My quest to "paint" the Wagovan has turned into An Ordeal

"Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo" (akioohtori) 02/11/2019 at 14:40 • Filed to: project golf ball, Plastidip

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Yes. Capital letters for that one. This shit is getting out of hand. I posed Saturday that I was thinking about plastidipping my Civic wagon before our overland trip. The subsequent days have been spent fretting over color, finish, sheen, flake, and all the other myriad of options. It has been exhausting.

Note: There are going to be a lot of brand names, screenshots, prices, etc on this post. No one has paid me for this post. DipYourCar.com and PaintWithPears.com just happen to be the two sources I’m primarily looking at.

The biggest revelation of the weekend is my goto of a matte finish won’t work. The Civic has a lot of hail and miscellaneous body damage and apparently a matte finish highlights this rather than hide it. (How I am planning on addressing that is another topic entirely.)

Shit.

Ok, so semi-gloss and gloss finishes are a bit of a different look than I am used to, but I am open to it. Unfortunately this opened me up to looking at all the crazy, advanced finishes available, including those not sourced by DipYourCar.

Further , my primary color consultant on this, George, thinks I shouldn’t go with blue as... well all my cars are either blue or grey. This is a fair point.

Also, which George didn’t point out but is more of a problem to me, Taylor’s XTerra is a beautiful shade of blue, so when we do group photos adding an additional blue to that might look... weird.

Additionally, I’m still hemmed in by the Civic’s interior being a sea of blue.

Goals

So, straight away I decided to start trying to take an engineering approach. Catalog my options, goals, and budget. Budget is easy: excluding body work I want this to cost less than $500. So basically that gives me $450 to spend on stuff with the assumption $50 will go to tax and shipping.

So... goals. I have them.

Look good IRL

Coordinate with the interior

Look good in photos

Make me (and other people) smile

I think 1-3 are pretty self explanatory.

Number 4, however, has been the problem child. I want this to look good, but not look like I’m taking myself or this car too seriously. Striking the middle ground between cool and bro has been more difficult than I’d anticipated.

A lot of the time I’ll try to imagine what something looks like and, yup, looks like I’m taking myself seriously..

Bright, over the top colors would solve this, but, aside from blue, these won’t work with the interior. Neutrals would, but I’m concerned they’ll look too serious.

Overthinking this? Yes. 100%.

Color and Finish Options

My options list has grown and shrunk as the days have worn on. The problem is I am finding this project entirely too consuming. I cannot overstate how much time I’ve spent on it.

Seriously. This is the real problem. I just need to pull the trigger.

Anyway... options.

Blues

Despite my earlier assertion, blue is still top of the charts. Current leader is a metallic candy pearl blue or a slate blue. Or both. Or maybe a slate blue with a interference candy top coat?

Slate Blue

Blue interference pearl

Sky Blue Candy Pearl

The thought of an ice blue metallic is also pretty cool. This is very close to the OE color too which is... something.

Teal Candy Pearls

Teal is also in the front of my mind as an option. I think it wouldn’t be revolting with the blue interior and is certainly different than my other options.

Teal is certainly... cool.

Brown

Yeah... brown is in the running. DYC sells two browns I like, one called “Root Beer” and another called “Motor Oil”. A brown manual 4WD wagon does sound like fun, but I’m also not... sure I’m there.

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Neutrals

Really the only neutrals left in the running are grey or black with a blue interference pearl or something to make them slightly... more. The largest benefit of going with a grey or a black is that they’re good bases for other colors, if and when I decide to change it down the road.

My concern is this will not fall in that valley of cool but not taking myself seriously. Also while I love the look of iridescence I don’t know that it’d fit with the overland vibe we’re going for.

Glow

Yeah, I am still thinking about this. The problem is I have yet to see a car that was done in dip, not wrap, and/ or what it looks like when not artificially charged. (Sunlight, headlights, etc) Every video I’ve seen is a wrap and usually charged with a video light or a UV flashlight. Every video I’ve seen done with spray the effect is very blotchy.

I think glow just doesn’t lend itself to spay as spray paints rely on layers to get an even coat. If you have an additive effect, like glow, you’ll never get an even application of glow material over the surface.

So as cool of an idea as it is, I am worried the execution would be lacking. Plus, if it was awesome and viable, every bro truck in the universe would be sporting it. Since they’re not we can only conclude it is a fool’s errand.

Top Coats and Finishes

There are a variety of color shifting additives and finishes available and all of them are making me fret over the possibilities. The forerunners are some of the light color shifting metalics, like the Nightshade below:

Could be cool?

On the insane end of the spectrum, for an absolutely staggering amount of money I could do “Holographic pearls”. At $65 per 25 grams (for reference everything else I am looking at is in the $10 - $15 range) these are certainly striking and I think over a metallic blue they’d be stunning.

Nothing wrong with posting a photo of a photo on a professional website... right >_>

But, again, $65 per bag , of which I may need more than one, would pretty much blow the budget for this project.

Interference and ghost pearls, as mentioned in the “Blues” section are also on the table.

Forerunners as of writing

Writing this has helped cement my feelings... sort of. Here is a list in no particular order:

Force Teal

Sky Blue Candy Metallic

Root Beer

Slate Blue

If you put a gun to my head and made me choose right now , it’d be Slate Blue. A safe choice, but not a bad one IMO. Yesterday I was leaning towards Sky Blue and in the time I took to edit this post I’ve started to gravitate towards Teal.

Hopefully I can put this to rest sooner rather than later, because it is seriously harshing my calm.

lone_liberal > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 02/11/2019 at 14:54

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I think the answer is obvious: Partridge Family bus.

For Sweden > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 02/11/2019 at 14:55

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I have a suggestion for a shade of blue

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > For Sweden 02/11/2019 at 15:00

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Swedish Racing Green?

AestheticsInMotion > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 02/11/2019 at 15:08

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More options 

Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 02/11/2019 at 15:18

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If you value your sanity, stay the fuck away from pearls and blues. And do not go within ten miles of blue pearls or color shifts.

Blue is bad enough. But pearls and colorshifts are VERY FUCKING HARD to lay down. Even for professionals with the latest and greatest equipment. And blue pearls and multi-coats are the absolute worst of them all .

Future Heap Owner > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 02/11/2019 at 15:20

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Why not orange? It coordinates with the interior because they are complementary colors.

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > Future Heap Owner 02/11/2019 at 15:24

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I can picture it in my head and it hurts.

Haha but really, I would love to do orange but the orange+blue doesn’t work for me.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Future Heap Owner 02/11/2019 at 15:24

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x2 for orange. 

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks 02/11/2019 at 15:25

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This is good to know.  Just hard to get even?

Duck Duck Grey Duck FTMFW! > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 02/11/2019 at 15:29

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I’m a big fan of the lim e green cover  photo. But I am biased towards lime green. It was one of my wedding colors. Can't believe my wife said yes to it and also me.

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > Duck Duck Grey Duck FTMFW! 02/11/2019 at 15:37

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I love the lime green and would do it in an instant if I thought it would look good with the interior.  It would look... interesting, but not... good.

Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 02/11/2019 at 15:37

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Hard to get laid down period . I mean, red might appear to cost more, but it doesn’t. As soon as you get off book rate, blue pearl multicoats are straight to the top on a rocket. (Don’t confuse with blue metallic. Those aren’t multicoat so they’re not as bad.)

They’re just such a total massive pain in the ass.

SpeedSix > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 02/11/2019 at 15:40

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The Wagovan doesn’t have to be all in one colour, does it?

Die-Trying > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 02/11/2019 at 15:47

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you considered just going to tractor supply, and finding a good pre mixed implement color(usually come in quarts, or even gallons), and just doing the roller-on sand down CHEEAP, cheap job?....... i think its around $50 if you TRY to cheap out as much as possible. it just gets labor intensive when its time to start sandinging the final coats..........

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > SpeedSix 02/11/2019 at 15:48

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NO MORE VARIABLES!!!!!

I did play around with the classic “white top” look but didn’t love the results. Racing stripes were similarly cring e- worthy.

SpeedSix > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 02/11/2019 at 16:15

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Hmm ...

White on the pillars as well? Black instead?

Also, your bumpers are black already - maybe paint the middle like on the AE86.

Duck Duck Grey Duck FTMFW! > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 02/11/2019 at 17:05

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Lies, it would look great!!!

twodudesnape > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 02/11/2019 at 17:09

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Army green? A little more subtle than the lime green in your cover picture and I could see it going with your blue interior. Attached picture shows roughly what yours could look like

Dogsatemypants > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 02/11/2019 at 21:17

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Electro luminescent paint? You could have it light  up as it encounters more vibration.

Dogsatemypants > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 02/11/2019 at 21:19

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Personally, I favor civics in red, though brown or metallic flake bronze look pretty good on a wagovan.

Dogsatemypants > SpeedSix 02/11/2019 at 21:20

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Harlequin wagovan? We speak not of such things for fear of what it may unleash.

Dogsatemypants > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 02/11/2019 at 21:21

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Go sounders fc?

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > Dogsatemypants 02/11/2019 at 21:37

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As an EE that is pretty much right up my alley, but a quick google says it costs around $170,000 to do a car. Not  quite in the budget haha

Dogsatemypants > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 02/11/2019 at 21:40

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It would be the coolest wagovan ever. Start a gofundme

SpeedSix > Dogsatemypants 02/12/2019 at 23:00

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Just considering a two-tone scheme - black lower areas , or white pillars and roof , etc., so that keeping the main colour blue won’t make the car seem too blue.

Dogsatemypants > SpeedSix 02/12/2019 at 23:05

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Tardis blue with police box sign on roof.

MM54 > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 02/16/2019 at 13:34

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I’m still all about the Orange, but of your final options list I like the teal