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We’re moving forward on our plans for Project Blank Slate. There is no doubt that we want our autocross Camaro to stand out at events and must decide how we would like to paint the car. While some paint ideas are fairly typical for autocrossing cars, we‘re also bouncing around ideas that we‘ve never seen done on an autocross vehicle. As we consider different paint schemes, we looked to other autocross and race Camaros for ideas.
Image from RaceHome.com
When we looked into how other classic Camaros were painted for the autocross circuit or race tracks, we found many cars had been painted rather plainly. While these cars have very nice paint jobs, many of them make use of variations of original factory colors or a single hue.
Cars such as autocross great- Bad Penny and Detroit Speed’s autocrossing Camaro sport single-color paint jobs. Even though these cars dominate on the autocross course, they fit right in with other plainly painted cars in the pits. We could use original factory paint or modern metallics and candies to achieve a flawless look like these well-known autocross Camaros.
A number of other autocross Camaros have been painted with factory-style striping. Camaros raced by Air Ride Technologies and Spencer Racing are just a few that were painted to follow this trend.
Our Blank Slate Camaro was originally painted in Hugger Orange and striped with white to match the interior. If we repainted our Camaro in the original color scheme, it would no doubt be a looker. However, the car wouldn’t really stand out sitting in the pits next to other similarly painted cars.
Image from K&N Filters
We definitely want our car to stand out on the course, but do we want to disguise the beast to fit in while sitting in the pits? It could be argued that the car could be painted similar to the others in order to keep the car as a “sleeper” of sorts. However, is it really fair to paint what we hope to be a dominating machine in a paint scheme that screams average?
Another option for our car would be to slather it with a sponsored paint job- painting the car in the sponsor’s colors, complete with logo and other sponsorship information. Of course, this would require us to get a large sponsor. But do we really want our car to look like a NASCAR-esque vehicle?
With a sponsored paint job, we wouldn’t have nearly the freedom to choose colors and graphics as we would without a paint job dedicated to a specific company.
Dan Fletcher, Sportsman Class racer, is sponsored by K&N Filters and has two ‘69 Camaros that sport the sponsored paint job. While these cars look nice and do wonders on the track, we’re not quite sure that a sponsored paint job is for us.
If we decide to avoid fitting in, as far as paint goes, with the other autocross cars, and want to steer clear of the sponsored paint job, we can always go unique and abnormal. Autocross Camaros, such as Milt Burleson’s car, are eye-catching with atypical paint jobs. With an unusual paint job, our car would get more attention on and off the autocross course.
We threw around the idea of a truly unique paint job, toying with the idea of painting our Blank Slate Camaro in slate chalk board paint just to be different. Remember, we’re dealing with a classic muscle car for this project. Is a crazy paint job appropriate for an original ‘69 Camaro?
We definitely have a lot of options to consider before our Camaro is ready for paint. We want Blank Slate to be cherry no matter what we decide for the paint. Whether we want to stick to the typical color schemes we’ve seen or go with something a bit more original is still up for debate.
