How can I tone down white paint?

seanfoster

seanfoster

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Hi all,

This is probably an obvious question, but, I'm painting a large black stripe out that's on the coach roof of my Dufour 1800
(See pic and you'll see what I'm talking about)
http://i1208.photobucket.com/albums/cc380/seansparkle/Deauville/Summer Sun/1860635_2.jpg

As the rest of the grp is now an off white due to age and wear and tear, a standard white will stick out like a sore thhumb.
I was thinking of adding bit of black into the paint to tone it down a bit, is there a more 'scientific' way to do this?
 
Depends what 'tone' is the off white.

If it's 'grey' then black will tone it down.

But if it's 'cream', then grey will look terrible.

Get some colour patches (from the DIY store) and try and find to which 'family' of colours the off white belongs.

But first clean, buff and polish the rest of the fibreglass. Don't match your new paint to 'dirt'.
 
I know this isn't answering your question, but if you haven't started the job yet, I'd seriously reconsider it. You'll find it almost impossible to match the colour properly. More importantly, you'll dramatically change the boat's appearance - for the worse, as the black stripe is there to make the boat look sleeker and to disguise the strange windows.
 
seanfoster said:
Hi all,

This is probably an obvious question, but, I'm painting a large black stripe out that's on the coach roof of my Dufour 1800
(See pic and you'll see what I'm talking about)
http://i1208.photobucket.com/albums/cc380/seansparkle/Deauville/Summer Sun/1860635_2.jpg

As the rest of the grp is now an off white due to age and wear and tear, a standard white will stick out like a sore thhumb.
I was thinking of adding bit of black into the paint to tone it down a bit, is there a more 'scientific' way to do this?
Click to expand...

I would either leave it as it is or choose a different colour like blue or grey for the stripe. Matching white will look wrong unless you do the whole boat.
FWIW your boat would never have been as white as white paint. I used white for my deck the year before last and even brand new boats looked off white when near mine even when my white was a year old.
 
Also bear in mind that any paint job will make the boat harder to sell - naked gelcoat is the most desireable when buying because it's almost maintenance free. Even a good two pack paint job has the potential to peel.
 
Why not remove a small item such as anchor hatch ect and take it to your local B&Q and get a paint mix to match . Thats what I did.
 
lustyd said:
Also bear in mind that any paint job will make the boat harder to sell - naked gelcoat is the most desireable when buying because it's almost maintenance free. Even a good two pack paint job has the potential to peel.
Click to expand...

But isn't the black stripe already a painted finish?
 
When I was repainting the cockpit area I got lots of swatches from different manufacturers & basically used the best fit. But that was for a "separate" area, I think for yours I'd leave it or choose a different complementary colour if you just don't like the black...
 
Thanks for all of your replies,
I was thinking of just repainting the black stripe to another colour such as a medium blue as has been done on a few others but saw one that was painted white and thought it gave the boat a much fresher feel. I was hoping that the 'off white' paint colour would eventually age (or get dirty!) so would blend in.
As the stripe is painted from factory I'm not too fussed about repainting it but the rest of the grp is in good shape so don't want to go ant further than I have to.

By the way, I take the point about the windows, I'm replacing them and altering the shape so it gives a more modern feel.
 
Old adage:

"A good contrast is better than a bad match."

It's very difficult to match an old surface. It's easy to find another colour that looks good. Personally, I wouldn't even think of trying to match the white.
 
Why paint at all, would one of the plastic/vinyl stripey strips that are used for signwriting on vans etc do the job, and look professional as well- in any desired colour.


ianat182
 
ianat182 said:
Why paint at all, would one of the plastic/vinyl stripey strips that are used for signwriting on vans etc do the job, and look professional as well- in any desired colour.


ianat182
Click to expand...
There's a boat here that used vinyl instead of paint on the hull and it looks terrible because it scratches so easily.
Although it's not impossible to tone down the paint to match what you already have I wouldn't advise it as it's very difficult to achieve a good result.You'll need to add yellow,red an black in very small quantities.I wouldn't try it .
 
pvb said:
But isn't the black stripe already a painted finish?
Click to expand...

Yes quite right, I suppose I meant to say DIY paint job as lots of boats have factory stripes. A good paint job can be good but more often than not I suspect new owners curse the fool that painted over the gel coat rather than polish it. Perhaps my judgement is coloured because I'm used to older boats though :)
 
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