Help me pick a color

[geoffff]

Originally Posted by MountainBikeRoamer

That gray does look pretty fantastic on the high-top and with the details blacked-out.

Love it! My van is my first and only vehicle that hasn't been black with black trim. Though I now think dark gray with black trim is even nicer.

Getting too hot was my fear. So the color I chose was light dirt. I mean, Baja Tan.

-- Geoff

[nemesisnight]

So I thought I should update this thread now that I finally finished my van. I ended up keeping the original paint color since it was in great condition and the cheapest option and I raptor lined it all myself in steps.

I first did the bumpers, lower body panels, propane tank and both sides of the door, inside the wheel wells and random trim pieces like my surburban furnace cover and power receptacle all in black raptor liner.

Then I tried to tint some to match my paint and was worried I wouldn't get a great match (and I didn't) but it still came out looking pretty sharp and the top will be much more durable with all the trees I am bound to hit wheeling this beast. Plus it wont crack like the paint does/did. I had a lot of little cracks all over the top from the original paint from the top flexing a little. I also painted the green middle green striped with black raptor liner the match the bottom. I had originally tried to vinyl it but the cutting tape wasn't coming out clean and the raptor liner worked much better and I think looks better too.

When you use the tintable raptor liner you have to buy paint with "NO BINDERS" to get the best results. Unfortunately I went to a pretty big paint shop this last weekend to but paint for my van on a Saturday. They got the paint code but couldn't find the color in their system (dangit). So I said well can we just use a camera to color match it? Apparently theirs was broken and they never got another one (double dangit). So we had to just use metallic silver swatches and visually match it the close as we could. The color looked close but like many liner tops I see on this site it came out being darker than the original paint. It looks pretty close in the pic but in real life it looks more like the front of the pic where its kind of close but defiantly darker.

Here is a final pic (minus the black trim piece I put back on right above the roof butter) apparently I forgot to take a pic after that and I am not close to the van at the moment to get another.

[nemesisnight]

And this was it the day I bought it:

[ctb]

DUDE!!!!!!!! What a delightful dilemma!!! I am partial to midnight blue (Our Sporty's color) but that Outback green is so cool...and it would blend in perfectly in the Rockies and other NW destinations where the nature scene is so green...we originally thought orange, but as friends told us...you'll stick out and can't hide in nature/back roads/parking lots etc....that gray might be especially cool too....can't wait to see what you choose!!!

Ps we had our neighbors pick our house color similar to what you're doing...we reasoned "you'll have to look at it..."

Pss
Midnight Blue in the desert
Midnight Blue on white sand
Midnight Blue in the mountains
yes partial to blue.....
Psss Nothing like showing up late to the dance...like a week eh?!? Any excuse to show pics of Sporty!!

[Flux]

Nemesis!! Your van looks amazing!

You definitely made great choices. I'm envious, that's a real head turner.

WOW!

[BroncoHauler]

A very nice updated look. Great job.


Herb

[shenrie]

end result looks really nice nemisis!!

are you allowed to tint your front 2 windows where you live? imho, that would match up really well with scheme.

[nemesisnight]

Originally Posted by shenrie

end result looks really nice nemisis!!

are you allowed to tint your front 2 windows where you live? imho, that would match up really well with scheme.

Thanks all, I am happy with the end results and don't have to stress as much now with tree limbs brushing up against the top. I can and probably will do tint on the windows because it will look great with the grey and black scheme. I like the light it lets in without but plan on doing at least a light tint all around that matches at some point.

Its funny how I ended up with this rig after having an apt. to agile my other 2wd van but I love the layout of this rig and the fixed high top has so much more storage I couldn't imagine not having it now, plus the 7.3 is nice too. This one sat on sale here for awhile and I even overlooked it many times not blinking twice until I had an epiphany about a month or so later and saw the potential in it.

[86Scotty]

Looks like you did ok on the color match. Do you recall what paint (brand) you used? PPG, Dupont, etc? If you go back and look at my redo of Rusty for (forum member) Slacker you'll see how mine didn't match completely. I used Nason, a cheaper Dupont paint on that one. Then I did Twogone's top with top of the line Dupont base and it matched absolutely perfectly. Of course it helps if they can match the code via computer. Doh! Still, you did alright in my book.

[Bbasso]

Looks much better, well done.