I am planning on getting my 55 F350 painted this winter.

I found a place that sells small amounts of paint. It is marketed for small repairs or for fixing scratches. They have Snow Shoe White which is what the 55 grille was painted in the factory.

Here is the link to their page for Snow Shoe White:
https://www.paintscratch.com/cgi-bin/order-form.cgi

So I have two main questions.
1. How much paint do you need to paint a 55 grille properly?
2. What is the smallest amount of paint you can buy from a auto paint store?
3. What is the price for that small amount?

This place sells a 12 oz rattle can for $26 and a pint for $90. I think that is a lot for a pint (and a spray can!). The good point would be that it should be an accurate match for Snow Shoe White.

Advise me please. Shall I let my body man buy the paint for the grille? Will it be cheaper than the above? Will they have the formula for Snow Shoe White?

I think I'll stop at teh paint store tomorrow.

 

If you can cross that white to a auto paint color code, you have many options. Single stage(no clear) generally is sold in quarts as the smallest amount, but check your local supplier. Budget paint like Omni or Nason are cheap, but the solvents will cost ya.
A qt of paint might be $30, but the reducer/hardener will be $60. They should be sprayed over a compatlble primer as well.
Ask your paint guy what he charges
The spray can is your cheapest route by far.

 

I bought a pint of Nason (DuPont) for my ‘53 grille. It was $23.84.
Because it is the same kind of paint as the body I didn’t have to buy extras. I already had the reducer, activator and clear.

The painter mixed about half of it, put on two coats and still had some in the cup.

 

I stopped at the Auto paint store today. He said he will try to get the formula for Snow Shoe White. He said he might be able to mix it for a half pint. Do you think a half pint would give me two coats front and back? Or should I be safe and get a pint?

He will call me when he has the formula and how much it will cost.

Thanks!

 

Hi Abe,

I had NAPA auto parts mix me a rattle can of red paint for the '51. To be used for touch up on the wheels. They charged about $25 for it.
I thought that was pretty darn reasonable.

How much paint do you need for a grille? Depends...if you paint like me it will be twice as much as necessary.
Put on first coat - wait for two mosquitoes to land on it.
Sand and re-coat - create several runs due to geometry and gravity duking it out. Gravity wins.
Sand and recoat again - ah, that is nice. Let dry in back of garage on top of power generator. Lose power in storm and go in garage at night to wheel the generator out. Catch a corner of grille on an engine hoist and lose grip. Grille falls against the hoist and puts an ugly scrape in the very middle most visible part of grille.
Get more paint.
Sand and recoat again. Multiple layers of paint dry with cracks. Sigh....

Tom

 

Half a pint, reduced 1:1, with about an ounce of activator, is only going to yield about the equivalent of one and a half spray cans of paint. In my opinion that's a little close.

The guy that painted mine only used two good coats on the front. The back isn't covered as well. Also remember a '53 grille is just a little smaller than the '55.

For that, and everything Tom said, I'd go with the whole pint.

 

Thanks, guys. Tom, your story is why I don't paint my own stuff, other than lots of small stuff with a rattle can. And the fact that I don't have a large compressor and paint gun!

The guy from the paint store called back. He got the formula for Snow Shoe White. He said the smallest he would mix is a pint. A half pint would be harder to mix accurately. And the price is only $21.90.

Side note: I was considering painting the grille Sungate Ivory so it matches the grille on my 54. But then I thought that might be a step towards the dark side!

 

If you actually drive your truck, which you surely do, you'll eventually get stone chips. Never hurts to have some for touch-ups. That's one of the reasons I used Wimbledon White, I can buy little brush-in-cap touch-up bottles. There are lots of rocks on the roads around here and every year I go over the wheels and grille.

 

Yes, good idea, Ross. Thanks. That's one of the reasons I was considering painting it Sungate Ivory. Then I'd only need one can of touch-up paint for both grilles.

 

A little off topic but, how would powder coat hold up? Something I have been thinking about.

 

Scotty, my front bumper is PC'd and has done very well with the sand blasting around here. No rock chips apparent, so it either shrugs them off or I've just been lucky. But you can't really touch-up PC.

 

Thanks Ross. I'm leaning more toward powder coat for both my grill and bumper. AZ is as bad as NM as far as road grit blasting paint away. Sorry to go OT guys. Back to your "How much paint" question.

 

That's not Off Topic. It gives us all another idea.

 

Abe I went the route of the rattle can just to see if they mix it right so then I sprayed some on a piece of metal and am going to have my powder coater do it and he said he could get snow shoe white but through the years the color and had some name changes as the last one I Think is (creme brulea ) (sp) and it is a ford color on the Ford Edge and Lincoln MK.