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Sunday, May 29, 2011

First Color - Lapis and Cobalt Blue

The paint on our Corvette will be House of Kolor, one of the finest custom paint manufactures in the world.  Check them out here:  http://www.houseofkolor.com/hok/index.jsp

Several weeks ago we started working on the door jambs preparing them for paint.  The doors were sand blasted, rust was removed, weld repairs were made then several coats of primer were applied followed by lots of sanding.   This green 2 part primer is KP-2CF-A (yellow) mixed with KP-2FC-B (blue).  Just before this picture was taken the primer was scuffed with red Scotch Brite pads to help with adhesion.


Black Ko-seal II was applied next.  This is a high quality primer sealer intended to increase the bond between the primer and the top coats and it prevents the topcoats from soaking into the primer and reducing gloss.  Ko-seal II comes in black or white.  We chose black because we want our blue to be as dark as possible honoring the original color of the car which was Daytona Blue.


Lapis Blue base coat, BC05, was applied about an hour after the last coat of Ko-seal.  Lapis Blue was chosen from the House of Kolor color chart several months ago by Ty, Gerri and myself.  3 medium coats of this metallic blue were applied then allowed to dry for 15 minutes.


5 coats of Kandy Apple Cobalt Blue, UK5, were applied next.  Candy colors are very difficult to apply without streaking.  One of the ways to reduce streaking is to apply candy color over the same color base coat, which is exactly what we did.  After the candy, 3 wet coats of UFC35 clearcoat were applied.  UFC35 is an ultra-high gloss, chemical resistant, flexible clearcoat that will resist minor stone brusing.


So how did it turn out?  Gerri and I think it's absolutely stunning.  We could not be happier.

The following pictures do not do the paint justice but they are the best I could photograph.  In the sun the metallic is dazzling, in the shade it's a beautiful dark blue showing no metallic.  Cruising at night the car should look black.  Lester, you and Jacquie NEED to come to Cool Desert Nights to see this.


Double click on the pictures to see the metal flake.


Too bad this gets covered up with weatherstripping.


It's beautiful!

The paint will dry for several days before we start the color sanding process.  Color sanding will eliminate any orange peeling, nibs and/or blemishes.   After color sanding I hope to buff and polish the paint to perfection.  Wish me luck!

8 comments:

  1. Wow. Stunning. It's so fun to see the progress of this project now entering the stage of being able to see the final color paint. On that note, I do have a question. How do you plan to have all the various car parts color match, if your painting different parts,at different times,using different batches of paint? I have heard that painting the exact same stuff, with the exact same paint, but under slightly diferent conditions ( temp/humidity) can get different results? I had a vision of the entire car getting painted all the same day ?
    Maybe you cant do the final paint until the final fit of the doors in confirmed, and you cantbconfirm that unless all the rubber moldings are glued on, and you can't do that unless it's painted ? Jimp

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  2. Everything you said about the paint is correct, but there are ways to trick the eye. If the colors are not side by side or not in the exact same light the eye most likely can not tell the difference in minor color variations. That is why we can get away with painting the door and car jambs at different times. The jambs are not side by side with the exterior of the car and they are usually in the shadows. When we do paint the exterior of the car we will paint everything at the same time using the exact same batch. There is no way to trick the eye there. Great question. Thanks. John

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  3. Is the body on for keeps now ? Jimp

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  4. Do you have the part numbers on the wheels or do you know the offset I also have a 63 split window coupe and would like similar wheels for my car

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  5. Roy,

    The offset is -.47 inches. It is a standard offset offered by American Racing. Good luck.

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  6. I have seen this same Paint Chip combination of UK05 Cobalt Blue over BC05 Lapis Blue in the HOK Paint catalog. It flops purple on the paint chip at different angles. Did you see this in the Corvette after it was painted?????? I hate that purple shadow...

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  7. The color shifts purple from sunrise to sunset but at high noon it's royal blue with no hint of purple. If you do not like purple you will not like this color combination. Be advised though, 100% of the people that have commented on this color have been in awe. This color gets more comments than the mechanical fuel injected motor. Hope this helps.

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