Auto Painting Fading Tips

Fading paint jobs are popular on many different vehicles, mostly trucks and hot rods. A fading paint job is usually made up of two colors, one on the top half of the vehicle and the other on the bottom. There is no line separating the colors, only a faded area where the two colors blend together. There are several ways to get this look for your car.

Choosing the Right Colors

Fading paint is made up of two colors on one vehicle. You can choose two colors that complement each other, like gray and light blue. You can also use two colors that don't match but are wild, like purple and red. You can also choose one color but use two different shades, like dark and light orange. The faded area of the paint job is a blend of each color, so the two colors won't be right up next to each other to create a bad contrast. Fading the paint makes it easy to use almost any color combination.

Fading the Colors Together

One way to fade the paint together is to paint the top and bottom the colors you have chosen. Allow them to overlap slightly where you want the faded area to be. Using two separate paint guns loaded with one color each, blend the paint from the bottom up to the desired fade area, stepping back and not applying full coverage in the stokes of paint. Do this again but use the other color and start above the faded area, blending the paint slightly with the bottom color. Hold the paint gun away from the vehicle and use thin, fast strokes so that full coverage is not applied to the surface. You should be able to see the faded areas and that there are no hard lines separating the two paint colors. Spray clear coat over the paint after it has dried for at least a few hours.

Combining the Colors

Another way to get a faded paint job is by painting the vehicle the two separate colors on top and bottom, and then filling a paint gun with a 50/50 mix of the paint. Use this mixture to spray over the line where the two colors meet. This creates the faded effect. Then use the solid colors again and lightly blend them onto the faded area to make the mixed color not so noticeable. This is probably slightly easier than blending the two colors to create the faded effect. Spray clear coat on top of the paint job after it has dried.