FC7 Plum Crazy Purple paint question

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tom999w

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I'm preparing to repaint my FC7 Demon but wanted to know if the primer should be black, gray, or white... I think any of those primer colors will affect the final color of the purple paint. When Googling FC7 Plum Crazy cars, many different shades of purple come up. What would be correct?
 
Primer color will not matter. Sealer will make it all uniform. Its called a "ground coat". The paint manufacturer will have a recommended ground coat (sealer) Its a complete repaint so the difference in color really doesn't matter other than you need to record everything for future matching of the paint. I usually go black.
 
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Did you all ever wonder why with the same metallic colors Dodge and plymouth always looked different. There was a reason and old time mopar paint matcher showed me and he amazed me with being correct on a 1969 F6 green car that a friend had. It was not the primer. It was the paint. plum- Crazy also
 
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I bought a gallon of FC7 recently using the paint code. I then tried to buy some in another paint line (2 in fact). The paint dealer spent a lot of time trying to match the first one and couldn't do it. There are so many variants it seems. Without a sample you are going to get what you get. I doubt the primer matters much but I didn't experiment. The paint I used covers very well. I believe some paint lines will tell you what color primer to use. I saw a chart somewhere...can't remember where. Gray was correct for purple.
 
Primers are generally neutral colors so they won't affect the actual paint. "GENERALLY" However, a red oxide primer can affect the final color of a white car leaving the finished paint pinkish in different lights depending on how many topcoats of the white color that are applied over it. As mentioned by BODYPERSON a sealer over the primer would prevent this. If the car is properly prepped it then becomes all about the paint.
 
This man told me one use gold flake and the other used silver. I believe Plymouth used gold. and Dodge used silver . I tried to find info on this I couldn't. But this old mopar paint guy at klines automotive in Allentown Bob showed me in his old books and then mixed a pint of both. for me to match. He was correct Since then I always looked at cars with original paint . I always wondered why 2 different names for the same paint for Plymouth and Dodge. Was this the reason?
 
This man told me one use gold flake and the other used silver. I believe Plymouth used gold. and Dodge used silver . I tried to find info on this I couldn't. But this old mopar paint guy at klines automotive in Allentown Bob showed me in his old books and then mixed a pint of both. for me to match. He was correct Since then I always looked at cars with original paint . I always wondered why 2 different names for the same paint for Plymouth and Dodge. Was this the reason?
That's an interesting question. There is probably a paint guru on here that knows. I would like to know as well. The last car we painted was a PB 5 electric blue. Due to where we live, we had an old Martin paint mixer Jeff Sands from Kentland Napa mix the lacquer paint. (Yes this was a long time ago) Jeff was the resident expert in this small community for matching paint colors for all the local body shops. At that time there was a new ultra-high gloss Urethane that was compatible to topcoat the Martin Lacquer paint. It got incredibly hard and took some work to get the orange peel that my inexperience with this new Urethane created in the final coats. It sure was sharp a week or so later when I finally wet sanded flat all of my orange peel. I never did that again!
 
My experience has been one can of C7 had more silver in it than the other...so the paint and the mix is a big part of it. I had also heard lower cost paints may require more coats for coverage.
 
Not a painter but I think I seen gray under a lot of these high impact colors, but i think it was different shades on different cars.
 
Grey. But as stated above, the sealer was the only grey I used. Right before base. All my primer was white with purple tint, to see where I had been. If you aren’t using a sealer, go grey
 
IMHO the color of the sealer or primer, whatever the layer of COLORED primer/sealer, under the topcoat can affect the look of the topcoat. Yes certain color topcoats will require more coats. Some do well with 2-3 coats, other needs 5-6. Maybe I am wrong!
I reduce epoxy primer for my sealer. It comes in white, black, or gray. Makes a difference.
I guess IF I use enough topcoats, then maybe not!!!!
 
Back in the late 90s. I had a bunch of plum crazy cars, original paint. All I seemed to find in E bodies. If I remember right, they had black primer, but I admit my memory sucks!
 
I've only sealed once and I sprayed it a few minutes before base coat so no. Blocking work is all done beforehand. Its best to refer to the mfg's TDS for requirements such as sanding grit, flash times, mixing, etc.
 
All the cars I had stripped with paint remover had red oxide primer on the metal first . Some like this EV2 orange Duster had gray primer over the red oxide. The K6 autumn bronze had gray over red oxide accept where you see the grinder marks . It was only gray and the car was all original paint never hit. This would tell me they were all primered gray over body work and the whole car before paint. The Winchester gray dart pictured in the back ground gray over red oxide.

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I took my 70 Swinger C7 car down and I could almost swear it was red primer but it was 18 years ago so...
Some are red oxide primer. That is what the bodies all had on them. Most were primered gray over that but I have seen some that were not. The gray was never that thick and usually was the cause of the paint flaking off. When ever you would see a car with the paint coming off it was usually down to the red oxide
 
Some are red oxide primer. That is what the bodies all had on them. Most were primered gray over that but I have seen some that were not. The gray was never that thick and usually was the cause of the paint flaking off. When ever you would see a car with the paint coming off it was usually down to the red oxide
That makes sense actually my car had C& and a repaint to silver in the 80s so i went through a few layers but I vaguely remember the red right before the metal.
 
I've been taking my FC7 '70 Swinger down to bare metal for 3 months now due to it having multiple paint jobs. As you can see the first layer is definitely red oxide.

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Did you have craters where the bumble bee stripe is? I'm in the rust belt and there was a small bit of rust around where the stripe the stripe was
 
Some are red oxide primer. That is what the bodies all had on them. Most were primered gray over that but I have seen some that were not. The gray was never that thick and usually was the cause of the paint flaking off. When ever you would see a car with the paint coming off it was usually down to the red oxide
My first 70 Swinger in 1972 (FC7) had the peeling paint on the trunklid. IIRC, I read a TSB about the primer being the cause. But, only my trunk had the problem.
 
I bought a gallon of FC7 recently using the paint code. I then tried to buy some in another paint line (2 in fact). The paint dealer spent a lot of time trying to match the first one and couldn't do it. There are so many variants it seems. Without a sample you are going to get what you get. I doubt the primer matters much but I didn't experiment. The paint I used covers very well. I believe some paint lines will tell you what color primer to use. I saw a chart somewhere...can't remember where. Gray was correct for purple.
My Challenger was FC7, even shooting a damaged fender a month later with the same paint tha car was painted with (Same Can) IT WAS A SHADE OFF.
We had to go into my buddies tints ( he mixed his own paint at the shop ) and do a few spray outs to get it right. Dry day, humid day, cold, hot etc will change it.
I used to beat that car like a rental, ok worse than that a stolen rental car. Lol
 
Did you have craters where the bumble bee stripe is? I'm in the rust belt and there was a small bit of rust around where the stripe the stripe was
No, but mine had the original stripe taped off before the multiple coats of paint. And it's been garaged since I bought it in 1987. This is my second '70 340 Swinger.

DartStripeBareMetalArea.jpg
 
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