types of paint?

[68_Gladiator]

which would hold up better?

Acrylic enamel or acrylic urethane?

bought some duplicolor paint shop pre-mixed paint but read its not very durable due to it being a lacquer paint. so im thinking about getting paint from http://www.paintforcars.com/ brand is starfire. any suggestions?

[frank n texas]

Do a bit of reading on www.autobody101.com/forums/

and/or www.autobody101.com

Lots of good info...

$35.00 per gallon paint ...I think not...

[68_Gladiator]

Can anyone recommend a brand of paint that won't take all my money? If it were possible id shoot house of kolor. And what's better the enamel or urethane? Will do a BC/CC type job

[threepiece]

If the colour you choose is a solid as opposed to a metalic I would strongly recommend a single stage rather than a BC/CC, it is less costly and less work. If you like the look of clear coat you could, as I have done in the past, mix some clear in with the last coat of colour. I do this with PPG urethane, Im not sure if other manufactures allow this.
Dan

[Asphalt Cowboy]

http://www.tcpglobal.com/

Take a look through their Restoration Shop colors and products. I plan on using their acrylic urethane over their epoxy primer for both seal and prime coats.
I totaled it up the other day, with acrylic urethane, epoxy primer, retarder for my seal and two rools of sand paper came up to just under $280. That leaves absolutely no room for waste doing my Wag inside and out. I'll probably order an extra quart of primer and paint to familiarize myself with the materials.

Bear in mind, any catalized paints (paint with hardner) contains isocyanates. That stuff can really mess you up. You can get by with an OC filtered respirator if you vent the shop well enough. I myself wouldn't attempt BC/CC even with a really high cfm vent fan. I'm rather attached to my lungs.

Like Frank mentioned, visit with the pro's over at Autobody101.

Oh, and acrylic enamel is rather brittle. Tends to chip and crack. This I learned from the guys at AB101.

[POS]

If you go acrylic enamel, you'll need to buy the color, the hardener and the reducer. If you go basecoat/clear, you'll need to buy the color, the hardener, and the reducer, and then still buy the clear, the hardener, and the reducer for the clear. The BC/CC will shine much better when you're done, but just from the price point, I'd go with the AE . Brace yourself tho, b/c the paint is going to be $80/gal for the cheap stuff and $200/gal for the expensive stuff - plus the hardener (another $30) and the reducer (another $30). You'll be at $400 in materials in no time with masking materials. It ain't cheap to paint.

[68_Gladiator]

i understand the not cheap part. i think im going to run the duplicolor for now as i already have it for one and 2 the rear corner on my bed still isn't fixed and a few other areas need attention too. ill wait til i acquire new body pieces for quality paint.

[warrpath4x4]

I just got done having this paint chat with a co-worker who went to college for body work and used to work for PPG.

I'm not going to be making mine a show truck, it will be used offroad and in the mountains, so I'm not worried about it being scratched. I will be using a laquer based paint that is already thinned. And it doesn't need a clear coat just throw some wax on it. Ill be using a non-sand laquer base sealer, scuff it and throw 2 coats of laquer base single stage paint.

At work it retails for $22 a quart, ready to spray. But I can get it for $15.

[68_Gladiator]

yea thats what i paid for a quart, 22 bucks at schucks. 2 cans of red 2 cans of white and premium sandable primer. dont know if ill more paint than this, its going to be 2 tone, red top half white bottom half

[threepiece]

Over the last 25+ years I have painted hundreds of vehicles as an auto body painter and I can tell you that my decision to use single stage or BC/CC is not one of economics. Metalic paint adds another dimension to the paint process. The metalic particles have a mind of their own and sometimes it is difficult to get them to cooperate. It is usually much easier to do that in a Base coat paint. In order to shine and smooth-out, single stage paints are designed stay wet and flow for a period of time giving the metalic particles opportunity to do what they want. I always use BC/CC when applying metalic paint and usually single stage for a solid (non metalic) paint.
Dan

[68_Gladiator]

Do you think the duplicolor lacquer will allow me to add clear to it? Or should I just clear over it? I have 2 cans of clear already. I just don't wanna ruin the paint I have or have to re-prep and re-shoot if it doesn't work

[warrpath4x4]

The guy I work with said "for my application" where it will be getting scrathed and stuff that if I scratch it, its easier to touch up if it doesn't have clear coat on it. Also the lacquer based ones will shine with nothing on them. He said to just throw some wax on it and call it good.

Now I don't know how close to a show quality your looking for.

[68_Gladiator]

Not looking for show quality. My cab and fenders could probably be show quality but my bed isn't where it wrapped around a pole. It will be a trail truck part time and dd full time. Just want it to look decent

[MikeinColorado]

lots of good info here. I guess my question is how much paint do you think I'd need to shoot my wagoneer? Quarts? Gallons? I was looking at O'Reilly and they have duplicolor lacquer and house of kolor enamel and acrylic...
The duplicolor is 20 bucks a quart. I figure I'll shoot the wagoneer as practice since I drive it in the mountains. Any idea how many quarts you need?

[JohnA]

I used the top quality single stage enamels for years (Dupont centuri) and single stage and BC/CC urethanes for the past 6 years( Dupont Nason Ful-Thane). There's no comparison. The urethanes are easier to apply and the finish weathers must better. The sun doesn't chock and crack the urethane finish after a couple of years like it does to the enamel finishes.