Is black always the same color?

[dlampe]

I am thinking about painting my project black. I guess I thought black was just black. Is that the case? I know there are 100's of white's. I thought the "wet" look was created in the clear coat process, is that true? I don't want a metalic or pearl black, just deep, refective high gloss black.

[FUNFER2]

Hey bud, how you doin ?
I painted a Vette and added red to a black car which made it a cool "Cherry Black".

[vettestr]

The difference of a quality, loving wax and polish job changes a black car. Nothing nicer than the moment you finish detailing it though.

[RedBarchetta]

Dean, there are definitely different shades of black. For example, the Honda black is VERY black while the Chevrolet black isn't as dark/deep. Do your research and you'll learn just how deep a color you desire. On a two stage process (color coat/clear coat), the gloss will come from the clear. The color actually dries a little dull without the clear coat over it.

On my daily driver '02 Z06 (black), we actually painted the bumper in single stage paint meant more for commercial applications. The gloss is identical to the rest of the car but it's more resistant to chipping. In hindsight it would have been better to just paint the entire car with that material (I had a re-paint about one year ago when poor construction clean-up on a local freeway left debris and rocks all over the place. I was doing 75mph on the way to work and a crowd of us hit the debris field at the same time. My whole car got chipped and the windshield was a wreck. That little episode cost the road paving company a $5,500 insurance claim for a full repaint and glass).

-Dean

[Dwight]

100s of blacks

[puppster]

Some black paint will have a warm tone (more red) and some have a cool tone (more blue) and everything in between. It really depends on what you put with it. ie. red stripes may "pop" on a cooler black due to a slight contrast of hue. you would need to have a buch of spayed panels in front of you to see the difference. In the design studios here in Detroit there are hundreds of panels hung on the walls. It becomes really obvious when you can see large domes painted up and hung in a room with color corrected light. I know that's not realistic for most people, can't imagine the cost of even just a few panels. I would probably spray up some panels before final paint to compare things like stipe colors against the base color. It would be cheaper to change the color before it's on the car.

[brettco]

Some blacks have other colors added like white or yellow so they match the poorer quality OEM black used. I would just use the blackest toner ( straight out of the can ) in the system used by the shop that paints your car. Like was said before the strongest paint you could use is single stage black because it is a stand alone coating with hardener in it and then clearcoat that for UV protection and so when you buff the paint job you arent taking off the color. Single stage with clear over it is very chip resistant.The main reason for basecoat in thr first place is metallics and pearl colors not solid colors.

[Tony Ripepi]

Hi Dean,

A few years ago one of the BACC guys was looking at Blacks to paint his Cobra and came up with over three hundred different paint codes and chip samples.

TR

[bandito]

If you're looking to stick with a true ford black, it will have a decent amount of brown in it. However, the best black that was used on a ford, IMHO, is the Harley Davidson edition black.... it's a 4 stage paint that is bottomless.

[GeoMass]

Hi, Accoding to the guys and gals at PPG, there are only two blacks. Gloss and flat are the only stand alone blacks. All others have other colors added to them. In this manner you get all the other blacks, such as Tuxedo black, or Knight black, or the other night black etc.

GM

[Gunner]

This isn't strictly relevant to car paint, but in process color printing there are "pure" blacks, printed only with black ink, and "rich" blacks, printed with a combination of black and the other process colors. Black alone, no matter how thoroughly applied and even coated (as in some gloss magazines) will have a flat, dead look to it. The inviting, attractive black you see in magazine ads is typically 100% black overlaid with 50-60% cyan or magenta ink. It still looks black, but with a warm, deep tone to it. Much the same is true of car paints - enough black pigment and you won't be able to pull any color out of it, but the addition of a fair amount of red or blue pigment will deepen and richen the black. Work with a good paint shop and ask to see as many jobs with different mixes as possible over time to get a really good idea of the options.

[gsharapa]

Dean,

What most of us have done when picking a color other than one a Cobra Manufacture already offers is to pick one you can go see on a new car or a used car. So you might want to look a Ford's, GM's, Porsche, Volkswagon or one of any other manufacture out there. Paint chips never seem to work well as you need to see it on a car. I can tell you the black on my 2007 Shelby GT500 Dave is buying is very pretty and you have pics of that car...You could do the black with red nose stripe pic I sent you as I have decided to go with a different color stripe combo....

[Buzz]

When I had my Vette, I kept the black paint nicely detailed and polished up. It always looked smooth and shiny but there was a fellow in my neighborhood with an older Camaro that was the darkest, blackest, glossiest black imaginable. I never could get my paint to look like that no matter what products and techniques I tried. When I spoke to him, he said it was because his car was painted with a simple, one part black paint and mine was base-clear. He postulated that the clearcoat helped to add depth and gloss, but detracted from the "blackness" and would never look as black as straight polished black paint.

[dlampe]

I like the resiliance of the single stage. If that is how I want to go, should I just request single stage PPG black? Does it have a mix code as well? I think a couple of coats of clear on the top would really make it pop.