Base/clear coat or single stage paint
Sorry to buck the trend but BC/CC is generally the way things are done these days, it's a more forgiving system especially with metallics since you can't sand and buff out single stage metallics. All the clear flaking off problems you see are from the early days when they had not yet ironed out the problems. You get a great wet look from the clear and you can sand and buff the snot out of it too, then shoot a couple of flow coats, sand and buff and it'll look a mile deep. Single stage can come out really shiney but I don't think it looks as deep. If you're trying to be all original with it then maybe single stage is the way to go, I don't know, I don't think SS Urethane really looks like the old finishes either?
Here's a single stage I shot, it's shiney all right
I did this one in BC/CC, it's so deep you can dive into it
Sorry to buck the trend but BC/CC is generally the way things are done these days, it's a more forgiving system especially with metallics since you can't sand and buff out single stage metallics. All the clear flaking off problems you see are from the early days when they had not yet ironed out the problems. You get a great wet look from the clear and you can sand and buff the snot out of it too, then shoot a couple of flow coats, sand and buff and it'll look a mile deep. Single stage can come out really shiney but I don't think it looks as deep. If you're trying to be all original with it then maybe single stage is the way to go, I don't know, I don't think SS Urethane really looks like the old finishes either?
Here's a single stage I shot, it's shiney all right
I did this one in BC/CC, it's so deep you can dive into it