jackhammer

I want to tone down the red on this engine some. I'm trying to match the bezel color, but it's very hard to tell what red to use. I went with Omni single stage... I'm not looking for perfection. I just want a color that says 'custom'.

I was thinking a touch of dark blue and some pearl or flake would give it some depth. Can I add those to a single stage paint?

jackhammer

Here's a better idea of the color direction I need to go.

You're probably wondering how I could have got so far off... well, I was looking at color chips in the sun... and when you look at the bezel in the light it is a bright red (look where the flash of the camera shined)

glassdave

for you to get anything like that you will need to go to a pearl. no you cannot add pearl to that single stage and get to what you need. i would look at GM's Redfire Met (PPG# 5502) or Cherry Red Met (PPG# 4240) or maybe even their Red Tint Coat Met (PPG# 5402/5403) i believe all can be mixed in Omni or at the very least in ShopLine. The red you have on there now will serve as a pretty good base though so coverage wont be to bad.

adding blue will turn that brown and the pearl will most likely make it pinkish.

jackhammer

Ok thanks Dave! Hmm.. pinkish brown... I suppose I can wait for the paint shop to open!!

This guy's red is inspiring... I guess I have to step up the 2 stage paints to get this look?

glassdave

that does look good. i would just about bet that is the red tint coat i have listed above. i looked at my PPG formula program and there is a single stage mix for that color. the other two colors are very close as well. check out the color chips when you go to the paint supplier. I just did a set of shifters with that color to match the gauge bezels and it looked perfect.

jackhammer

I went and picked the red tint met in the omni single stage... the guys only charged me $21 so I felt pretty good about it. I like the pearl effect without having to pay the big bucks for the 3 stage PPG. And I like that it's toned down... but, I still didn't hit the bezel. I'm wondering if I can do this one more time for a bit more of a cherry tint. Somewhere between the 2 might hit the spot. The red tint looks brown without light on it.

jackhammer

Would matching the manifold be a step to far?

glassdave

if you want to get the red to hit a little more have them mix just the top coat (red tint coat) in Omni AU and tell them to make it a bit richer than the original formula. That will take out and pink over tones you might be getting with just the single stage mix and also will be closer to the bezel color. lookin good though

jackhammer

We have a winner! Thanks for helping me through this Dave!!

After I made the paint guys show me all the different colors that went into the (red tint met) I found the problem... it was the omni maroon that was making it look brown. I tried to get them to lower the maroon and increase the red, they would just tell me 'it won't look right'. So anyway... to make a short story long, I stumbled across 'Laser Red Tint Met". It uses violet as the main color... and the kicker, red and gold pearl. Now I think I really have my custom look... you can't see it in the picture, but in the sun the gold pearl really leaves a pretty haze.

jackhammer

Now I want to paint my pully's to look like aluminum... the ppg guys said they have nothing. Have any paint ideas?