I want to paint my 87 2+2 rx7. (non turbo)
And im thinking this...


Make the body color just barely darker, and then

Paint the mirrors BLACK,
rub strips BLACK,
around the tail lights BLACK,
and the hood BLACK,


can you all give me your opinion of that?
It's either that above, or
I'll paint the rub strip and hood the same color as the body

and then still have the taillight surrounding and mirrors black

Please help! I just want other views on that!
So I can see if others think it would look good.

Here's the pic

 

i know black racing stripes look good on a charcolish color because my friend did it to his fb

 

A black hood just looks tacky on anything but black cars.

The rest sounds acceptable..but...having the rubstrip black is so 80's :\ Body-matching is for the win! You should just have it all the same color. Taillights, mirrors, etc.

 

^^ black hoods look cool on old school cars (RX-2, RX-3, datsun 510)

but they dont look good as good on FC's. if you're gonna paint the whole car, paint the hood too, then get a carbon fiber hood if you want that look. thats the only way the dark hood look works.

I would definitely leave the taillights black, i hate how they look painted, even on 10AE's (dont kill me ). the rubstrips/moldings, thats personal preference. on an S4 with S4 body parts i'd keep it black, you'll get a nice look with the black/charcoal contrast.

any combination you do though will probably look fine, its all personal preference. the only one i'd really stay away from is the black hood. good luck!

 

tacky and ricerish, yes.

friends don't let friends make rice.


find a color you like and paint it monotone, that looks best in my opinion.

 

Your post title says you have a problem. You don't have a problem, you have a decision to make. Let it be your personal choice. If you like it, to hell with anyone else's opinion.

 

True, it's only yourself you've got to please, but my vote is for all one color. Mostly because black rubstrips were big in the 80's and early 90's, and most cars (that continued through that time) went to body colored rub strips after that, so having body matching rub strips (to me) make the car look newer. Especially on a car that (in my opinion) doesn't really have a 'dated' look, like our Rx7's. I'd still buy a new 2nd gen RX7 today.

 

Spicy Orange Mica - 25T
Viper GTS Blue - SBE
Chysler Bright silver - PS2

Thats my .02


Or black.......

 

Be ready for the sticker shock. If that Spicy Orange Mica is the one from the 350Z, you're looking at like $300 a gallon for paint alone, vs $90 for most normal colors. When I picked out my paint I went through the color chip book and picked out another Mazda color, trying to keep it real . Also, if you change colors, you're gonna have fun with the engine bay, don't ask me how I know. :P

 

No, its the mazdaspeed colour from the mazdaspeed protege.

And it should be known that ANY factory paint is NOT worth 300/gallon. The variance for base colours isn't that much (cost wise)

The only thing that makes paint that expensive is extreme pearl or a tri-coat (or kandy coat) configuration.

 

Exactly

 

Agreed. But I had a guy come to me with his heart set on that Blue that comes on the 350Z. Normally I spend about $210-$300 for a gallon SETUP of paint, not just a gallon of paint. (For those not familiar, a gallon setup is a Gallon of paint, with all the reducer you'll need, then a gallon of clear with all the hardener you need) The paint is usually between $70 and $120 a gallon, and a gallon setup will pretty much paint the whole car at least twice. The Capri and the RX7 in my sig were both painted for between $300 and $400 each, counting all the paint, sandpapers, compounds and pads.

 

Richther... then y arent u hooking me up with a paintjob right the f*ck now??? lol

 

Bring it down to Dallas TX and I'll help you out

Actually, the reason why is because of that kid that wanted his Celica painted the same blue as the 350Z. He bought the paint and materials and paid me $250 to spray his car.

Then he brought his car to me, along with two new, never mounted fiberglass fenders, a new front clip and a back bumper cover that was cracked in 8-10 places. :P I had to remove his whole front clip and replace it, then he wanted the two small ports in the fenders made into one larger one, then he wanted me to replace where some guy tried to bondo out the body lines in the back bumper, and refiberglass it. All this at no extra charge because I was trying to help him out. :P Two weeks of fiberglass and bondo and bodywork later -

Long(er) story short(er), he said he was in a bind and needed the car and didn't give me time to finish compounding it, so after I spent all night the night before color sanding, I gave him the stuff and told him what he needed to do to get it to shine. I sprayed it down with water to show him what it would look like once the clear was smoothed out. He said it was cool, then a week later his ex-marine brother started e-mailing me telling me that I did his brother wrong, and if I didn't refund his money he was going to come over and kick my ***.

I told him he was welcome to come over and talk about it, but since I owned my house, if he didn't behave I would call the police and have him taken away. I told him if he had a problem he could file it in court and we'd let a jury decide if the work done to his car was worth $250. CC'd it to a friend at work as proof of notification. Then I told him that if he had just asked nice, he could have brought it back over and I would have finished it for him whenever he had time.

Try to be nice and some punk kid gives me this level of ****. :P Since then I only paint my own cars.

 

That's a shame. I'd consider painting other's cars but no bondo, fenders, etc. You see cracks, you turn it away.

 

thanks you guys!


I guess I'll do this...

Body: tornado silver (maybe a shade or 2 darker)
Hood: tornado silver (maybe a shade or 2 darker)
Rub-Strip: Black
Mirrors: Black
Taillight surrounding: Black

And like u NOPR, I have to have the tail lights black
And I dont find the 10th annv.'s so great.

But anyways, thanks a lot!
It'll be a while before I paint it.
I'm gonna have to do the body work myself first,
then go from there...

thanks!
-brett

 

Word of advice, don't try to delete seams, like where the fenders meet the front bumper cover, or where the rear bumper cover hits the corner panels. It doesn't do well.

 

"the RX7 in my sig were both painted for between $300 and $400 each"

how the heck did you do that? I want to have my car painted darkish blue (it's white now), by a guy I know is very good at painting cars, but it was going to be about 3k, plus i'd have to get a new spoiler because he didn't want to have to rebondo it. Someday, my 7 will be blue, but not for a few years (after I finish school and get a real job).

 

I did them both myself, so instead of paying $60-$75/hr for 4-6 hours of good prep, masking and sanding on the front end, I buy a Sunday paper for $1, a couple rolls of blue painter's tape for $4, a job pack of 180 and 320 grit wet/dry sandpaper at ~$8.

Then my gallon paint setup ($240 for the stratosphere blue, $280 for the charcoal gray metallic on the RX7) which comes with all the reducer, gallon of clear and hardener.
Hint - first time I painted (the blue car) I borrowed a paint gun from a friend. Enjoyed painting so much I bought a semi-pro gun (Devilbiss Finishline 3) on sale later.

Then after paint and clear and letting the clear dry for three days (probably varies depending on clear, I used Dupont and PPG depending on the paintjob) a "job pack" of 800 grit, 1000 grit, 1200 grit, 1500 grit wet sandpaper (always wet sand on cars!) then a bottle of medium cut rubbing compound $20 (I like 3M Perfect it II applied with a foam pad on a rotary buffer, not a $20 walmart random/orbit polisher, but a 15 lb right angle rotary buffer, this is critical for great shine!) The blue one I finished off with Turtle Wax red rubbing compound and then green wax compound. The Rx7 I finished off with Meguiars Mirror Glaze.

Voila! You're paying for the work, really. For grins just ask him how much he would take just to shoot it. If you brought him the paint, without sanding, masking, prepwork of any kind, I'd bet he'd shoot it for less than $200, probably less than $100. (Don't do that though, you'll be masking in the parking lot for hours.)

In fact, a friend of mine replaced the fender on his wife's Buick, and we used Duplicolor spraypaint to match the color, and I just shot quality clear over the top of it and the only problem with it is that the fender looks brand new and the rest of the car still looks 20 years old :P

Before you jump on that though, one coat applied by HVLP is about 30 times thicker than a coat applied with a spray can, so don't paint a car with rattle cans. If you're painting a spot bigger than a fender, it's cheaper to paint it for real.

 

Oh, what's nice is like I said, a gallon setup is usually enough to paint the whole car twice, so if you need a touchup, or repaint, all you have to buy is sandpaper and rubbing compound.

 

Oh, and if you're talking about the spoiler on the back of the car, I think they're foam rubber or whatever that stuff is. You shouldn't have to bondo it, but if it's been repainted (like mine ) then you'll need to sand it back down to the rubber and respray it, and add a flex agent to the paint so it doesn't crack.