Painted My Roof (1960 Dodge Dart Phoenix)

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I decided to paint the roof of the '60 Dart white, because the solid gray wasn't too inspiring. Now it's a gray and white two-tone.

The purists will scream, but instead of paying $500-$600 at Maaco, I painted it at home using Rustoleum and a brush and little cloth pads to flow the paint on. Lots of sanding and wax polish. It isn't perfect, but it didn't want it to be too pristine, or it wouldn't blend with the patina'd gray body paint. Whole job cost about $20. First photo is the "before".

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Looks like you did pretty good! Eastwood now has a "roller" paint system. Yep, paint roller. There is a demonstration video, too.

Enjoy!
CBODY67
 
I liked the all grey, but I understand how you could see it as being "greywashed". It sticks out a bit more now, and the interior will be a bit cooler now, especially since you installed those trick reverse roof scoops, or would that be "twin roof induction"?

Jokes aside, I've never actually noticed that feature, and likely never seen one of those models. Are they functional? An early example of the "flow through ventilation"?
 
I think it looks great. A lot of makes and models had painted roofs back then, before vinyl roofs became so popular in the mid '60s. Very cool, unique ride you have there.
 
Those ornamental "roof extractor" vents were just ornaments. Same as the 1958 Impala, in that respect. One of their main benefits could have possibly been to put a bit more stiffness in the roof panel (as the beads on the '58 Fords) to decrease "drumming" in certain conditions, I suspect. Which decreased assy labor cost rather than adding more sound insulation up there.

Just some thoughts,
CBODY67
 
I like the color brake, but I’m thinking Black would be a better choice.. but the white works too. It reflects that Hot Jersey summer sun better as well.

Beautiful car by the way. You certainly don’t see those anymore.
 
I like it either way. White was about the only choice you had and keep a OEM appearance.
There's a lot of truth to C body and Forward look folks being "frugal".
 
Well, THIS purist isn't screaming, nodding with approval, actually. Nicely done. White contrasts the grey stylishly. Factory painted white roof sedans were around for longer than you think, and on everything from base line Dodges all the way to a Chrysler New Yorker (see attached) . The white roof DOES help on sunny day.

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I have seen Maacos work and they do a half assed job by doing this yourself you saved money

In defense of Maaco, I once had a solid tan ("Desert Frost") '62 Mercury Monterey, and I had them spray the roof "Sultana White" which really improved the car's looks. Their spray job actually came out very well--much better than what I was able to do with the Dodge. This was in 2017, and the cost was $475.

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Way back in the time of budget paint jobs there was a Macco shop near me that would paint over bugs, stickers and a lot of the trim, BUT there was one guy there that could spray the paint pretty good. If you stripped the car of trim, prepped the surface yourself and just let him paint..... you'd get a pretty good job for not much money.
 
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