MTFCA Forum

I've been gong back and forth on some stain colors for my Delivery Car and was hoping to get some opinions on color choice.
The car's exterior, interior Panels and seat and front floorboard section will be painted Midnight Blue
Black fenders/splash aprons/running boards
French gray striping

All the framing interior is exposed wood along with the roof slats and floors in the rear section
I've settled on using the Cherry stain from Laurel Mountain Forge (LMF) for the dash, but wanted to do the exposed wood in a complementing color.

I have stain colors from (LMF) and Old Masters
Here is the color choices. What catches your eye?
Thanks!

Of the colors that you posted, I like the Cherry Old Masters the best because it's the lightest. I have never been accused of having a great eye for colors, but if it were mine, I might even go a bit lighter. JMO and no hurt feelings if you go darker - it's your car!

I would go with a dark stain that still shows the figure of the wood. Heat can bring out the figuring. The reason I say darker rather than light is the inevitable other stains.

You can even stain the grain dark then sand it down and use a lighter stain for the wood outside the grain.

The color schemes look pretty good but I guess there isn’t anyway to be period correct since most pictures of delivery cars were in black and white. And owners would buy a T chassis and build whatever they wanted along with the colors. Whichever color scheme you use would look great.

Cherry LMF and Crimson Fire is most appealing to me. Are you using oil based stain or water based stain? Water based is the best for bringing out the different layers of the grain but you need to dampen the wood first, let it dry, then before applying the stain, lightly sand off the standing grain, as water causes the grain to stand up. Jim Patrick

Here's a photo of the dark blue and black recommended to me together with the cherry red varnish to illustrate how they look together. I have the formulas for the paint provided by Russ Furstnow. I still have some of the cherry stain/varnish in a can. If you'd like further info shoot me an email.

John kuehn wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 06, 2023 1:07 pm

The color schemes look pretty good but I guess there isn’t anyway to be period correct since most pictures of delivery cars were in black and white. And owners would buy a T chassis and build whatever they wanted along with the colors. Whichever color scheme you use would look great.

John,
Thanks!
Originally the Delivery Cars came from the factory painted Carmine Red with blue fenders. All the interior including the wood framing was painted red as well. Later on the Delivery Car bodies came unpainted with black fenders/aprons/running boards, so the customer could paint whatever color they wanted.

Take some scrap wood from your project build and do test staining on them. It's best to see what the wood looks like when stained and varnished. Better to buy small cans of test stain than to stain the entire project and not like it.

jiminbartow wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 06, 2023 1:11 pm

Cherry LMF and Crimson Fire is most appealing to me. Are your sing oil based stain or water based stain? Water based is the best for bringing out the different layers of the grain but you need to dampen the wood first, let it dry, then before applying the stain, lightly sand off the standing grain, as water causes the grain to stand up. Jim Patrick

The LMF colors are a dye based stain and the Old Master colors are a gel stain which is oil based.

I have to agree with John on the cherry Old Masters. You want a bit of contrast and this works perfectamundo!

I would just use whatever clearcoat you have in mind, no stain at all. That light colour timber will provide a nice contrast. If not clearcoating, just oil it. That will allow it to darken with age.

If you do stain it, use a product that can be mixed in the clearcoat. Do some test pieces to find out how much stain you need to mix in to get your required depth of colour. That way, you have greater control over the result. Staining directly onto timber is fraught with problems. You have multiple joints/angles to try to get an even stain onto, and that will mean lots of niches and angles to cope with when applying the stain. It is not a nice flat firewall you are now dealing with. By mixing the stain into the clearcoat, you will get the same depth of colour throughout when you apply the clearcoat.

Hope this helps.

Allan from down under.

I like the cherry also. How about posting the formulas for the dark blue paint? Art

Tbird wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 06, 2023 1:40 pm

The LMF colors are a dye based stain and the Old Master colors are a gel stain which is oil based.

I would make sure the LMF dye based is not an anilin based dye. Anilin dyes are not color fast (holding or permanent) and reds tend to be the fastest to fade out to brown. I am sure any Original red colors seen on a original car from the period are not what they were 100 yrs ago.
You might want to see if there is an M.L.Cambell finishing distributor or local woodworker that uses their line. They have Microtone dyes that are derived from textile type acid dyes and are much more colorfast and are acetone based solvent and work in solvent based topcoat. If you are going the dye route.

Also the final color you get will be affected by several factors. Veneer or solid wood and species, grit the surface is prep to, the coarser the darker but then scratches show. Finer grit will be harder to get a dark color and too fine you risk not removing the excess stain and have poor adhesion of your top coat.

Same is true with the stain soak time, long soak for dark or deep color and short for lighter but you don't want the stain to dry on the surface and not rub off. Too much stain left on the surface is like leaving a layer of peanut butter, due to stain solids and colorants soft nature, and finish will cover it but not adhere to your substrate.

How long you wait to stain (or top coat) after sanding affects color. Best pratice is only final sand what you can stain and finish/seal that day. Unless you are working in a climate controlled area and have constant humidity and temperature 24/7 the sanding profile falls in on it's self risking color strike and top coat adhesion. The peaks of the sanding profile will collapse in with temp and humidity changes. The slower your finish/top coat dyes the more forgiving it can be if you are sanding wood to 400grit and above but the finer wood is sanded the less tooth from the sanding scratches are avaiable and the less bite or grip the finish has to bond to.

Also UV rated finishes are not forever! The UV additive is a filter and like an air filter on a vehicle or your furnace it only last so long and too much will affect the durability of the coating it is added to.

I could go on and on but just some food for thought from a previous life in the cabinet industry coatings and spray equipment as well as color stains and pigmented coatings as well as training users.

I agree with Jim. Crimson fire. Not too dark or too light and pulls out the grain of the wood so you can see it.