304 Gold Metallic

[Frankenstein]

I am going to be repainting to original color 304 on my 260z. Was curious if anyone has done the same and was happy with the results? If so, what brand of paint did you use?

Edited October 21, 2019 by Frankenstein

[cgsheen1]

[cgsheen1]

 

A little different in the shade. My early 260 in front of Peppers late 260...

[Frankenstein]

1 hour ago, cgsheen1 said:

 

A little different in the shade. My early 260 in front of Peppers late 260...

Do you remember the brand of paint and if they just pulled up the 304 code? Are you happy with the results?

[cgsheen1]

We (my son and I ran Sakura Garage for 10 years) had a Sherwin Williams Automotive outlet near our shop in Tempe. We bought most of our primer, sealer, and base coats from them. They have all the early Datsun codes and match pretty faithfully IMO. Never liked their clearcoat. We used PPG DCU-2021 for the most part. That's the clear on my 260 - my son shot it in 2012 and it's held up well in the Arizona sun.

(My son shot the 304 over dark grey sealer - it added "depth" to the color. Shot over lighter primer or sealer, 304's tone is lighter and a little "washed out")

Edited October 22, 2019 by cgsheen1

[Frankenstein]

4 minutes ago, cgsheen1 said:

We (my son and I ran Sakura Garage for 10 years) had a Sherwin Williams Automotive outlet near our shop in Tempe. We bought most of our primer, sealer, and base coats from them. They have all the early Datsun codes and match pretty faithfully IMO. Never liked their clearcoat. We used PPG DCU-2021 for the most part. That's the clear on my 260 - My son shot it in 2012 and it's held up well in the Arizona sun.

Thanks for that update! It looks really good. Amazing the difference in the sun and shade. My son will be the one painting mine also. Pretty cool. This is it will fill primer. Still a little ways to go.

[cgsheen1]

Looking good!

Get the 304 shot over dark grey sealer and you'll be happy with the result.

Mine was originally brown metallic (my youngest son's '76 280Z was 304). He decided to go dark grey on his and I couldn't find a color I liked - so I "stole" his original color (Hey, it was also a stock color offered in '74...). We don't see any Z's that still have 304 around here (most are red or orange). Since we painted mine, I've seen a few that were 304 originally but painted over a different color. 304 stands out...

[Frankenstein]

Yup mine has nice 304 still inside under all the carpet. I do have good compartment panels to get a true match or compare. I can’t wait. Thanks again for information.

[Frankenstein]

Sneak peek into the restoration. The 304 color looks good with the dark grey sealer. This is PPG mixed color 304. Can’t wait to see after cut and polish. Gonna go see it in person in December!

[heyitsrama]

I think my 260z is 304 as well, I painted the front driver fender / light scoops with a blend of paint from “automotivetouchup.com”. Personally while I do think the fender looks better than the primer that was on the car, it’s far from what the OEM paint was.

Perhaps this is due to my lack of understanding of how to apply paint at the time, plus doing everything out of a spray paint can.

@cgsheen1 I really like the way your paint has a depth to it, something that my resprayed sections are lacking.  Forgive my lack of knowledge on the subject, but are you using multiple layers after the base coat has been applied? I only shot a a few layers of primer, then the base coat.

I should tackle that driver side body, it’s starting to bother me more and more 😕 

seeing that nice example makes me actually want to do it more! 😬

[Frankenstein]

I think each brand will be a little different depending on the paint manufacturers mix. We did a dark grey sealer after the primer which was suggested for a better depth of color. I did buy a touch up bottle of the brand you mentioned  a couple years ago and the color was off as you stated.

Edited October 4, 2020 by Frankenstein

[cgsheen1]

To my eye, the touch-up color is the wrong tone. And, when you're spraying metallics you need to be very consistent with the base coat. Even though you think paint is "a solid color", it's really not and you can actually see though it. That's why shooting 304 over light gray will look different than shot over dark gray. Also if you shot 2 coats of base over one panel and 3 coats over another panel, they will not match - totally different colors with the same paint. Solid colors don't care so much as long as you get coverage, but metallics do (also with the direction you shoot and how the Metallic flops). When Greg does metallic base he shoots a consistent number of coats to get coverage and the usually a "dust" coat (light even coat with the gun pulled back farther from the surface) to make sure everything looks even. I think you need a little experience to pull that off. Me, I stick to the metal and body work... 

(BTW, I have always REALLY liked how the paint turned out on my 260Z - it's an awesome color and it looks even better in the sun! My son does a great job and I really like the mix we get from Sherwin Williams Automotive.)