Academy Car - Day Five - A bit of Colour!

Today was painting day!  I love a good paint job on a car, which goes back to my remote control car days from yesteryear, and as such I've spent tens of hours deciding on the paint scheme of this Academy Caterham. 

I settled on Porsche Z12 Voodoo Blue, with a painted Sulfur Yellow nose band, triple stripe, cage and other bits (yet to be finished).  Dave (from Daytona Coachworx) text me a picture of the two paints this morning, and immediately I (thankfully) knew the colour choice was right - as if I'm honest, I've been pretty worried about the colour combination being wrong!

Sulfur Yellow and Porsche Z12 Voodoo Blue Paints

Although this will be a race car, and that wrapping a race car is usually the best choice - I decided that I wanted a better finish (for day one!) and that I also wanted to have the stripe painted, rather than a decal as the yellow over the blue didn't quite have enough 'pop'.   So this morning, knowing how particular I can be - Dave asked me to pop in so we could be 100% certain on the stripe.  We  lined up the bonnet, scuttle and nose-cone and then Dave masked it all up with fine line tape and brown paper for any overspray.

Bonnet masked ready for Sulfur Yellow paint

Four coats of Sulfur Yellow were sprayed on (very thinly, so-as to minimise weight) and to ensure there was enough pigment on the bonnet.

Four coats of Sulfur Yellow paint were used to spray the bonnet stripe

The scuttle was also masked and painted.

Caterham scuttle stripe sprayed with Sulfur Yellow paint

As the Voodoo Blue is darker than the Sulfur Yellow, and would be sprayed over the yellow, the nose-cone was fully painted in yellow, and then the yellow stripes masked (in blue fine line tape) so they wouldn't be painted... Confused?  Yup, me too!  But Dave got it spot on!

Nose cone sprayed in Sulfur Yellow, then masked with blue fine line tape, where the yellow stripes will be! Confusing!

The rest of the stripe detail on the bonnet and scuttle was masked and then three coats of Porsche Z12 Voodoo Blue were sprayed, again in very light coats so-as to minimise weight.

Three coats of Z12 Porsche Voodoo Blue were sprayed in light coats

With the yellow and blue base coats applied, the masking was removed to reveal the stripes.

Caterham bonnet in Porsche Z12 Voodoo Blue with RAL 1016 Sulfur Yellow triple stripe

And here's a picture of the nose-cone (some of the sharp edge around the nose-band will be finished tomorrow) and the way the two edge stripes 'blend' into the nose band, are a copy from Craig Harding's car which was at the Llandow Track Day, and when I saw what he'd done I immediately knew this was the way I wanted to combine a triple stripe with a painted nose-band, so thanks Craig!

Painted nose band and tripe stripe on Caterham Academy nose cone

Then two clear coats were sprayed on and here are the finished article(s)... The picture does not do the colour justice, the shine and pop looks AWESOME!  I'm so happy with it, and I'm thinking I may even prefer this scheme to the light blue and orange of my R500! 😕

Two clear coats applied and the pictures do not do the colour justice - it looks AWESOME

I also collected the bonnet springs and catch mechanisms which have been anodised black at a local metal finishing company (Finko Ltd) so they don't stand out against the dark blue - I think these should be part of the 'black pack' but I'm not too sure how hard wearing the anodising will be...

Black anodised spring and catch mechanisms - time will tell as to how hard wearing the finish will be

I'm hoping to collect the powder coated parts tomorrow, and then Thursday all being well the body panels will be ready for collection from Dave and then I can finally start the build on Friday!