finishing paint on the new project and i'm looking for some suggestions on the drivetrain and suspension color scheme.

the body is a tri color 4 stage candy red. i'm looking to find a color to paint my motor and suspension tubing as well as my new cage to accent the car and not have everything candy red. i would like to accent my interior with this color to break up the red but i'm undecided on that as well.

here is a run down on the colors on the car thusfar.

what is red:
exterior body as well as full underside.
the engine bay is completely smoothed and all red sheet metal.

polished:
wheels
calipers
pulleys and all little brackets on the motor.
heads
tail pipe
exhaust is ceramic coated from headers to muffler.
driveshaft.

black:
dash
seats
carpet
headliner

what needs to be painted:
steering components
suspension pieces (sway bars, subframes, cage, pan hard, lcas, etc)
engine block and intake
transmission
rearend
fiberglass work for rear stereo, center console and doors (black accent)



i'm thinking somewhere along the lines of a dark metallic graphite, i don't want the color to be too bright as i want the red paint and polished pieces to be highlighted. here is an example of one similar color i'm thinking but i'm open to any and all suggestions. this would be the lighter of the two which is more of a champaign color.

now to give you an idea of contrast this is the closest i could come to a similar setup. the idea is to not see only red and polished, slightly break up things. this is where i think a darker graphite would work better but i'm still playing so suggestions would be nice. here were going slightly darker but still a light silver, shade darker into a graphite with the red accents where it's blue and you'll get the idea for what i'm thinking.

this is what i'm trying to avoid.. while it's nice it's extremely busy. i want the paint to show off the body work in the engine bay, i want the polished brackets, pulleys and power adder to be the highlight. the painted drivetrain and accents are purely to know something is different. if it were all polished and red i think it may be much... suggestions??

hmm, I really need to look at this sober, so yeah. Tomarrow. hehe

how about '98(ish?) GM pewter? its a great metallic colour thats shiny yet subtle at the same time...

I like black for that sort of stuff. It's not like you want to specifically draw attention to your suspension, especially if you're going for a "clean" look. Black makes it disappear unless you're specifically looking for it. Graphite would probably have a similar effect, but I guess in my mind, suspension parts should be black.

Jeff,
Im totally with you on the graphite - that would look fantastic. BMW have several nice graphite colors that would be great. We just painted parts of my buddy's 318 in one of them and I really like it!

The graphite is discrete but yet looks high-end and would compliment the candy red very well.



Ken

Before I even read all of your post I was thinking a charcoal color, so I guess graphite is the way to go. The pewter has way to many brown tones in it. To me brown in no way is a muscle car/hot rod color.

Black or charcoal crinkle powdercoat would set all of that off great, IMO. The cage and SFCs I would paint body color.

ya no argument there...graphite / charcoal color would look awesome

I agree with black, but charcoal or dark graphite would look good too. I think you need to post some pics of the new project so we can get a better idea of what you're working with ;-)

imo the entire engine bay should be black down to every bolt head. But the LS2 intake should be red.

the problem with black on these parts is it looses depth. unlike a black paintjob which is the complete 180. the graphite will help add depth to a darker area that i really don't want to hide but i don't want it to stand out. as far as the suspension i want the parts to be noticeable, i just don't want them to stand out as they would if painted red or polished.

ken if you have any ideas with paint codes let me know otherwise i think i'll have to play with some paint to come up with something. i think graphite would be best though and the comment about the lighter color i suggested i'd have to agree with.

that's the good thing for different opinions though...

I like the graphite, but you might consider using a flattening agent in the clear to tone things down a bit, and give the engine a more understated look. Troy Trepanier does that on a lot of his engines, and it helps to bring out the shiny details that much better. Black (any shade) just screams stock, and all the detail work is lost.

My two suggestions, pepper grey metallic or dark quartz grey metallic.

i agree with everyone....and wait...did you say poweradder?! *gets an excited look in his eyes*

platnium wrinkle suspension parts.

http://www.cecoatings.com/images/coa...Red%20Jugs.jpg

or Black Tint. loose Depth?? not really.
http://www.cecoatings.com/images/coa...AltBracket.jpg

Cadillac has a nice deep pewter/graphite color on its '05 DTS cars. It has a deep finish to it and would accent the metallic red perfectly. I am going with a similar color scheme and I think the caddy graphite is a perfect match for 3rd gens in general.

That's the one I'd choose. Gloss would be nice, as it would reflect the red hue in the engine bay and tie it all together.

I remember reading awhile back about a 'force inducted ls2' in the works


and jeff, can you explain (without giving away the scheme or look of the car) how a 'tri color - 4 stage candy apple job' is done or looks? I have some ideas, but still a little confused on that one (like what's the 4th stage???)

knowing jeffs last project the the fourth would be some pearl flake not exactly fourth in steps but that would be the one your asking about. it would be somewhere in between the candy coats.

i like the graphite idea but some shade of platnum also comes to mine gotta be dark though. for the roll bar i would get it coated or chromed would look nice. it could also look real good in platnum pearl like my gfx on the car.

just hard to picture in my head together.

jeff

this is hok platnum pearl but it may be to light hard to say if it would stick out or blend for the interior peices.

Chrysler made a color called driftwood a few years back. It's not quite as dark as pewter but darker than silver. I might look nice.

a chrome or polished roll bar would look great

yeah, my parents had a minivan that color, lol....its a cool color no doubt, but in certain lights that van took on a very slight bluish tint, that might not work so well with a red car

At first I was thinking "Black, but not 'custom' enough", and it makes sense that in darker areas it would lose some depth by blending in with shadows too much.
That being said, a graphite or dark grayish color would compliment perfectly and help bring out the other parts by not screaming "look at me!" yet without dissapearing into the night.

which is pretty much the idea... greatly appreciate the comments everyone.



as far as the 4 stage, yes that's pretty similar to along the lines. when it's all done there will be a full write up on every detail of the car.

Could you throw out a possible date for the unveiling??

8 months ago it was suppose to be this weekend... when you rely on sponsors things slow down, alot.

hopefully soon though, i'll have it completely built by the end of the month i'm planning. unfortunately it won't all be in paint until after the summer though.

in other words, everyone ***** the hell out of your car while it may still remain in a spotlight ....cant wait!

Hey Jeff,

The code we're using on my buddy's beamer is:
Lachssilber 203
Salmonsilver (english name)

It is for an 88 BMW 318i. There are two very similar colors, where this one has a slight darker tone. The lighter one is called 203b. That's the one currently on his car (you can see it HERE). We are painting it with the slightly darker of the two, and I love it! Don't have any pics of it yet though!



Ken

Haha Kandied I read the first paragraph and automatically thought darker silver, charcoal, dark silver and you seemed to be thinking the same thing. How about the hyper black from the slp wheels, That color would look awsome especially on the roll cage.

Or this color which is my GFX and basically a met charcoal

definately getting more into the ballpark, thanks alot everyone. keep them coming and thanks for the codes ken.

Do you just want some more examples or are you looking for something more specific?

So do we get some pics before paint or do we have to wait all summer? I can't wait to see this thing.

honestly i'm sure thirdgen.org doesn't want a lot of basic non thirdgen related pictures but if any of you have color codes, links to pictures or something that you really think would work well with the red i'd love to see it.

you won't have to wait that long.. just want to have a complete set rather then a few random. i've posted several of the engine bay, suspension work and interior over the last 6 months but they never stayed up longer then a day.

i'll have some soon. as far as the color i think i'm definately leaning towards a more dark graphite right now with all the suggestions.

we want pics!!!!!!

no pictures until the cars in paint... this site has a strict nudity policy and i plan to stick by it.

Well as long as you have pics and descriptions of the buildup and not just finished product pics then I guess I can wait.

don't make me drive to michigan to check this out well im going to detroit anyway tomorrow lol. But just wanted to throw in that a dark titanium metallic would accent it alot much like the charcoal your talking about.

i am gonna have 2 agree with the hyper black .... it breaks it up but not to bright... still suddle...if i spelled it right

It may be subtle or suttle but Im too lazy to check. I dont know how he would actually go about finding the hyper black paint code, maybe just find a close match or call up SLP and they can help? So how long am I going to have to wait till I see this car, a couple days, weeks, months?