Clear coat in vintage racecars

[MoparGreg]

Ok as most of you know I build alot of Vintage stockcars & transam racers. Usually I reach for a can of High gloss clear. I use Tamiya TS13 on everything. The shine you get is great, very nice finish. But I got to thinking & back in the day in the 50s, 60s & early 70s I dont think they used any clear at all on racecars. So for my last stockers I built which was Pettys 1962 Plymouth & Brooks 1970 Superbird I used a satin clear. I think this looks way better. Obviously not exactly right but at least it protects the decals & paintwork when its flying around the track. In all honesty I would prefer to not clear them at all as they will look more accurate but I dont think the cars will look very good for to long.

Has anyone got any opinions on clear coats for darkside stockers & T/As? Gloss, satin, matt or no clear?

[Cincyslots]

Testors makes a dulcoat.

Bruce

[HomeRacingWorld]

I use a lot of Future, because I need to protect the decals the best I can as we race them all pretty hard. But after a couple coats, I can shoot a little Satin over them for the cars that would look better that way to dull it down.

I have done my recent Jalopys using Satin over the Future. It looks much better.


Before


After

So you could seal and protect first, then add realism after.

[MoparGreg]

Hi Harry, Why use satin over future? Cant you just spray the satin straight on without future? Or does the paint eat the decals, what brand satin do you use?

Thanks Bruce, Im guessing the dullcote is just like a matt or satin clear?

[VenturaAlfa]

Greg,
Personally, I would stay with the clear or future if you were trying to add a sense of realism to the cars. The addition of satin finish or the flat black or other flat look is actually very modern idea. In the 50's, 60's and 70's many of the guys other than those running dirt tracks worked very hard to get a bright, shiny coat on their cars. I remember guys in the short track I went to as a kid and also at Riverside waxing the cars before they went out so they would look better and boy, did they shine before they got wrecked.

I personally do not like the look of the satin finish cars these days on 1:1 cars or slot cars. Looks like an unfinished paint job to me. Watch a movie like American Graffiti; you won't see a single flat or dull paint job.

After seeing your post I went through my pictures from Saugus Speedway, Riverside and Sears Point that date from the late 50's to early 70's and there is not one where the car is not a shiny as it possibly could be. It may be banged up and bent but the paint job is still shiny and bright.

Harry's second shot may look like the car after a night at the track on a midwest dirt track but even there, when it went home it came back the next weekend, in most cases looking like the first shot.

Ventura Alfa