the stripes - it comes with 1/16", 1/8", 1/4" and 1/2".

My #1 choice for the longest time was Porsche Graphite Blue Metallic w/ Porsche Miami Blue center stripe and Porsche Chalk pin stripes. I would do a chrome delete with this color palette. This is from a Backdraft RTB3:
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=182800&d=1681222292

I bought the Porsche colors and did some spray outs - overall I wasn't very impressed with either the Graphite Blue Metallic (way darker than any image I've seen online) or the Miami Blue (too much green hue to it). Here are some spray outs - the top row, 2nd from the right are the Porsche colors.
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=168173&d=1655404657

Sonic Gray Pearl is also on my list - I did some spray outs with it and it looks pretty unique. In the sun, you will catch some purple and even some green from the pearl. I've never seen a Cobra painted this color and I think it would look really good. Here are some of my spray outs - none have clear coat yet which would make a huge difference. From left to right: Honda Sonic Gray Pearl, Kia Wolf Gray Metallic, Kia Everlasting Silver Metallic
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=168172&d=1655404657

Here's a few more I'm playing around with. Top row: Porsche Graphite Blue Metallic w/ Jeep Chief Blue stripe, Honda Sonic Gray Pearl w/ Jeep Chief Blue Stripe, Kia Everlasting Silver w/ Jeep Chief Blue stripe + Acura Palladium Metallic Silver pin stripe; Bottom Row: Honda Mountain Air Metallic + Acura Palladium stripes
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=182801&d=1681222735

[Ted G]

Hardest decision for me too! Started out with baby blue, went to reds, greens, silvers and finalized on Porsche Night Blue Metallic. One way to solidify your color is to do something that basically requires a certain color or at least close to that color. My solidification came with my decision of chassis color and gauge colors. These choices basically forced me to choose some form of blue.

182805 182806

[Mike.Bray]

My favorite color is red and my wife's favorite color is blue so we compromised and went with blue. Actually being a Cobra I didn't mind blue so it's okay. We looked at a bunch of cars and pictures although pictures on a computer are tricky. We thought we had narrowed it down to either a Suburu blue or a Jaguar blue. Our painter did some spray outs for us along with a few others that they suggested. They looked good but didn't have that wow factor we were looking for.

Like Jeff said it needs to have the clearcoat to give you the true color. And get it out in the sun. Here's a hint, females are better at judging colors than males due to them having more cones in their eyes.

Not happy with the colors yet we started doing some research and looking into (faux) kandy colors. Not the true kandys like from the 60's but new versions that are a basecoat/clearcoat. We got a sample from House of Kolor called Cobalt Blue and we just knew it was the one. The thing with these is the color of the primer changes the finished color. HOK recommend gray or black primer so we had spray outs of both done. We were supremely disappointed! Neither sample looked like what we were hoping. Back to square one and thinking we were going to have to "settle" for one of the shades we kind of liked, maybe the Jaguar one. I didn't really want to use that one as being a Jaguar color I'm afraid my car will start leaking oil lol

A few days later our painter called and asked if we could come out as they had something for us to see. When we saw the latest sample, in a line of 12 blues, it was the BLUE one. My wife and I both said WOW at the same time. The painter had an idea to spray a coat of silver over the primer and then the basecoat, like an old school kandy. This really made it pop. It adds another coat and some cost but the difference is more than worth it we feel. I felt like it was a great example of thinking outside the box and achieving what we wanted.

https://www.imagecoast.com/images/MichaelBray1/20230302091330mediumrotated.jpg

https://www.imagecoast.com/images/MichaelBray1/20230301180514mediumrotated.jpg

[Alex_V]

Thanks for all the comments and pics. Right now I am in between Porsche Graphite Blue and Honda Sonic Grey. Ordered the spray cans to do a sample test. Still don't think larger shapes do look accurate compared to small samples, but its at least something.

One more question - generally speaking does clear lighten or darken the overall look of color under neath?

Thanks again,

[Theshandman]

Like most everyone else at the color decision stage, I was casting about with great anxiety until I read through Teg G's "Show Me Your Blues" post. I knew I wanted a dark color so when I saw a reference to 'Antimatter Blue' and what it did in and out of direct light (Thanks Jeff K) I was hooked. So it's going to be Antimatter Blue with Halibrand wheel (Gunmetal) grey stripes.

[Jeff Kleiner]

One more question - generally speaking does clear lighten or darken the overall look of color under neath?

Thanks again,

It doesn’t actually change the color making it lighter or darker but it does intensify it and making it appear different to our eyes by bringing out depth and the additives like pearls, mica, etc.

Here’s one before clear:

https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=182847&d=1681318142

And then after:

https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=182848&d=1678284626

Same room, same lighting.

Cheers,
Jeff

[Alex_V]

Thanks Jeff, I can see how the clear adds depth and picks up more reflections.
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Waiting for spray cans to come in so I can do some test. Probably going with Porsche Graphite Blue, with Wimbledon white stripes.

[TBull]

On my second build I was pretty luck. I actually knew pretty close which exact blue and orange I was going to use. I found the orange on a 2020 Shelby Mustang (Twisted Orange) and found a color very close to the Lexus UltraSonic Mica Blue, but that was a tri-coat, so I went with the GM Laser blue. I actually order a model kit of a cobra and then painted it with my colors. I wanted to see how the light would effect different areas on the body. I found that VERY helpful before I dropped the thousands of dollars on a paint job.

The OP also asked about BMW greys. My first cobra was a BMW Sterling Grey with Black sapphire stripes. I loved the way it changed color in the light as well. Sometimes looking darker to almost a silver in direct sunlight. Loved that car.

[dbo_texas]

Thanks Jeff, I can see how the clear adds depth and picks up more reflections.
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Waiting for spray cans to come in so I can do some test. Probably going with Porsche Graphite Blue, with Wimbledon white stripes.

Alex - what's the verdict? Were you able to do the spray outs?