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Marq, thanks for the info ref flat paint.

I'm actually wondering whether or not this is going to make my car look completely rubbish.

Maybe I should consider a gloss finish.



Paint jobs are usually just a reflection of our times... At this moment the shiner and glossier the better. But like any fashion statement, the designers are always trying to jump to an opposite extreme just to be fashionably 'avant garde'.

I guess this is the logic behind the designers rush to get some vehicles into the showrooms with factory 'flat' paint jobs.

At this particular point in time... a flat paint job on a modern car might look rubbish - only because the media haven't pumped the public's psyche up yet on 'just how cool it is and how you just gotta have it to be hip'

So if you do a 'flat' paint job on a modern car today... then you are running ahead of the fashion curb. And that puts you into the same adventurous and carefree group of people who wore mini skirts while everyone else was wearing knee length... or bikini's or thongs while the mainstream public were wearing one piece swim suit.

So I guess the real answer is to do what makes YOU comfortable.

Now on this topic of 'flat' paint jobs... I think that the real question is whether all colors will become 'fair game' for flattening or whether the designers will try to slowly change the public's perception by introducing just a limited range of colors that will be easily accepted by the public and not draw ridicule.

I like to think that 'flat' colors would work best initially in 'suede' or 'natural rock' type colors. If it looks good in suede then it would probably look good on a car.

You gotta remember that during the Second World War, the German Afrika Corp ( armored and wheeled divisions ) and the Allied desert forces all used 'flat paint jobs' on their vehicles. And those paint jobs held up to just about everything except shell burst from an opposing tank or bazooka. So right there you had some lovely
a ) flat tan suede colors
b ) flat gray rock colors
c ) flat cream colors
d ) flat green color variants

On the aircrafts, they used :
a ) flat black
b ) flat light blue
c ) flat green color variants
and in desert air craft they also used the
d ) flat tan/creme color variants.

I know that if you go to your local leather jacket store... and poke around at the suede jackets, you will get a pretty good idea what colors look good in flat, with no shine. The most popular as per what the people buy are the tan, creme, black and brown variants for MEN.

And for the ladies choice in suede it seems that more bold colors are used along with the more traditional male colors.

So if you did a car in flat purple or flat orange or flat pink... it would probably be perceived in the public's eye as a feminine paint job...

I will say that one usage of flat that I saw used was on a Lotus Esprit. They had used actual tan suede on the interior trim and in particular on the dashboard. It looked lush, expensive and fabulous. However I could easily see that it would be a beeeetchhh... if it ever got dirty or needed cleaning.

Oh well.. there's some rambling thoughts on the topic of flat paint jobs on modern cars.

Naturally I am exempting the pre-50's cars from this. Their body shapes look sexy in flat or high gloss...

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