Painting my Mach 1

[Jonner B]

Hey all.  I am soon painting my mach 1, but as I was thinking of what colour I wanted, I had a crazy idea.  
Throw me in the insane asylum if you want, but I thought of using plastic bags.  The idea is to paint the car, and while the paint is still wet, apply large sheets of plastic just for a second before quickly removing them.  This causes the base colour to show through in splotchy, cool patterns. 

I know this sounds a bit insane, but if it worked it would be absolutely unreal (and relatively easy).  I have seen this done before on walls (My very own bedroom for instance) But never on cars.

But I want to hear what you think.  WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?

-Jon

[Mister 4x4]

Yesterday, I saw a Harley with a black/blue saran wrap paint job - it looked pretty awesome.

This is kind of what it looked like:

[JTS71 Mach1]

Sorry Jon, Old School here. I've seen the kind of effect you speak of, and while very unique, it would be an absolute pain to do any kind of repair should something happen to it. I remember the lace paint jobs, the candy apple colors, of the late sixty's, and the bass boat metal flakes, they were cool. Unfortunately they weren't super long lived, as the were difficult to repair, and maintain. And I really dislike the NEW Patina craze. It just looks like someone was to damn lazy to finish the job. A well worn survivor car Ok. But to fake it, and make it look that way on purpose. NAH! do it right the first time, and make it pretty.    There are tons of super gorgeous colors available now. So I see no reason to go radical ,especially if you want to drive it. Just my thoughts. 

JTS

[1969_Mach1]

When it comes to paint color on a classic or old muscle car, I'm a bit old school as well.  In my mind it's best to keep the original color.  Mach 1's hold their value better if kept in their original color.  If you absolutely do not like the original color, look at one of the other's that were offered for your car.  Ford had a candy apple red, Black Jade, Gulfstream Aqua and several others that are very nice and actually sought after.  If yours was one of those sought after colors it will actually increase the cars value.

Most every time somebody looks at my 69 Mach 1, one of their first questions is, "is this the car's original color."

[Mister 4x4]

I think there are certain stages in life where certain things appeal.

For instance, when I was 20 and had just bought my first car - an '82 Mustang, and I had all sorts of plans on how I was going to customize it to my liking.  One of the things I wanted to address was the paint - it was a factory 'desert beige' color, and I never seemed to have enough money to get it repainted to a color more my liking.  Then I traded it in on a 4x4 Nissan truck after I returned from overseas duty (and it had been stored).

Fast forward to 9 years ago (!) when I first bought my '71 Mach 1, and I had some plans for customizing it as well, albeit the things I had planned were non-cosmetic in nature.  I wanted my Mach 1 to appear to be pretty much stock with some period-correct mods (hence the Cragars, louvers, etc.).  I'd also wanted the full package, with stripes, spoilers, etc., that could have been ordered for the car.  But as I went along, I noticed that literally EVERYBODY throws on stripes, spoilers, Magnums, Mach 1 and Ram-Air stickers, etc., whether the car came with them or not.  I'm not that guy, so I lost interest in that fairly quickly.

Initially, I wasn't sure of what color I wanted to go with - I'm a big fan of the metallic cherry reds on both my '12 Ram and '15 Camaro, but I also like the grays... and the '71 Mach 1 I fell in love with as a kid was Grabber Yellow.  Big decision to make - paint color is a huge thing that is pretty final, after all.  But then I looked up the paint code on the door sticker, and saw the color on the transmission tunnel when I removed the carpet - OK, back to the original Light Pewter it is.  

Shortly after I'd gotten it painted, I'd considered moving forward with the stripes & spoilers additions, but then noticed hardly any "no stripes or spoilers" cars being seen anywhere.  I decided to stick with mine as it appeared from the factory (with the period-correct mods I mentioned earlier, of course).

At some point in my life, I'm sure I'll have the idea of putting the stock 'pizza cutter' tires and sport caps back on, in the name of putting it back to original... but mine will never be original - I had to rebuild/repair/replace too many things for that to be even considered anymore.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see on that one.


I've never been a purist, nor huge fan of the more radical customizers (Foose, @ss Monkey, et al), but rather something more in-between.  I do believe in building your car how you want it - it's yours, after all.  But I do think there are certain cirumstances where someone would want to consider preserving a car, rather than customizing, but that's primarily in the case of a rare, collectible, or valuable car.  Mine's an H-Code: not particularly rare, collectible, or even valuable (even though it's numbers-matching), so I see a blank canvas.  

Photoshop can be your friend here - I know the car I modeled mine on was originally Grabber Lime, but I Photoshopped a picture to make it look more like a light pewter colored car.  If you have Photoshop skills (or know a buddy who might), grab some pics of your car, find some samples of the colors you're after, and see how they look before committing to something.  You might be surprised and what you come up with.

The guys [as always] have offered up solid and sound advice, but at the end of the day it's your car - you'll need to decide what direction to go.

[JTS71 Mach1]

YEP! what he said. Mister 4x4 put it into words very nicely. Make it what you want, and Drive it like you Stole it!!!

JTS

[Jonner B]

Sorry Jon, Old School here. I've seen the kind of effect you speak of, and while very unique, it would be an absolute pain to do any kind of repair should something happen to it. I remember the lace paint jobs, the candy apple colors, of the late sixty's, and the bass boat metal flakes, they were cool. Unfortunately they weren't super long lived, as the were difficult to repair, and maintain. And I really dislike the NEW Patina craze. It just looks like someone was to damn lazy to finish the job. A well worn survivor car Ok. But to fake it, and make it look that way on purpose. NAH! do it right the first time, and make it pretty.    There are tons of super gorgeous colors available now. So I see no reason to go radical ,especially if you want to drive it. Just my thoughts. 

JTS

Hey JTS.  Very true!  It would be hard to re-paint any surface for any reason.  I may just stick to solid colour

[Jonner B]

When it comes to paint color on a classic or old muscle car, I'm a bit old school as well.  In my mind it's best to keep the original color.  Mach 1's hold their value better if kept in their original color.  If you absolutely do not like the original color, look at one of the other's that were offered for your car.  Ford had a candy apple red, Black Jade, Gulfstream Aqua and several others that are very nice and actually sought after.  If yours was one of those sought after colors it will actually increase the cars value.

Most every time somebody looks at my 69 Mach 1, one of their first questions is, "is this the car's original color."

Very true.  I hope to have mine for my entire life, so I am tempted to paint it purple - which is not one of the original colours.  The origional was green, but I do not like green at all!

[Jonner B]

I think there are certain stages in life where certain things appeal.

For instance, when I was 20 and had just bought my first car - an '82 Mustang, and I had all sorts of plans on how I was going to customize it to my liking.  One of the things I wanted to address was the paint - it was a factory 'desert beige' color, and I never seemed to have enough money to get it repainted to a color more my liking.  Then I traded it in on a 4x4 Nissan truck after I returned from overseas duty (and it had been stored).

Fast forward to 9 years ago (!) when I first bought my '71 Mach 1, and I had some plans for customizing it as well, albeit the things I had planned were non-cosmetic in nature.  I wanted my Mach 1 to appear to be pretty much stock with some period-correct mods (hence the Cragars, louvers, etc.).  I'd also wanted the full package, with stripes, spoilers, etc., that could have been ordered for the car.  But as I went along, I noticed that literally EVERYBODY throws on stripes, spoilers, Magnums, Mach 1 and Ram-Air stickers, etc., whether the car came with them or not.  I'm not that guy, so I lost interest in that fairly quickly.

Initially, I wasn't sure of what color I wanted to go with - I'm a big fan of the metallic cherry reds on both my '12 Ram and '15 Camaro, but I also like the grays... and the '71 Mach 1 I fell in love with as a kid was Grabber Yellow.  Big decision to make - paint color is a huge thing that is pretty final, after all.  But then I looked up the paint code on the door sticker, and saw the color on the transmission tunnel when I removed the carpet - OK, back to the original Light Pewter it is.  

Shortly after I'd gotten it painted, I'd considered moving forward with the stripes & spoilers additions, but then noticed hardly any "no stripes or spoilers" cars being seen anywhere.  I decided to stick with mine as it appeared from the factory (with the period-correct mods I mentioned earlier, of course).

At some point in my life, I'm sure I'll have the idea of putting the stock 'pizza cutter' tires and sport caps back on, in the name of putting it back to original... but mine will never be original - I had to rebuild/repair/replace too many things for that to be even considered anymore.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see on that one.


I've never been a purist, nor huge fan of the more radical customizers (Foose, @ss Monkey, et al), but rather something more in-between.  I do believe in building your car how you want it - it's yours, after all.  But I do think there are certain cirumstances where someone would want to consider preserving a car, rather than customizing, but that's primarily in the case of a rare, collectible, or valuable car.  Mine's an H-Code: not particularly rare, collectible, or even valuable (even though it's numbers-matching), so I see a blank canvas.  

Photoshop can be your friend here - I know the car I modeled mine on was originally Grabber Lime, but I Photoshopped a picture to make it look more like a light pewter colored car.  If you have Photoshop skills (or know a buddy who might), grab some pics of your car, find some samples of the colors you're after, and see how they look before committing to something.  You might be surprised and what you come up with.

The guys [as always] have offered up solid and sound advice, but at the end of the day it's your car - you'll need to decide what direction to go.

Awesome story!  I agree.  I will try to keep things within reasonable limits, but at the end of the day i gotta live with it!  I think I will skip the bag trick.

Thanks for your insight.  -Jon