which paint would you suggest?

[Acamori]

hopefully soon (after i get my ms bumper and kmax skirts on) i'll be looking to paint my car.

i'm not gonna do anything fancy just yet, but do you think it look better to have a strait color that's just a few shades darker than the stock laguna blue, or to have it fade from laguna in the front to a darker color in the back. my other thought is a kinda flat dark blue, not like primer flat, but not gloss either.

[JWMX3]

ive never been a fan of 2tone paintjobs.... one solid color would be best IMO

[Acamori]

it wouldn't be like a normal two tone (one above one below with a fairly abrupt change) if i get it how i'd want, there'd be a slow fade from the front to rear, hopefully enough that it would be hard to notice without looking at it more

[Tunes67]

I have seen a couple of really nicely done fade paint jobs.. I have also seen some damn ugly ones LOL. That said.. I think your idea of having the color change be very subtle and difficult to notice, sounds pretty cool. Depending on the finish you want.. maybe have a bit of pearl mixed in with the clear coat and sprayed in the first coat over the transition area.. this should cause it to be a striking effect that is noticeable at night under incandescent lighting. (Street lamps) I am not sure what the process is called.. this is the best I can describe it. But in general I think your fade idea is a good one.

Tunes67

[jschrauwen]

i'm not gonna do anything fancy just yet, but do you think it look better to have a strait color

Absolutely, positively YES!! Acamori, I got the impression, or should I say confused by your openning statement. You first say that "not gonna do anything fancy", then you proceed to say that your speculating on a 2 tone fade. So, I don't know where you're comming from. IMO, if at all possible, stick with the original paint colour. There's nothing more than a turn-off then seeing a nice paint job only to have the doors, hood or hatch open to reveal a complete different paint scheme. It takes it all away. Unless you're absolutely appalled by the original colour than change the colour ensuring that all of those other areas (hatch, doors, engine bay) are also painted. WRT 2 tone and pearlescent, although I like them too, I would never want to have to colour match down the road if it were necessary. I just repainted mine 18 months ago (original OEM white) only because I had the misfortune of having a bad factory paint job. After it's first 9 years the paint started to delaminate from the primer. A garden hose was all the pressure needed to gradually flake the paint off from the primer. Thankfully this only occured on the most exposed portions of the car. Incidentally, Mazda refused to accept any liability of the factory paint quality. Anyways, car got painted to original colour and recieve nothing but good comments to the effect that it looks like a near new car. The other positive spin-off here is that now that I'm adding front chin spoiler, rear apron and OEM sideskirts, it wil be a simple process to take these items to the original painter and have them painted to the OEM factory colour without having to worry if the colour is going to match or not. I believe original paint schemes are timeless.
Just my slant on the issue, FWIW.

[MarkMoore]

i'm not gonna do anything fancy just yet, but do you think it look better to have a strait color

Absolutely, positively YES!! Acamori, I got the impression, or should I say confused by your openning statement. You first say that "not gonna do anything fancy", then you proceed to say that your speculating on a 2 tone fade. So, I don't know where you're comming from. IMO, if at all possible, stick with the original paint colour. There's nothing more than a turn-off then seeing a nice paint job only to have the doors, hood or hatch open to reveal a complete different paint scheme. It takes it all away. Unless you're absolutely appalled by the original colour than change the colour ensuring that all of those other areas (hatch, doors, engine bay) are also painted. WRT 2 tone and pearlescent, although I like them too, I would never want to have to colour match down the road if it were necessary. I just repainted mine 18 months ago (original OEM white) only because I had the misfortune of having a bad factory paint job. After it's first 9 years the paint started to delaminate from the primer. A garden hose was all the pressure needed to gradually flake the paint off from the primer. Thankfully this only occured on the most exposed portions of the car. Incidentally, Mazda refused to accept any liability of the factory paint quality. Anyways, car got painted to original colour and recieve nothing but good comments to the effect that it looks like a near new car. The other positive spin-off here is that now that I'm adding front chin spoiler, rear apron and OEM sideskirts, it wil be a simple process to take these items to the original painter and have them painted to the OEM factory colour without having to worry if the colour is going to match or not. I believe original paint schemes are timeless.
Just my slant on the issue, FWIW.

ditto... i always lean toward and encourage people to keep their rides clean, classic, and timeless... that way, u won't regret anything, and it will always look nice.... just because u're car is clean and simple, doesn't mean it can't be an awesome looking car.... actually i'm trying to create my car into both sleek and stealthy while keeping it clean and simple... these terms are seemingly opposites, but really aren't... there are many cars on this very site that i feel exemplify my point

[neutral]

FWIW, prefer straight paint job w/orig. factory color IMO. But that's just me and assumes satisfaction w/current color. My 95 is the orig white which I liked when buying the car 4 yrs. ago. Paint is still pretty good but at 10 yrs old w/a few dings over the years, some bumper and mirror housing paint deterioration, and a dozen body dimples from storm damage last year (arghhh), new paint will be due soon. Still, never would occur to me to go thru the expense of changing the paint color for same reasons as jschrauwen gave. Even if the door jams and hatch frame were painted to match a new color, I'd still be annoyed at the old paint everytime the engine bay was open...

[Acamori]

when i said, nothing fancy just yet, i meant like ghost flames or hugely expensive paint, etc. right now the car is laguna blue, which i think is an alright color, i just think i'd like a version that's a few shades darker, though even that might be enough to make the door jambs not match. right now i'm not all that worried about the engine bay since parts of it are red (previous owner apparently wrecked it and the body shop didn't paint the engine bay well). i wasn't planning on painting the jambs at the same time since it'd cost me a good bit more, though i might do it anyways.

i had been leaning more towards just a slight change, if only to give it something that wasn't available on the stock versions. i'll probably be getting the interior apholstry redone soon since my driver's seat is kinda ragged and the rest isn't much better. so the original color scheme (i don't like the teal on my seats) is gonna be mostly gone.

thanks for the input.