To Paint or Not to Paint my 1950 Land Cruiser

[Mrs K Corbin]

Have you priced paint lately! My vote is to keep as much original paint as you can get. WAX WAX WAX

[StudeNewby]

Have you priced paint lately! My vote is to keep as much original paint as you can get. WAX WAX WAX

Agreed! And it's only original once!

As for the tires, I also vote for either WWW or blackwalls out.

[drrotor]

We have Diamondback WWW’s on our Silver Hawk. They are very good quality.
We put Coker “American Classic” WW’s on our ‘50 Land Cruiser because they are the only ones available in the correct size, which is
7.60/R-15. There is no modern tire that correlates to this size. It is a tall tire that looks just right on the ‘Cruisers.

[TWChamp]

I spent some hours yesterday and today polishing out the front clip. It makes it look much better, but the hood and tops of the front fenders still won't shine due to lack of paint and the start of rust. At least it will look more presentable until I get around to painting it. Too bad the sun was so bright today, but you can still see the difference from the pictures in the first post.

[drrotor]

You know, a good body shop can do spot repair (meaning painting only certain parts of the car)— it’s commonly done in Insurance claim jobs— and a really good painter can blend it into adjacent panels so well that you can’t even tell. Why not see if you can just have the top of the front fenders and hood done? Then you can still claim it’s (mostly) original paint, save the time and money of a complete paint job, and still spiffy it up nicely?

[RadioRoy]

I had a bad experience with paint blending on my first car. When my dad owned it, he had the front of the hood painted to cover the stone chips and the blend went about 1/3 of the way back the length of the hood. From the driver's seat, you could see a wide band of no/low gloss where the paint was rough. So I went after that area with polishing compound and uncovered the oxide red strata of primer. Now I looked out over a band of low gloss plus a reddish stripe. That didn't go away until the entire car was painted.

If it were my car, I would have the entire hood and entire front fenders painted and cut off at the natural break at the rear edge of the hood and rear edge of the fenders. Even if the gloss is not a perfect match from the old paint to the new, the breaks mentioned will allow the differences to look OK.

I just had a couple of panels painted on my 99 Honda; one front fender where the car was keyed, and the center roof where the clear coat was turning white. All new paint ended at natural lines of demarcation and there were no blends. The rest of the 20 year old paint job still looks decent and the whole car looks 100% better than it did before.

[TWChamp]

Yes, for sure the entire front clip will be painted at some time. There is no other good way to break off the paint line.

[Mrs K Corbin]

I wonder could that be cleaned up and cleared over?

[TWChamp]

I wonder could that be cleaned up and cleared over?

It could be, but I don't like the idea of clear coat vs. original paint, and especially clear over rust.
I think it's best to sand off the rust and give the front clip a proper prime and paint with single stage enamel without clear.

[Mrs K Corbin]

Yeah, I forgot about the differences between Modern BAse/clear and the Enamel. I prefer enamel myself.

[TWChamp]

I finally got my 4 new radial tires mounted, balanced, and installed. I was surprised at how easily it started today, even after setting a couple weeks through very hot humid weather. What a nice difference the new radials made. I enjoyed the drive home from South Bend with the old bias weather checked tires, but now it's like floating on a cloud. This is the nicest, softest, quietest ride I've ever had in any car. I think it's even better than my modern ride. My two 1950 Commanders have a nice ride, but the last time I drove them was in the 70's and with old bias tires. The 1950 Land Cruiser is tops in my book.

[Noxnabaker]

At the Swedish meeting this year there was a black -53 Commander Starliner that's been repainted & touched up many years ago & that kind of patina beats everything easily!
So I for sure agree with #16 Corbin!