Matte Black paint finish, a hot new trend or return to the old.

In 1979, my friend Ed Fender restored his old El Camino. The old bird was all rusty, being parked for months at a time by the Pacific Coast Highway in San Francisco. Eddie put his heart and soul in repairing the rust, filling car with lead and straightening the body. It was a lengthy project which was performed as time allowed in the back yard garage. By the time Eddie was finished with body work he was broke and could not afford to get a decent paint job for the old bird, so he improvised and sprayed the whole vehicle with black primer. It turned out to look a lot better than Ed had expected. The old bird’s paint job was very popular with local gangsters and low riders from Mission boulevard. Eddy got offers to sell it on a weekly basis.

Thirty years later Matte black is back and it is back with a vengeance. Very high end vehicles, such as Ferrari’s and Rolls Royce’s turn up at car shows with a matte black finish. Two customers this year have inquired about matte black finish for their vehicles. Young man with a charcoal gray Chevy Silverado wanted to refinish it flat black, as he described it. Long time customer and a big time car enthusiast, Dave De Sousa asked me if I could paint his shiny black corvette in matte black. “It would look really hot!” exclaimed Dave: “I can’t wait to see it done.”
I had to investigate. Basically a matte black finish of today is a regular paint job with a clear coat that looks like satin or flat black. The cost is the same as a regular paint job, but because of flat black finish it requires more extensive preparation. Black finish is the hardest color to take care of on an automobile, matte black is even worth, because every little blemish on the paint is exposed. Obviously this paint is not for everyone, personally I would rather drive a white car; you do not have to wash it every day. But for real car fanatics this is a hot new trend that is spreading like wild fire.
What do you think?