LeBaron paint schemes?

[Dr.Jass]

The paint on the LeBaron is badly faded... Wanting to make it a suitable home for a project motor as cool as the Budget-Build 318, I'd like to get it sprayed at some point in the relatively-near future.

The car has a dark-red interior, so I'm limited as to what would be a tasteful match to that hue... no blues, noorange or yellow. Green? Are you n?ts? Even a straight-up red paint job seems kind of out of character with the car itself.

Anyhow, this afternoon, I took a badly-angled and lit photo of it today and started messing around in Photoshop... I came up with a few options; tell me what y'all think.

Original "Baron Red":

Baron Red with (gloss) black two-tone:

Bright red/black two-tone:

Black:

Charcoal grey:

Charcoal grey/black two-tone:

Silver:

Silver/black two-tone:

White:

 

[Not A Duster]

It was a toss up between the charcoal/black & the silver/black for me....

Finally settled for charcoal/black.

Y'know - when you first showed that thing to us, I could not for the life of me get what it was you saw in it.

I have to admit, it's growing on me tho.....

 

[BootHead]

that white looks right. A little old fartish but nice.

so the paint is beyond a wet sand and buff? Looks like there's alot left there.

 

[68R/T]

Silver or white, they both look very innocent and harmless :twisted:

 

[Ice Cold]

Panther Pink!!!

Hey..didn't the Heat tell you to move that??
So if you have the M, where's the truck?

I bet Lumpy would like moulen rouge.

 

[not a charger]

Silver. Or, more preferably, Gunmetal Gray. It's just cool.

 

[6pkrunner]

Charcoal/black. Just very rich looking on the car. Nice stylish combo that your right foot can outdrive anytime it wants to.

 

[viking]

Silver/black ,a little bit classy ,
but beware !! :wink:

 

[XLR8R]

Silver and black. Hey, teach me how to do the colour change in photoshop??

 

[viking]

Silver and black. Hey, teach me how to do the colour change in photoshop??

yeah , good question ,i wanna know too !

 

[Anonymous]

What about a black with silver hood?

The Black/silver is an awesome combo.

I liked the red very much but it would look a little bit 'clownish' in the engine compartment with a blue engine

Yes, please post instructions for PS here

 

[Dr.Jass]

Changing the colors is rather complex, to explain, really. You need to be familiar with the Magic Wand tool (used to pick out large patches of similar color), as well as the add/subract function of both the rectangular marquee and the lasso selector. This is the small, four-icon menu under the word "Edit" at the top of the menu that only appears when you're in Rectangular Marquee, Magic Wand, or Lasso, and choosing different icons determine how you can affect the selection.

• The first, single-box icon is "new selection" and any selection you make will replace the existing one.
  The second, double-box is "add to selection"; any selection you make will be added to the existing selection.
  The third, "eclipsed" box is "remove from selection" and whatever you select will be removed from it.
  The last icon, with the overlapped box, is the "intersect with selection". Basically, if your existing selection and your new selection overlap, only the overlapped area will remain. I don't use this much.

It took me a couple of years to figure out the add/subtract function even existed. So much for readin' the book, right? Now I can't believe I accomplished anything without it. Side note: I very-rarely use the "color range" option to make my selection, simply because so much background usually ends up in the selection--meaning lots of subtraction.

If you're new to PhotoShop, the tool icons with the little triangle in the corner means if you click and hold, there's a drop-down menu with options of that tool. I tell you this because "Magnetic Lasso" and "Polygonal Lasso" are infinitely useful tools that many people don't even know exist. Get familiar with 'em.

Anyhow, once you've used those features to select only the painted areas of your car, you then go to the "Image" menu, and scroll down to "Adjustments". In that menu, you'll find things like "Color Balance", "Brightness/Contrast" and "Hue/Saturation"; using "Desaturate" in this menu will turn the car to the base grey. All I can tell you about any of these tools is that you need to screw with them to see how they work; you can see how they affect your work.

Using the color selector and "Edit/Fill" you can pick about any color. Make sure you keep your opacity setting low, though--25-30% is usually enough. It won't look right, but then you can go back to the Adjustments areas and mess around until it looks good to you.

Want to add some metallic look to it? "Filter", then "Noise", pick "Add Noise." Lower the amount to about 2-2.5%. It'll speckle it just enough to give it a metallic look.

 

[XLR8R]

Thanks Doc!

 

[viking]

great Doc ,thanks !

 

[viking]

i think i got it a bit !

 

[Dr.Jass]

Yep, looks like it... you just need to remember to subtract the marker lights from your selection (I forgot the rears on mine ).

 

[viking]

yeah forgot it , thanks for the tip Doc,
its a lotta fun checkin out new colors !

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

K, voted silver/black but a couple of em look good, Silver is sharp,White for some reason, blk of course, the first one is a little more purple to it than I like( but Thats me) Now I know why you posted a poll, tough choice! I made mine easy, same as my old cuda, than I don't have to choose!

 

[Dr.Jass]

As suggested by DragonDon, here's black with a silver hood... looks pretty good as a reverse of silver w/black:

 

[richrmixture]

I'm gonna lean that way too now that i've seen it. If you don't go road wheels, it will look too sporty though. All silver with hubcaps is my sleeper choice.