Paint: Types, Terms, and Brands

ffltstn

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I have been doing a ton of reading and asking questions. I am going to attempt paint my first car.BC/CC metallic, 3 tone. I have done a bike and airless and HVLP around the house etc.
I will do some practicing before the real thing. I do need some calcification on some things.
1. Enamel, acrylic, urethane, polyurethane, lacquer, etc what kind is best, newbie friendly, benefits etc.
2.Everyone has there favorites but i'm getting an idea of which brands are which, Shopeline, Onmi Plus, Valspar, Nason, not to good,
Wanda, Motobase, Prospray good and affordable. Diamant,PPG, Axalt, Glasurit good but expensive. I realize different manufacturers have more than one line.
I assume not every jobbers has all brands so should I pick out a couple brands I like and go with the one that is available locally?
3. Accelerator, binder, reducers, activators, adhesion promoter, what does each do and which are terms for the same thing?
Should I use any of the online vendors to buy from or stay away from?
I see all the different paints on line and have a hard time comparing them etc. Any help wrapping my head around thus would be great.
Ken In Orlando
 
Buy a quality base and everything else from Barry. He has the best quality material at the best prices anywhere. There is no paint that will spray itself, meaning there is a learning curve for anything you spray. It will all take practice and you will make mistakes, it's all part of learning. Read the tech pages several times for each product you use, and once again right before you use it. Almost any question you may have can be found on this forum, and if not you can call Barry and he will answer it, guaranteed. There is really no need to learn about lacquer or enamel as they are really old technology, just concentrate on the materials you are using. Hope this helps.
 
Another thing to understand that most professional painters already know.

There are a lot of scam companies out there and what I mean by this is companies that don't make anything, they by the cheapest product possible and stick their label on it.
There are about three companies that make the same products for maybe as many as 30 companies out there.

I don't private label for anyone except two very specialized company's that don't sell in this business.
WHY? because i don't have the room to stock cheap resins and 2nd grade solvents to make it cheap enough for them to make their profit margin.

For years one of the biggest buyers of private label company use to call every year and i would just turn them down with no discussion.
So i get a call from this company a few years back and its a new buyer.
Here is the conversation.
We would like a price on a 4:1 clear for 10,000 gallons.
I said do you have a formula? No.
What amount of solids would you like? Solids would be a good idea.
What about UV protection? That might be a good idea.

So if I saved them 50 cents a gallon it would have been mine but the company I took it from would just cheapen up to take it back when up again.

Of course all these company's are offering products that are used on the space shuttle and 747's, LMFAO!

SO if its used car work, who cares, if its something you want to keep or for a customer you better know what you are buying.
Search the brand on google and ind if its any good or been around you will find lots of info, if a company says oh yea we bee in business 30 years and you find nothing past 5, then you know its BS.
 
I have done enough research to know SPI and Barry are the way to go. I also know the cheap base could bring issues not worth the savings. I'm still trying to out how to tell who makes a good base at a good price. And I need to understand how the different descriptions of those bases effect what I get. Who's bases should I stay away from and who's should I look at and where to buy them.
 
I use PPG DBC base. Not lowmcost by a long shot but I can get it locally when I need it and quality is good. I usually try to use SPI base but obviously selection is limited.

Don
 
Going back to first car painting in a garage without a fan back in like 1982, you had the choice of acrylic lacquer or acrylic enamel. Basically, if you wanted to buff it, you went lacquer, if you wanted to be done, you used enamel. Maybe 15 years ago I got some for the lumina after the hood and rubber buggy baby bumper got folded. I went with their base clear and the clear pretty much just completed the base. Very light, very easy, very fast. I think that was the Nason 496. It really just felt like a second half to a system.

You might be able to get that stuff from the restoration shop chain of connected sites, but pretty much everyone has just graduated to polyurethane in a basecoat clearcoat system. Problem with base clear is if you screw up you have to repaint it, and its probably better to spray the clear before you start sanding. Single stage will allow you to color sand and buff, but being metallic I dont think its an easy fix to keep the metallic even.

Eventually its confidence. I usually suggest to go to ebay and find some thin sheet metal, like 24 x 24 panels and practice. Something thin enough where you can fold it over the edge of a table and make the top of a fender 90 degrees. You might waste paint, but you will learn setting up a gun and spraying better than starting on a porous wall or paper that suck in paint or a car.
 
I use PPG DBC base. Not lowmcost by a long shot but I can get it locally when I need it and quality is good. I usually try to use SPI base but obviously selection is limited.

Don
I assume PPG being the "brand" and DBC being one of their "models"? Meaning there are other PPG offerings.
 
Going back to first car painting in a garage without a fan back in like 1982, you had the choice of acrylic lacquer or acrylic enamel. Basically, if you wanted to buff it, you went lacquer, if you wanted to be done, you used enamel. Maybe 15 years ago I got some for the lumina after the hood and rubber buggy baby bumper got folded. I went with their base clear and the clear pretty much just completed the base. Very light, very easy, very fast. I think that was the Nason 496. It really just felt like a second half to a system.

You might be able to get that stuff from the restoration shop chain of connected sites, but pretty much everyone has just graduated to polyurethane in a basecoat clearcoat system. Problem with base clear is if you screw up you have to repaint it, and its probably better to spray the clear before you start sanding. Single stage will allow you to color sand and buff, but being metallic I dont think its an easy fix to keep the metallic even.

Eventually its confidence. I usually suggest to go to ebay and find some thin sheet metal, like 24 x 24 panels and practice. Something thin enough where you can fold it over the edge of a table and make the top of a fender 90 degrees. You might waste paint, but you will learn setting up a gun and spraying better than starting on a porous wall or paper that suck in paint or a car.
Polyurethane and urethane the same?

I have an old car that I can take parts off and practice on.
 
Ok i'll admit it- i used omni plus. Gm black sapphire topped with a few or more coats of sanded/buffed universal clear.
No complaints, we shall see if it fades in 5yrs. Car's not clean & trunk lock piece wil do for now till i find nos reasonsble. I had it off for paint.
IMG_9571.PNG
 
Can SPI bases be mixed to get any color or are the colors available your only choices?

I am stripping and painting a 1986 Chevy K30, and have not done body / paint for many years, so I am learning a lot over again. It seems that SPI may have everything I need except the base, which I want to go with the Imperial Blue Metallic from the 5th Gen Camaro SS.
 
Can SPI bases be mixed to get any color or are the colors available your only choices?

I am stripping and painting a 1986 Chevy K30, and have not done body / paint for many years, so I am learning a lot over again. It seems that SPI may have everything I need except the base, which I want to go with the Imperial Blue Metallic from the 5th Gen Camaro SS.

Don is correct, but you can intermix SPI bases to achieve a different shade. Black, red, orange can be mixed with white and vice versa in small amounts to alter the shade of white or black. or mixing 2 of the reds to get a slightly different shade etc. Any intermixing between SPI and another brand wouldn't be recommended.
 
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