My car is a VR with MS bumper cover.

For various reasons, i am having my car painted professionally. (One reason is that my hood is General Lee Orange. I hate it.)

This is going to be the most expencive single modification to the car, so I want to make it right.

My first thought was to do some sort of design (very light ghost flames) but abandoned the idea as I think that pretty much any design is unworthy of the car. A single straight color is what the car calls for.

I then decided to go with a very deep application of VR with extra flake; however, given the cost, I should do something to make the car stand out.

My uncle recently bought a used 2003 C5 in Anniversary Red. This color was only used on one year and is a light burgandy with brilliant gold flake. I love the color. The color is pictured below, but no picture can capture the color. It is more red than what is depicted and the gold highlights jump out at you in the day and at night.

Having said that, I think my personallity matchs well with the red and dont want to go too purple. Plus, straying from far from the red will incur more cost as the interior exposed metal will need painting to match.

Also, you may have noticed that bright red cars never have the pearl or flake. The reason, i am told, is that the additional color tends to make the bright red look pink. Our VR is a nice deep red, but if you compare it to, say, a red Bimmer or Evo, you can see that the RX8 VR is not bright red but has a little darkness to it.

Be that as it may, I am torn as how to proceed. Should I just settle for the VR paint that will be perfectly smooth and will have a deeper gloss than stock? Should I try to go more toward the Anniversary red of the C5? Maybe a blend of the two?

Knowledgable, experienced opinions are welcome.

 

I would stick with the VR. It is just a great color in general. Plus you won't have to worry about the engine bay or door jambs not matching, like you mentioned. The factory paint has a bit of orange peel as I'm sure you noticed. Now imagine your car in VR with a perfectly smooth finish. It will have an amazing gloss.

 

Your thinking is exactly in-line with mine; stick with VR, go nice and smooth w/ more depth and, perhaps, a second coat of flake (VR is three-stage paint.) I even had some paint chips made with slightly ligher and slightly darker paint to compare with mine. (Slightly means, you cant really even tell the difference.)

Nevertheless, I can't get it out of my mind that I am spending Turbo kit dollars for basically the same color of paint that is already on my car. From that angle, it is like I am flushing money down the toilet, and that produces feeling of which I am not fond.

 

Yeah you do make a good point there about the cost. That is a very tough decision. Putting myself in your shoes, I would have a hard time finding a color I like enough to change my whole car.

But if the end result is better than when it was new...that may be worth it. Flawless paint job, kick *** turbo kit, wicked handling.....

 

i'd get it painted the fd rx7 red.

i was parked next to one, and it made my car look dirty by comparison.

 

Yeah, and it is permanent! The decision is actually so hard that if the paint on my hood wasnt screwed up, I likely would just continue to make no decision forever (thus making my decision.) But I think sticking to the VR is the option that has the highest number of pros and the least cons. It should look really nice when it is done.

Then again, it is still the same color... [sound of toilet flushing]

I dont know the FD red by recent experience, but I think it is similar to the BMW red. It is a very nice true red, but it has no depth and no flake. I want the flake. I have been told that True Red turns pink with metalic flake.

Our VR is not really a True red. It is ever so slightly darker.


IDK, maybe I am putting to much thought into this.

 

our red is quite a bit darker. and i'd get a second opinion on the gold flake. i cant imagine it affecting it too much.

you can compare it to my sig.

 

Nice pic, but not sure what she has to do with this thread.





Oh, I couldnt see the car as her midriff was blocking my view.






I have gotten two opinions on the paint as I wanted to go with a redder red than VR. Both said that it couldnt be done.

 

well that sucks. and it just the first red rx7 pic that caught my eye.

its a nice red. part of me died a little when i saw how brilliant that red was compared to the rx8.

 

The pic is great, I was just having a hard time looking at the car. Srsly.


That red is great, just not the direction to go. FWIW, I did look at some of the DuPont 'Hot Hues." One of them is a great red, but again, 2-stage only.

 

I think the VR is on of the best reds out there. So much depth to it. And also a very hard color to match, so I've heard. But someone hit the nail on the head, no worries about door jambs, etc. which equates to less costs.

 

Have you tried using photoshop to view different potential colors on your car?
I mean if the money isn't an issue I think it'd be cool to have a wicked custom color..plus if you get a real high-quality, fresh paint job (that's less brittle then the 8s) and clean and wax it right from the start, and always keep it garaged, and never follow dumptrucks, or go out on rainy days..you'd always have perfect paint.

 

Carbon - what color is your interior? That could make a big difference in which color you want as well. I'm going to assume it's not the black/red combo, as if it was then you'd surely go back to VR without hesitation. So it's either black or tan I'd guess.

I kind of agree with you - if you're going to shell out the cash for a new paint job, maybe you should go with something a little bit different. And I love that Corvette color as well. How does it compare to the black cherry color option they had on the Shinkas? I never saw one of those Shinkas in person, only in pictures, so I can't really draw concrete conclusions on it.

The 8 is already a pretty unique car, so if you got a non-standard color it would really stand out. However, VR is already a pretty great color and you know it looks fantastic on your car.

It also sounds like your hood is 95% of the reason you want (or need) the paint job - maybe just paint your hood to match the rest of your car, save some bucks, and call it a day?

My opinion is that if you have black interior, it wouldn't go well with that Corvette burgandy, but if you have tan interior, you need to at least get some Photoshops of it to try to compare. Keep us posted!

 

The interior is black.

Those dark Shinkas were REALLY dark. They looked good, but, IMO, they were hard to see as purple and not black. Like Black Lite.

That was a good questio tho. I hadnt even thought how then burgandy would go with black. Quite frankly, I am not sure that it would.

Photoshop is a great start, but really, paint chips are the way to go. I mean the chips that the pros paint for you, not he manufacture's customer chips. Subtle colors just dont work on a monitor; at least not a laptop monitor. I understand that folks that work with color have their very expencive monitors calibrated to show true colors.

As for custom colors, I am not really interested in anything funky. Funky colors are cool, but sometimes we are talking $800 a PINT! I think the VR is $400 a quart. For the VR it would take about 2-3 quarts, IIRC. Plus, if I change the color significantly, I need to paint the exposed interior.

 

thats why graphic designers buy pantone color books.

and yes, we also calibrate monitors. you attach a sensor to the monitor and then it calibrates the monitor. $$$.

 

If I were getting my car repainted, it would be Sunset Orange Metallic

 

I am sorry; I must have misunderstood you, Marine. Are you suggesting that you are a graphic designer that uses color books?

You can understand my consternation. I am picturing you shooting someone and then remarking "That blood REALLY clashes with his uniform..."

 

stick with VR repainting engine bays trunks and door jams are a PITA.

 

Honestly, in my amateur opinion, that Vette burgundy just doesn't go with black interior. It is an awesome color and would be the heat on an 8, but only with tan interior. There's a lot of options to go with black interior, but unfortunately I don't think burgundy is one of them.

Maybe you should look into a key lime green or something. I also really love orange, but I blame University of Illinois for that. I think your deepened VR is your best bet.

 

lol so glad my field of graphic design is a raster/vector c02 laser system where I only deal with 8 bit grayscale outputs

 

Let me know if you want me to mess around more

 

Much appretiated Dawg.

Just to clarify for those late comers, my objective is to pick a color that is red, has metallic flake, looks BAD *** but could not be confused with VR. That is to say, a person reasonably in the know should be able to walk up at a meet and think "That is an awesome custom color."

Now, being as I have gotten comments like that on my stock VR, maybe I should stick with it.

In any case, I am not willing to stray from to any color other than that than can be called "red."

Based on the comments above, I am thinking that the 2003 anniversary red (Corvette) is not a good idea. Right now, that only leaves VR. I am thinking that that color is not a bad idea.

 

Ah gotcha... I'll play around with different VR tones in a bit.

 

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YOu know. That last one looks great! I kinda reminds me of a car I saw once. It was basically clear with a TON of red flake. Well, maybe it was red, but it looked mostly metallic. I need to get my painter to look at this. THANKS!!!! I didnt think that PS would be any help. Proved me wrong.

Got any more??