Ford code RR ruby red experience appreciated

RonnieH

Promoted Users
Would appreciate any opinions or advice here. I would like to use this paint on a 34 ford project that I'm currently in the middle of. The body is on a rotisserie and fenders, doors, etc. will be painted independently. I have heard that this choice of paint will be very difficult to accomplish a desired completed finish on. Some of the reasoning is surely because I have a limited degree of experience in shooting complicated multi stage paints. Im an old dude that has shot most of my work back when Imron was king and a few base / clear jobs with respectable results. I have a professional down draft booth to work in. Just not a glutton for punishment, but really do like the idea of using this color on my project. Pile on any honest opinions please if you have any experience shooting this three stage paint. My project is currently sitting in SPI epoxy with most of the filling and skim coat work done. Fixing to begin 2K priming and blocking. Thanks
 
Its not a terrible color IMO to paint. I painted a chevelle in pieces once with it and had no issues with match. Regardless of what people say, its not a true candy style job where you are covering something like silver with red or orange.....You are covering red with red, its alittle more forgiving. You do have to pay attention to what you are doing, but again its not that difficult. I used a matrix for this.

Not posting pics to show off, just so you know im not feeding you BS

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Different day:
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The car photo'd terrible in a garage,
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Yeah, it's a three stage like pearl but is actually easier to shoot, imo. I don't know if I would have the nerve to paint it in pieces like oj86 did there, however.
So you're saying that painting it dis assembled would present more of a problem with mis matched panels I assume. Would you think just basing all the components initially, roughly reassemble and then finish the entire job at once would be a preferable way of lessening the chances of disappointment ?
 
With anything that is metallic, orientation is important. Same color with a different flop can look completely different. Ruby Red with a metallic red base is the same way but because it is darker not nearly as sensitive as the lighter metallics. If you are painting in pieces having everything positioned like it would be on the vehicle will help but it's still not a guarantee that everything will match up 100% when the panels are installed.

The darker the metallic though the less this is an issue. Most noticeable on the lighter metallics like silver, beige, and golds.

Best course of action if you are painting in pieces is to orient the panels as they would be on the vehicle, make notes on how you sprayed the first set of pieces so you can duplicate that throughout. # of coats, air pressure, reducer used, air temps, humidity etc. All that plays a factor. Keep everything stirred well. Just try to duplicate what you do initially throughout the process.

It's not a particularly hard color to spray. If you are nervous about the mid coat, over reducing with some blender or intercoat and shooting one more coat helps too. Keep your overlap at 75%. Walk entire panels or the side if you are doing it together. Don't stop and start or you'll have darker areas in those places. Shoot in straight lines, don't follow the body. Just the basic stuff. Shooting it normal reduction, two wet coats is coverage for the mid coat. If you use blender or inter 3 coats would be what you want.
 
Hey chris, thanks for the detailed explanation. Thats exactly what I was hoping for here. It all makes sense in the way you explained it. I surely don't want to try and re invent the wheel right here. I guess in worst case scenario sand paper is always there...Kinda expensive paint to experiment with though.. So one question, you would not want to shoot around openings and come back over them in line ?
 
Guys, thank you!
Ronnie is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet, I had him talked out of using this color and felt guilty, so I said to get more professional advice and dont make your decision on my recommendation.
I advised him to post here.
Thanks again.
 
Hey chris, thanks for the detailed explanation. Thats exactly what I was hoping for here. It all makes sense in the way you explained it. I surely don't want to try and re invent the wheel right here. I guess in worst case scenario sand paper is always there...Kinda expensive paint to experiment with though.. So one question, you would not want to shoot around openings and come back over them in line ?

If the vehicle is bare (no doors etc,) I would treat the jambs like you would the roof or other part of the whole (bare vehicle). Example say you started at the jamb when you are applying the mid coat work around the jamb trying to stay off the edges of the 1/4 or cab or roof as much as possible. Then when you move on to the 1/4 etc. just adjust your overlap in that area. If you got a pretty good shot on the edge, simply move your overlap (roof) or end your pass (1/4) slightly earlier. If you only got it fairly lightly on the edge while doing the jamb then continue as normal.

Don't know if that makes sense or not, just try to work out before you spray the order in which you are going to spray the body or cab (car or truck don't know which you are working on). If you got an edge fairly heavily doing a jamb just adjust your passes and or overlap accordingly. If it's a bare body, treat the trunk jamb as part of the rear tray panel and 1/4 panels. The color is not so sensitive that a slight difference in application will make a huge difference. Just be careful on the 1/4 to door area. Try to keep it off the edge as much as possible. Lot better to go into the jamb with a pass than double coat that edge. Other than that make sure you get the same amount of coats on everything, using the same reduction ratio for the mid coat. Everything should be sealed uniformly.

Hope that makes sense. If not keep asking questions if you have them. One of us can probably answer them for you.:)
 
Understand exactly what you’re saying. Thanks so much for your thoughts. I feel like I have a game plan now .. I’ve been mulling on this for weeks and trying to make up some lame excuse to walk into a professional paint shop and ask these questions, but I knew it just wasn’t right to expect them to offer up advice to a do-it-yourselfer. I could afford to hire it done somewhere, but it’s just kinda on my bucket list to give it a shot myself. Thanks
 
Best advise I can give is to NOT over think it. Seriously, this isnt a hard color to paint honestly. Repairing it and blending it out is different, but painting it as an overall not bad at all.
 
I do want to mention that the only difficulty we ever have with this color is matching. There are many variations of it out in the wild. Every time we run into one that doesn't match the many sprayouts we have on record, a new sprayout of the new formula has to be made that includes the result from one and two coats of midcoat. The amount of midcoat definitely affects the appearance of the color.
 
In Standox, the tinted midcoat clear is a 2K urethane. Giant PIA.

Yes, it's a little like a candy. So caution when painting disassembled might be called for, for example if you come around corners a little too heavy, there might be slightly darker areas near the jambs.
 
Wow! I thought that went away a long time ago.
Nope, they push it because most of the big dollar shops are water, and there is no midcoat base in water afaik.

Edit: I should say there is no tinted clear midcoat, there are normal pearlescent midcoats for run of the mill 3 stage jobs.
 
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Looking for a little updated advice again please. Okay at this point I have all my body parts individually in very good condition and ready for final blocking or wet sanding prior to base coat. My question is that the body shell and a couple fenders and doors are sitting in 2k primer. All of my parts were taken from bare metal, some replaced welded panels, etc.,and covered with two coats of epoxy primer, blocked, and recoated with epoxy again due to some bare metal surfacing again. So after all the skimming and body work and epoxy and 2K primer procedures, I now have some parts sitting in final coats of epoxy over 2K and some sitting in final coats of 2K over epoxy.... Is this acceptable to move on as is towards one more final blocking and then base coat, or should I re coat either group in order to have everything match ? Thanks again for all your previous help..
 
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