Clear coat finish??

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leblanc

leblanc

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I should be able to get my car painted within the next few months. I was told by a paints store that some finishes do not need clear coat. Some say differently. I always thought that in order to get a good shine you need clear coat. What would be your advice? The color will be "Caramel Tan Metalic"---MU3

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You can use single stage urethane which is a high quality paint that doesn't require a clear coat. Most cars since the mid 80's came with a base/clear system. If you're painting a solid color either works well, if you want to paint metallic the down side of single stage is that you can't color sand it so what you see is what you get.
 
Acrylic Urathane or Enamel wont use a clear coat. Base/Clear is the way to go for looks and durabilty.
 
I'm no body man, but I have friends who are. There is an endless argument regarding base/clear ( two-stage ) or just using a single stage paint. There are books and books and books that address such an issue. It really boils down to personal choice and preference. Go to a car show, and find out how your favorite paint jobs were applied, even if means having to look at a million Chevys.

Your local paint supplier can tell you all the pros and cons of each formula as well.
 
i painted my cuda last summer with ppg single stage. it looks real good and it was a lot less work than a bc/cc. the main problem i saw was spraying the base and then spraying the clear right after that. what happens if you screw up the base coat? then its back to square 1. with single stage if you screw up, let it dry, sand out the mistake and respray. another plus is cost. id leave 2 stage to the pros.

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I've sprayed both, if you screw up your base it's no different than screwing up with single stage, let it dry, sand it out and shoot another coat of base or just spot in your mistake. You have 24 hours to shoot your clear depending on the brand. I never shoot the clear right away, base the night before and clear in the morning. I prefer BC/CC but I noticed recently on the Boyd American Hot Rod show that they were using single stage on a lot of their cars. When they were color sanding it was color coming off not clear which is milky.
 
After watching my son paint cars, It seems that after a point in time, the quality of the job is related to the painters skill with the gun, all other things being equal. He seems to be able to bring out the wet look, without having to color sand. I've painted a couple of cars and they looked like Maco paint jobs. Painting ones own car is a tough choice. I definitly will leave my next paint job to the pro's, (or my son if I can persuade him to do it). Good luck.
 
You don't need to color sand to bring out the wet look, just to get some of the trash out and elimainate any orange peel. No matter who shoots it, color sanding will make it look better. Depends on how picky you are too, I can't even look at a new car with the amount of orange peel it has in it. If you're trying to match the paint on a new car you have to drink a case of Labatts first :lol:
 
I think I would go for a case of Henry Wienhard's and leave the car in primer.
 
AdamR said:
Acrylic Urathane or Enamel wont use a clear coat. Base/Clear is the way to go for looks and durabilty.
Click to expand...

The top shelf base/clear systems are acrylic urethane. Also, you can apply a clear coat over any system as long as the materials are compatable. The acrylic urethane is the most durable finish short of an epoxy system like Dupont Imron.

I painted my Barracuda in 2000 with Dupont Chroma base/clear which is an acrylic urethane system. Two years ago I had some rust coming through on the quarter behind the drivers door. I cut this area out and welded in some new metal and spot painted it with the left over Dupont Chroma 1 single stage I had left over from the engine compartment. I figured I would need to clear coat it to get the same gloss but it was so close that I just wet sanded and buffed the spot painted area. You just can't tell with the single solid color paint. The picture below has the spot repair.

68Barracuda.jpg


I have used Dupont Chroma 1 single stage in Black and Dupont Chroma black in base/clear. I just can't tell the difference as far as gloss is concerned.

However, if I was painting a metallic I would definately go base/clear. It takes much less skill to lay down a metallic base and get an even distribution of metallic than it is with a single stage metallic. Plus if you do screw up base metallic it can be spot repaired. Also, as previously stated you can't wet sand single stage metallic paint and have it look right where you can with the clear over the metallic.
 
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